On the Road with Betsy Woolf – Touro University, Times Square

When I think of Times Square, I think of Broadway shows and huge billboards and lots of foot traffic. I do not think of Broadway as a place to go to college. But it is.

Welcome to Touro University, or at least the modern and impressive Times Square campus of Touro University, one of 30 across the country. Situated on the northwest corner of 43rd Street and Broadway, this outpost of Touro with an enrollment of 2500 students is a modern high rise whose big windows face the building from which the ball is dropped on New Year’s Eve – my angled look upwards revealed the ball perched atop the building  – and whose rear windows overlook the theater where Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is playing on 43rd Street and the site of Madame Tussaud’s wax museum on 42nd Street.

The Times Square Touro is the home of the university’s New York School of Career and Applied Studies or NYSCAS. Its emphasis is on careers with many programs offering a two year Associate’s Degree. Students interested in the healthcare field can work towards AAS degrees in radiography, sonography, nursing and to become a medical assistant in addition to a Bachelor’s Degree in biology. There also are Bachelor’s Degrees in education and psychology and both AS and BS degrees in business management and administration and in cybersecurity and network administration. There’s even a program in paralegal studies, as well as one in law and social science.

The school prides itself on its pathways that integrate undergraduate and graduate work, such as in education and business and pharmacy. The Medical Honors Pathway offers a route to Touro’s New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY, just outside NYC; the Integrated Osteopathic Honors Track to its College of Osteopathic Medicine; the Dental Honors Pathway to the College of Dental Medicine; and an Integrated Health Sciences Honors Track to graduate school in physical and occupational therapy or to becoming a physician’s assistant or speech-language pathologist.

Admission is rolling and students can apply any time of the year. The university is a commuter school, although it does have residences at New York Medical College. It is “rooted in Jewish tradition – our values — respect, achievement, and determination — are universal.” Programs  across the United States include locations  in Great Falls, Montana, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to further its mission of bringing healthcare to areas where it is sorely needed.