Academic Preparation
Choosing your Major
True or False: You have to major in the sciences to get into health professions school.
False. Health professions schools do not choose students based on majors or minors. Instead they are looking for strong grades in prerequisite coursework, good scores on relevant standardized tests, and significant extracurricular experience.
You should choose a major that interests you. Many students choose a major in the sciences because they are interested in that discipline and do well in those classes, but students from all majors have been accepted to health profession schools.
There is not a pre-health major or concentration at Mason. Most universities don’t offer that as a major because that’s not an academic subject – it’s a career plan.
These majors are popular with pre-health students because they incorporate the prerequisite course requirements into the major.
What you choose to major in will not hold more weight in the application review than how you do in your classes (especially in the prerequisite classes), and what experiences you gain.
Prerequisite Courses
All health profession schools have prerequisite courses that need to be completed in order to apply.
Explore all prerequisite course requirements under the professions tab above.
Ideally, you would start taking your prerequisite courses in your first year. It’s important to work with your academic advisor to plan out your course schedule and fit your prerequisite courses in with your major requirements.
You can show your readiness for health profession programs by taking a full academic load each semester with a mix of prerequisite courses and classes for your major. Ideally, you would do well in your classes and show, by junior and senior years, that you’re able to handle the most challenging courses in your major and prerequisite courses at the same time. If you take your prerequisite courses over the summer health professional schools will question whether you’ll be able to handle the rigor of the first year in their program. During your first year in a health profession program, you’ll be taking multiple, difficult science courses and you won’t have the ability to space them out. Lightening your fall and spring semester course load by taking prerequisite courses over the summer is exactly the type of behavior that health profession schools want you to avoid.
It’s recommended that you take a full course load each semester to stay on track for graduation/prerequisite requirements. Taking a challenging load and doing well can demonstrate your ability to handle the rigor of the curriculum in health profession schools. If you choose to take a lighter load, it might be necessary for you to justify your decision in your application.
It’s likely many schools will be flexible and allow P/F for the spring 2020 semester, during the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, P/F was not acceptable for prerequisite courses, so it is very likely that the majority of health profession schools will not accept P/F for the fall 2020 semester and beyond.
It is important to be aware of the implications of taking prereq classes P/F as a pre-health student. Ultimately, one course/one semester is a small part of your academic performance, but you may be asked to explain in your application why you chose to take the course(s) P/F and schools will likely look more closely at graded coursework in previous and later semesters and your standardized test performance. In general, health profession schools assume if you took a class P/F and passed it, that you received the lowest grade (C) in order to pass. If you’re getting an A or B in the class, it’s always better to take it for the grade.
If you choose P/F for a prerequisite class, you might need to retake it for a grade in a later semester in order to meet the requirements for health profession schools. If you are contingently admitted to a health profession program, they might ask to see the grade in the course (even if you took it P/F) in order to formally admit you to their program. Extenuating circumstances (financial, health) can always be explained in your application, but that doesn’t mean that all health profession programs will be lenient about P/F.
Health profession schools prefer you to take classes in person vs. online (especially for science labs). If you have a choice to take courses online vs. in person, I would strongly recommend taking courses in person.
