Health Professions
Preparing for a career in the health professions allows you to pursue a liberal arts education—majoring in any area of study—while also taking a subset of important courses.
Health profession schools (e.g., schools of human and veterinary medicine, dentistry, optometry, nursing and public health) are interested in the overall quality and scope of your undergraduate work. All health profession schools require certain undergraduate courses, which can be taken within a liberal arts program.
The biochemistry major includes several of the requirements for entrance into the health professions including two years of chemistry and one year of biology. The biochemistry course is also a requirement for certain health professions (veterinary medicine and pharmacology) and is strongly recommended by the majority of medical schools. The microbiology course is required by nursing and veterinary medicine programs.
Planning Ahead
Schools of human, veterinary medicine and dentistry all require two semesters each of:
- biology (and labs)
- general chemistry (and labs)
- organic chemistry (and labs)
- physics (and labs)
- English
Some of these schools also require or recommend additional courses in:
- biology
- mathematics (statistics and calculus)
- biochemistry
- a foreign language
- social sciences
- public speaking
*Nursing schools and schools of public health do not require all of the laboratory courses listed above. Instead, they require statistics, some laboratory courses and specific social science courses.
Resources
Preparing for a career in a health profession varies from individual to individual, so we urge you to make use of the many resources available, including your premajor or major adviser, members of the Board of Prehealth Advisers and the staff at the Career Development Office.
Lunchbag Seminars
The board hosts regular lunchbag seminars focused on a variety of prehealth and health professions topics.
Prehealth Moodle Site
The board also hosts a Moodle site that provides information on such topics as career options and course requirements.
To request access to the Prehealth Moodle site and for more information on our lunchbag series, contact Professor Kevin Shea, co-chair of the Board of Prehealth Advisers.
