Pre-Health Professions @ UNA

Health professions overview

The health professions can be broadly separated into two categories, based on the level of educational attainment required to become a practicing professional in the field:

  • Those professions that require only an undergraduate (i.e., Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree) to become a practicing professional
  • Those professions that require a postgraduate (i.e. Master’s or Doctoral degree) to become a practicing professional

UNA offers a few Bachelor’s-level health professions programs via the Anderson College of Nursing and Health Professions (ACONHP), including nursing (RN), respiratory care, and occupational therapy assistant (OTA), as well as graduate nursing education leading to the nurse practitioner level (see the ACONHP page for more information on these programs). Note also that the “Health Professions” in the title of ACONHP are specifically those generally considered Allied Health areas and do not include medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, etc. Associate’s-level programs (e.g., dental hygiene, medical techs such as ultrasound techs or surgical techs, physical therapy assistants, etc.) would be found in the community college system instead.

For those professions in the second category, requiring postgraduate education, pursuing a pre-health professions path at UNA might be right for you! Please note, though, that none of the pre-health areas discussed here are actually undergraduate (Bachelor’s-level) degree programs that you would declare as a major; rather, you would select an undergraduate major in one of the academic disciplines offered by UNA. In most cases, it is common (although not required) for pre-health students to major in a science or social science subject area (e.g., Biology, Chemistry, Psychology), and many of these majors will offer specific concentrations within the major targeted at pre-health students.

Your time at UNA as pre-health student would be spent completing your chosen academic major (including necessary admissions prerequisite courses for the postgraduate professional school programs in your chosen area) while maintaining a competitive GPA (generally 3.5 and above) and pursuing various extracurricular activities (such as job shadowing, clinical work experiences, and community outreach/volunteering work), all of which are also necessary for a competitive professional school application.

The most important things for you as a prospective pre-health student are to make sure you are getting a quality undergraduate education, as this will create the foundation of knowledge and skills needed for success at the postgraduate (Master’s or Doctoral) level, and to continuously build a record of relevant extracurricular activities. UNA can provide you with the educational foundation, along with other benefits including:

Our pre-health students populate the following most common and popular pre-health areas (click on the plus sign to expand each area, and be sure to use the links in the left-hand navigation menu to find even more detailed information)...

Success stories!

We have a proven track record of pre-health student success – in the past 5 years, we have had UNA students accepted into and/or graduate from all of these places (click on the plus sign to expand the lists for each professional area):

Contact us!

For general pre-health professions inquiries, contact prehealth@una.edu

For Biology Pre-Health advising, contact Dr. Christopher Cottingham (ccottingham@una.edu)

For Chemistry & Physics majors interested in pre-health professions, contact Dr. Sara Johnson (sjohnson34@una.edu)