Why should I come to Purdue to prepare for a healthcare career?

As one of the top universities in the country, Purdue has the resources and faculty that will challenge you academically and help you develop to your fullest potential as a global citizen, leader, and scholar. With cutting edge research, renowned scholars, and an active student body, Purdue offers something for everyone.

Can I enter a healthcare field without an undergraduate degree?

Different fields have different educational requirements. Some fields, such as working as a radiological technician, dental hygienist, or physical therapy assistant, require an associate's degree. Other fields you can enter with a bachelor's degree such as nursing, athletic training, and dietetics – all programs available at Purdue. Many health careers, however, require graduate level work. Physical therapy, physician assistant, medicine, dentistry, chiropractic medicine, podiatry, clinical psychology, occupational therapy and audiology, for example, all require graduate level study (often referred to as professional school). That generally means that you must first earn a bachelor's degree before you can attend one of these programs. A few professional programs such as optometry and chiropractic medicine will accept students with a certain number of undergraduate hours even though the degree is not complete.

What services are available to prehealth students at Purdue University?

The Center for Pre-Professional Advising works with all students on campus who are considering a health career. They meets with students individually and provides group workshops. The advisors can help you learn about health careers, develop a plan for becoming a competitive applicant, and assist you with your application to professional programs.

The Center for Pre-Professional Advising develops advising materials on various careers (Career Guides), handouts on common advising questions, and the Guide for Prehealth Students at Purdue as well as other materials. It also maintains this Web site which can help keep you informed on news and events as well as answering many of your general prehealth questions.

The Office also offers a professional file service that stores and distributes the letters of recommendation you gather for your application to a professional program.

What should I major in?

Being a prehealth student at Purdue (as at most schools) is a career interest – not a major. You should choose a major based on your academic interests. There is no "correct" or "best" major. Professional schools generally do not have a required major. For example, the introduction to the Medical School Admissions Requirement book (published by the Association of American Medical Colleges) states this clearly, "The medical profession needs individuals from diverse educational backgrounds who will bring to the profession a variety of talents and interests." You will see that most professional schools, however, do have required basic (prerequisite) courses you must take. As long as you take these along with your other coursework, you are a prehealth student. Some colleges within Purdue do offer pre-health tracks or concentrations. If you are in one of these programs, feel free to make use of this. If your college does not offer this, do not feel like you need to switch. Your major combined with the prerequisite courses will be fine.

Professional programs are looking for well rounded students with broad academic interests. They want people who are interested in learning. When considering a major, it is important that you find one that you enjoy. Generally if you enjoy what you study, you will do better than if you choose a major that you think the professional schools want to see.

Part of your choice of major may include thinking about a back up plan in case you, even temporarily, do not gain acceptance in your chosen professional field. Professional programs are extremely competitive and it may take several years of applications to be successful. You will need something to do during that time. Your academic advisor, the Health Professions Office and the Center for Career Opportunities can help you think about alternate careers that might be available to you.

Will it help my chances of acceptance if I have a double major or a minor?

Professional schools are most interested in your overall performance. They also seek students who have interests and courses in a variety of fields including the sciences and non-science courses. As stated above, if this is where your interests lie, then by all means pursue these options. Do not, however, do this if your motivation is pleasing the professional schools – they do not care what your major is or whether you have more than one. Also remember that you can have a number of courses in another field without declaring a double major or minor.

If I graduate in three years, won't that impress medical schools and other professional programs and make them more likely to accept me?

Not really. They see your undergraduate years as your time to explore and mature. Fitting four years of education into three will not provide you with the time to have the richness of experiences, both academic and social, that other students have.

What courses do I need to prepare me for professional school?

In general, professional schools are looking for students with broad interests who have a strong academic background with solid grades. The required prerequisite courses differ by health career and by school. Look through the Career Guides to see the prerequisite courses that a number of healthcare programs require. Some types of professional programs vary considerably by school in the courses they require. Others, like medical and dental schools, are fairly standard in what you will need for that field. Regardless of which field you choose, you will likely need a strong background in the sciences including biology, chemistry, physics, and math. Professional schools, however, often expect courses in psychology and other social sciences as well as English. They recognize the benefit of social science and humanities courses in developing your reading, thinking, and writing skills.

How many Purdue applicants are accepted in medical, dental, optometry, and other programs each year?

The answer to this question is really not helpful as, ultimately, it is the student who gains acceptance to a professional program – not the undergraduate institution. By keeping your grades up (ideally in the 3.6 or better range), preparing well for any required aptitude tests, following the advice of your academic advisor and the Center for Pre-Professional Advisors, getting to know faculty, gaining medical experience, being active on campus, and participating in research, your chances of being accepted are very good. And, in fact, Purdue's students who have done these things are quite successful in gaining acceptance into professional programs.

Because there is no consistent method for gathering and reporting data on applicant success rates among institutions and these numbers can be very misleading, Purdue does not publish this information as a recruiting tool.

Which high school courses should I take to prepare for being a prehealth student?

The courses required for many professional programs include biology, chemistry, physics, math, and English. You should take courses in high school that will prepare you for these kinds of classes (basically as much math, science, and college prep English you can get!).

Will it help me to have Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Dual Enrollment credits?

Many students do come to Purdue with AP, IB, and dual enrollment credits. Often these do provide the student with Purdue credit. You should be aware, however, that some professional programs – especially medical schools – do not take these credits. Some students arrive at college with the required English, math, and biology courses for medical school. The problem is that most medical schools want to see how you perform in these classes at college. Thus, you should plan to take at least one more course in each field. If you opt out of any medical school prerequisite course, you might want to consider taking a higher level course to replace it. You should be aware, however, that a few medical schools will not consider you as competitive if you are using AP or IB credits to meet your prerequisite requirements. The only 100% way to know you won't run into any problems later with your AP or other credits is to take the course in college.

For more information on Purdue's policies:
http://www.admissions.purdue.edu/transfercredit/index.php

How can I begin to explore the opportunities I have in various health careers?

You can start to learn about health careers on the web. Two good sites are http://www.explorehealthcareers.org and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. You can also find someone who works in the fields you are interested in and set up an appointment to interview and/or shadow them. Shadowing means that you follow them around during their work day to see what they do.

What can I do now to prepare for a health career?

Start by exploring health careers online. Try volunteering in a hospital, clinic, nursing home, or hospice. See if you can shadow a health care professional. You will need to continue doing this in college, but now is a good time to start. Try exploring as many health professions as possible to see which ones you really enjoy.

Another thing you can do to help yourself later is to read – a lot. Read anything and everything. Books, magazines, and online newspapers like the New York Times are all good options. Most of the aptitude tests required for professional school have a verbal reasoning section. It is difficult to study for this portion of the test. You really just need to be a reader. If you don't know a word – look it up. That way you are also improving your vocabulary. So start reading!!

Professional programs require very good grades and the way to get good grades is to have good study skills. You can start practicing these skills in high school. For some students high school isn't all that challenging and they have not learned or practiced good study habits. Even if you studied very hard in high school – you will need to do more and probably learn new study techniques in college. Set aside time to study without the distractions of music (other than classical), TV, IM and whatever else keeps you from concentrating. Work on your note taking skills in classes. Study in advance of exams rather than just the night before. Time management is also an important skill in college so you might try using a planner to keep yourself organized. Find out what works for you. College will likely be considerably harder than high school. There is more information and it moves faster. So practice your time management and study skills now.