Being a Pre-Health student means that in addition to your major requirements, you are also completing the pre-requisite coursework and extracurricular work to apply to a professional health program such as medical school or dental school after your time at UP. There is no such thing as a pre-health major or a pre-med major so the good news is you can major in anything you want! Professional health programs admit students from a variety of majors every year with no preference shown to any particular area.
Here at UP, we have two Pre-Health advisors who can help you determine how to fit in the extra pre-requisite coursework for any professional health program with your major choice. We can also help you figure out what kinds of extracurricular activities you should be doing while you are a student to help you with that professional school application later on.
Below, you can find pre-requisite worksheets for the common professional health programs we advise for. Please note that these worksheets list the general pre-requisite courses for each area. Students should always double check the specific pre-requisites for the programs they are applying to in order to ensure all of their coursework is completed prior to application.
For prospective and first-year Pre-Health students, check out our Pre-Health Basics with a list of frequently asked questions.
While on the bluff, Dr. Flann can be found either teaching courses in the biology department or working with students as one of the pre-health advisors. Dr. Flann is an exercise physiologist by training and loves to be able to take his passion for teaching and learning and applying it to mentoring the skills of future health care professionals. When not at UP, he can be found spending time coaching, camping and hanging out with his wife and 3 girls.
Questions? Contact us! healthprofessions@up.edu
We can also help advise you if you are interested in chiropractic medicine; the pre-requisites are similar to medicine with a few differences. If you have any questions you can always email us!
In this Alumni Spotlight, we are proud to introduce Christine Nguyen who graduated from UP back in 2016, majoring in Biology and minoring in Sociology. During her time on the bluff she had opportunities to work with Dr. Dizney in the biology lab, Dr. Francisco-Menchavez in sociology as well as with Dr. Sullivan doing neuroscience research. Knowing the rigor and time it takes to become a physician, she took some time off before applying to medical school & worked as a hospitalist scribe at Providence Portland Medical Center, a medical coordinator at St. Mary’s Home for Boys residential facility, and then a clinical research coordinator for the Maternal Fetal Medicine division of OB/GYN at OHSU. She says that these gap years allowed her to “take that time to really reflect on my life and see if medicine was something I truly wanted to pursue. Applying to medical school was tough, but I think everything happens for a reason, and now here I am!”. Christine is now a medical student at PNWU and has been very active in trying to reach out to UP students as a mentor & with lots of great opportunities for them to get involved / connected. We are very thankful for her continued support of our undergrads and wish her all the best as a future physician!
James Bradt came to the University of Portland from the rural town of Pendleton, OR. While James loved the rodeo, he put his bull riding drams on hold and came to UP wanting to pursue a wonderful branch of health professions- Optometry. James had already gotten some experience volunteering in an optometry clinic prior to starting at UP, but upon arrival on the bluff, he got jumped right into more clinical volunteering and solidified his experience and desire to pursue Optometry. Fun fact- He applied to Optometry school his senior year while he was also taking his capstone Biology of Exercise class. For part of his class project, James committed to run his first ½ marathon and collected physiological data along the way. Like all things James puts his mind to, he successfully completed (rocked) the ½ marathon and also solidified a spot at Midwestern University in Arizona. James is a hardworking, kind, wonderful human and will make a great optometrist in the near future!
Interested in reading more about our alumni and their respective paths in a variety of health fields?
The Pre-Health Newsletter is distributed biweekly by our pre-health advisors and contains lots of opportunities for our students to get involved on and off-campus.
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