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Students who intend to enroll in medical, dental, veterinary, podiatry, or optometry school should follow a pre-professional health course of study, which includes introductory biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics (all one-year sequences with labs), and at least one semester of mathematics and/or statistics. Since these classes are also requirements for the Biology major, pre-health students often elect to pursue the B.S. in Biology.
All pre-health students should register with the Office of Pre-professional Advising and Fellowships as early as possible and before the end of their sophomore year (if possible). This office will guide you through the steps necessary to apply to the professional schools, as well as providing a source of information about summer internships in hospitals. For more details, please check with the Office of Pre-professional Advising and Fellowships website.
Careful planning and course selection is important because the required science courses should be completed by the end of the junior year in order to take the pre-professional examinations (i.e., the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), Dental Admission Test (DAT), etc.). Admission requirements can vary among schools; many schools have additional required or recommended prerequisites, which often include calculus, microbiology, biochemistry, and/or psychology. Students should therefore check a particular school to which they plan to apply for the specific prerequisites they require or recommend. Students should construct their schedules with appropriate guidance from their advisers.
The courses Pre-Health Professions Internship (BIO 495) and Dental Preceptorship (BIO 498), open primarily to juniors and seniors, give students experience in the medical and dental fields. In the Pre-Health Professions Internship course, students rotate through 12 different departments at Winthrop University Hospital in nearby Mineola. In the Dental Preceptorship course, students observe treatments in the offices of local dentists. In addition, the Pre-Health Professions Club, the Biology Club, and the Biology Honors Society (Beta Beta Beta) are student-run organizations whose meetings and sponsored events provide information about and aid in preparation for careers in the health professions and other biology-related fields (including student biology research). Many of our pre-health students are actively involved in these organizations. For information regarding these clubs, please contact the Biology Office at 516.877.4200 or stop by the department office in Science 103.
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