For the past 15 years I have served as the University's Pre-Health Professional Advisor, covering all disciplines in the health sciences (not including nursing). This role involves knowing all of the course requirements that the various professional schools have, the application processes, and what students must do to ensure that they will be qualified applicants when the time comes. To this end I ask that you do couple of things: 1) print and read the advising manual shown below; and 2) make an appointment with me at your convenience to discuss your plans. It is imperative that you and I stay in contact with each other throughout your academic career here at UNC Wilmington..
A pre-health professional student is a person who hopes to attend a heath professional school after four years of college education. This would include medical, dental, chiropractic, optometric, pharmacy, physician assistant, physical therapy, veterinary, etc. schools. Many of these students are biology majors, although the professional schools really don't care what the major is. In fact, I encourage students to think about Plan B if Plan A doesn't work out. What other types of professional activity will make and keep that student happy and intellectually challenged as a career? This type of thinking should drive the selection of a major. Oftentimes a student will tell me that she intends to be a "premed" major. There is no such thing, not on this campus or any other. A student must choose a field of study (biology, chemistry, physics, psychology, exercise science, english, philosophy, etc.) and within that framework take the pre-health professional courses that are required. In addition to the field of study, a student must demonstrate to the professional schools that he or she can take on and handle academic rigor. This is best done by taking 15-17 hour semesters that include 2 - 3 science courses and/or a math course each semester. Therefore, a typical set-up for a pre-health professional student (pre-med, pre-dent, on our campus would look something like this:
FRESH FALL FRESH SPRING SOPH FALL SOPH SPRING JUNIOR FALL JUNIOR SPRING
biology 201 biology 202 physics 101 physics 102 organic chem 211 organic chem 212
chemistry 101 chemistry 102 biology elective biology elective biology elective (?) biology elective
english 101 next math elective elective elective elective
math placement elective elective elective elective elective
elective elective elective elective elective elective
16-17 hours 16-17 hours 16-17 hours 16-17 hours 16-17 hours 16-17 hours
Mull this stuff over, make an appointment with me (usually Monday or Wednesday afternoons) and, based on your intended major, we can work out youor academic career here at UNC Wilmington.