The
Pre-Health Professions Office mission is to assist students in learning about
and applying to health professional schools.
More specifically Medical, Osteopathic, Dental, Veterinary, Chiropractic,
Optometry, and Physician’s Assistant (PA) post-graduate programs are our
primary focus at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Many
of the students learn about these health professional career choices by asking
numerous questions. Since most of
the students that we deal with are Pre-Med, Pre- Dental, and Pre-Vet; we will
focus this discussion toward them; however the answers in many cases apply to
all of these career choices. Later
in this discussion will be a number of links to websites that can provide much
useful information. We will answer
many of the general questions by stating the common questions that we encounter
on a regular basis.
While
most students who apply to these postgraduate health professional schools major
in the “sciences”, it is not necessary to do this. If fact those students who apply from those majors considered
to be liberal arts majors i.e. History, Philosophy, English, etc. have a
statistically better chance of acceptance than “science” majors based on
data collected from the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC).
We don’t suggest that a student apply the health professional schools
on the basis of choice of major. We
do suggest that a student choose a major that will provide them with an
alternative career choice should they not get into the health professional
career of their choice. Most of
these career choices have applicant to matriculant ratios of around 2:1;
therefore on a national basis only half of those who apply get in.
We feel that it is important that a student have a chosen backup plan in
place.
The requirements for getting into med school
are basically the same for all health professional schools; however some schools
may have additional requirements or suggested courses.
It is important that you also look at the requirements of the school(s)
you are interested in applying to. The
requirements are a year of a freshmen major’s biology course, two years of
chemistry (inorganic and organic) and a year of physics; all of these must be
taken with a lab component. About
20% of the schools also require some calculus.
The reason that many students choose Biology is that this major fulfills
all of these requirements at U. Mass.
Most
of these career choices have a national standardized test that you have to take.
For med schools (allopathic [MD] and Osteopathic [DO]) it is the Medical College
Admission Test (MCAT).
This is offered twice a year in April and August. The Dental schools
require the DAT, which can be taken anytime at a Sylvan Learning Center.
We recommend that this be taken before September, one-year prior to
matriculation. The veterinary schools require either the Graduate Record Exam
(GRE) or the Veterinary Admission Test (VAT) depending upon the specific
requirement of the school in which you are interested.
Optometry schools require the Optometry Admission Test (OAT).
It is
always recommended that you get some patient care experience in the career
choice that you are thinking about. This
will help you decide if this is what you want to do with the rest of your life.
This will also further motivate you to find out more about this career
choice and meet some of the health professionals in the field. It will prove to
the health professional school to which you are applying that you have some
knowledge about your career choice and gives them a jumping off point for
discussion when they interview you.
For
all except the Physician’s Assistant (two years), the programs are four years.
With the exception of medical school, you may begin to practice your
trade after four years.
Physicians (both MD’s and DO’s) are required to pick a specialty
(i.e. Internal medicine, Pediatrics, Family practice, Urology, Surgery etc.) and
do a residency program.
This adds a minimum of three years on to a physician’s education.
The only consolation is that you get a paycheck for this work.
This
depends year to year as U Mass Lowell (UML) does not have many applicants
(usually 4-12/yr.) Most schools of our size have a 100 or more.
We never fall below the national average(50%) and many times will get
most everybody in. We try to keep
students appraised of their chances of successful application as they progress
through the university toward graduation when they come in to the office with
questions. We will tell a student
whether or not they have a chance or not; however we will not prevent a student
from applying if they want to.- Dan
Marion’s piece
The debt load that most students have when they
graduate is very large. It is not
unusual to owe $100,00-200,000 and sometimes more.
It is very important that you enter these schools with as little debt as
possible. Many students will choose
military scholarships to ease the burden. This
is only available for MD’s, DO’s, and dentists. The military will pay for your tuition, fees, books, and give
you a stipend to live on and in return you owe them after you have completed
your residency, one year for each year they have supported you.
They will even assist you in getting a residency if you choose.
There are programs (after residency) where you agree to serve in an
underserved area (Indian reservation, urban area, or rural area) and the program
will pay you a decent salary and for each year you complete, they pay you a
significant amount of money($20,000-30,000) to help pay down your debt.