FORT WORTH, Texas — Picture a little girl playing with her first toy medical kit as she dreams of being a doctor someday. Those dreams, along with the loss of a loved one to cancer, drove Carley Andrew to apply to medical school.
Before that, Carley attended Tarrant County College Southeast as a dual-enrollment student through Mansfield Summit High School in Arlington, graduating in 2018. Thanks to dual enrollment, she entered the University of Texas at Arlington as a sophomore, ultimately earning her B.S. in psychology in 2022 as an honors student.
While at UTA, Carley began applying to medical school, receiving her acceptance letter a week after commencement. Now she is part of the Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine class of 2026.
All remarkable accomplishments, but even more so, considering Carley is a first-generation American and first-generation college student. Both sides of her family hail from the Caribbean – one from St. Lucia and the other from Guyana.
What’s so impressive is she applied for medical school during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I was stuck at home without the physical resources of my university,” she said, “writing application essays, doing Zoom interviews for prospective schools and tackling financials on my own.”
Carley plans to specialize in internal medicine and will decide on her subspecialty after her clinical rotations next year. She wants to provide healthcare to underserved communities. “There is a physician shortage across the country, especially in certain regions in Texas,” she said. “We need a solid physician workforce to meet the demands of a booming population. I want to be a part of that effort and hopefully practice in North Texas in the future.”
She recommends TCC’s Dual Credit program to anyone considering it because it exposes students to the college academic environment early and gives them a head start on their degree. “You’re essentially killing two birds with one stone,” she said. “The TCC faculty are some of my favorite instructors to this day.”
Dual Credit Program – Tarrant County College (tccd.edu)
Tarrant County College is one of the nation’s largest higher education institutions and boasts the second-lowest tuition of Texas’ Top 10 community colleges. A comprehensive two-year college with six campuses in Tarrant County and online classes, TCC offers a range of opportunities for learners of all ages and backgrounds, including Associate of Arts and Associate of Applied Science degrees; workforce and economic development programs; technical and skilled trades programs; and customized training for area businesses and corporations.