Pre-Professional Health Sciences Career Concentration (PPHS)

Stephen Cessna, Jeff Copeland, and Kris Schmidt, advisors

Students who are interested in biomedical practice enroll in the Pre-Professional Health Sciences (PPHS) career concentration, which is designed for students anticipating entrance into a professional health science school such as medicine, physician assistant, dentistry, physical therapy, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, surgical assistant, radiological technician, occupational therapy, optometry, podiatry, osteopathy, radiology, or graduate education and research in any area of biomedicine. Students who are interested in physical therapy should major in biology with the Pre-PT track. Students who are interested in other PPHS areas will generally be biology majors, either in the general or neuroscience tracks, or will be biochemistry majors. However, it is possible to complete a non-science major in another area in the university and succeed in the program if the required courses are completed. Since course requirements for the various pre-health programs vary, students should reference the advising guides on the Pre-Professional Health Sciences page for specific courses required for each program. Additional courses are required beyond those for the biology major. Because graduate schools value a broad education, a minor in a non-science area of interest is suggested.