<p>Hello, I am going to be a senior in high school and I was wondering if pre professional programs are a good idea or not.</p>
<p>Parents and students feel free to voice your opinion.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>What do you mean by pre-professional program? What are your plans - Med school? Education, Business? please clarify.</p>
<p>Pre Med, Pre Vet, Pre PA.</p>
<p>At most colleges and universities, those aren’t majors - they are just the set of courses you take to prepare to apply to the professional schools. e.g. you can major in music and complete the requirements for medical school at the same time. Since the professional schools require certain courses, you don’t have much choice in whether you take them or not if you are going to apply. Some colleges may be stronger than others in the advising and support they give to pre-health sciences students, though.</p>
<p>Not a problem. As AmicaMom says, those aren’t majors, though some schools will have a prescribed track that you can take if you are interested in going on in those fields.</p>
<p>Where it can get tricky is when someone gets into some preprofessional program at age 18 that is expensive and really more than the family can afford, but everyone is banking on this teenager following this path, making the big bucks and paying the family back on loans that might have been taken. Usually these programs are such that if they are not what a student wants, transferring into the school of liberal arts if the college is so structured or simply changing ones major to something else is not a problem. But I’ve know a few cases, where the only reason the cost of a school is justified is because it’s considered an “investment” in the student’s future earnings if s/he gets through an expensive, arduous gauntlet with the numbers against them in terms of completing that course fo study, and the family really can’t afford the outlay. I know of one situation very well, and it’s extremely painful and a disaster for the family.</p>
<p>Some state schools are charging some megabucks, real premium amounts for some specialty programs, I ve seen and one really needs to think these things through very carefully. Look at how many students start out in specific courses of study, and how many actually graduate with that degree and in how much time. The results can be sobering. </p>
<p>But I see no problem in anyone giving any pre healthcare course of study a try. Easy enough to transfer to any number of majors if the student changes his/her mind.</p>
<p>To a lot of people, I think “pre-professional” means leading more directly to a job opp. Physical therapy, surgical assistant, accountant. Ie, to qualify you for those professions. Pre-med may qualify you for further education that, in turn, certifies you, eg, med school. You don’t get your UG degree and come out ready to practice medicine.</p>
<p>May seem like a minor distinction, but so many colleges are adding healthcare or other majors that are about job readiness and that do not require med, vet or law school.</p>
<p>Agree with the above posters. Those aren’t majors. </p>
<p>My one roommate was “pre med” major of biology. She graduated early wend went to med school at 21.</p>
<p>I’ve seen others just take the Prereqs and then apply, without even getting the degree first.</p>
<p>There are some schools that do have very narrowly defined programs that direct you into a specific career, and that’s a whole other story. Usually these are not bachelors degree programs, however. Most
“pre” programs are pretty wide open in terms of what courses one can take and the ability to transfer to another course of study, other than those that have specific requirements. Nursing schools, for instance, are not usually open programs for someone to transfer into. You need certain requisite courses starting as freshman to graduate on time to become an engineering major.</p>
<p>As AmicaMom said, pre-professional PROGRAMs are just the set of courses you take to prepare to apply to the professional schools. Basically these courses are liberal arts (& BASIC sciences to increase your potential ability in specialized area in the future) rather than job-related APPLIED sciences. In this case, you study and major liberal arts (& BASIC sciences) for a professional reason at undergrad (and your post-graduate degree should be professional one). Thus, two concepts, liberal arts education and pre-professional sth are not contradicting with each other, and criticizing pre-professional PROGRAM, for example, from the perspective of pure academics or intellectual
orientation is hardly validated. </p>
<p>Similar but somewhat different case is pre-professional DEGREE at college. This means that your undergraduate major is job-related applied sciences like business, communications, engineering, or etc. In this case, you will take less liberal-arts courses than otherwise in your undergrad study, so the two concepts come into partial conflict with each other. Some CCers criticize pre-professional sth because of this, but it depends on individual preferences and values, IMO.</p>
<p>You can major in what you like and then take the prerequisites either while doing English, or Music, or Biology, whatever, or you can take them after graduation (there are some programs that set this up for you, like Goucher’s, or you can take them a la carte on your own).</p>
<p>Actually, some pre-professional programs ARE majors, although they do not result in a degree with that name. The-PA program at my daughter’s school, for example, results in a BS in “health sciences”. </p>
<p>If you are pretty sure that you want the profession, it can be a great advantage to start out as a freshman in the pre-professional track. That makes getting into the graduate program a whole lot easier. Again, at my kid’s school: the graduate program doubled the amount of students that it took in the year she started the graduate phase, which opened up 24 new slots. They had well over 800 applicants for those 24 slots.</p>
<p>That being said, if you are going to major in a pre-professional track, be sure that the school feeds the undergrads directly into the grad program. The only state university in our state that offers a pre-PA undergrad degree does not. That means that those students must then compete for those very limited grad spots, even if they want to stay on at the same school. So their undergrad degree can end up being prettymuch useless, if they cannot get into graduate school.</p>
<p>There are “pre” programs that guarantee a spot in the graduate program, if you maintain grades and/or score high enough on the MCAT/GRE. Those are the programs you want to look for.</p>
<p>Pre-professional programs are business, hote, accounting, actuarial…they are almost like trade schools, not part of liberal arts school. Pre-med, pre-law, pre…are not pre-professional programs.</p>
<p>Oldfort:</p>
<p>Description from Marywood University’s listing of college majors:</p>
<p>“The Pre-Professional Physician Assistant Program is designed to provide students with liberal arts and with science courses needed in order to apply to the professional phase of the program (the graduate PA program). Admission to the Pre-PA program is selective, as students must maintain high standards required for admittance to the professional phase. All Pre-PA students must apply and pass admission standards in order to enter the professional phase of the program. Students academic progress is closely monitored by the PA Program staff. The PA Program also provides a ‘Mentor Program’ which allows for the opportunity to shadow a practicing PA in the local medical community.”</p>