Our Health Professions program has successfully trained students to enter a variety of health programs for over 35 years. For example, over 400 of our graduates have earned their medical degrees and another 50 have become dentists since 1975. Our overall rates of acceptance are about 75% for predental, 60% for premedical, and over 85% for graduate school applicants. These figures include all applicants, including those with grades and admissions test scores below normal but who applied anyway. Over the past six years, 86% of our premedical applicants with a GPA of 3.4 or higher were accepted to medical school.
Premedicine, prephysical therapy, predental, preveterinary, prepodiatry, and preoptometry are career paths, not academic majors. Students should choose an academic major in line with their God-given abilities and also do well in the courses required for entrance into medical or other professional schools. All professional schools require one year each of English, introductory biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and general physics; a few require an additional course or two, such as calculus, psychology, genetics, or developmental biology.
ORU does not have a school for physical therapy, pharmacy, dental hygiene, or physician assistant, nor any courses in these fields. However, we do have programs for the prerequisite courses needed to enter these schools elsewhere. Students interested in these areas need to begin their college years with math, English, biology, and chemistry, which are required for all programs. While taking these courses during the freshman year, students should contact the schools to which they plan to apply and find out the specific courses needed for the subsequent years. Students can tailor their individual degree plans to meet all requirements for these schools.
All health professional students should consult with the ORU health professions advisor about recommended courses, MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) preparation, letters of recommendation, and other matters concerning medical schools. Premed students majoring in biology and chemistry also have academic advisors in their department while the health professions advisor is the academic advisor for all premed students, including other majors such as psychology and health exercise science.
