Prehealth Program

Prehealth

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 (for example, 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.

Schools of human and veterinary medicine and schools of dentistry all require two semesters each of biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics and English. (The science courses must include laboratory work.) Some of these schools also require or recommend additional courses in biology, mathematics (statistics and calculus), biochemistry, a foreign language, social sciences and 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.

Your major and your timetable for pursuing postgraduate education will govern in large part how you will fit the required prehealth courses into your studies.  Because preparing for a career in a the health profession varies from individual to individual, we urge you to make use of the many resources available, including your premajor or major advisor, members of the Board of Prehealth Advisers, and the staff at the CDO.  In particular, the Board of Prehealth Advisers hosts a Moodle site which provides information on many topics ranging from career options to course requirements.  The Board also hosts regular lunchbag seminars focused on a variety of prehealth and health professions topics.  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, at kshea@smith.edu

Revised 07-30-09