Best small school for pre-health

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter wants a pre-health program that has both nursing and PA (hasnt decided which path). More schools have nursing than PA – all the PA schools, like DPT schools, seem to be tiny schools in terrible locations. Ugg.

The alternative seems to be Boston – but she wasn’t wanting a big city. Is there anything in between on the east coast?

My daughter wanted direct entry accelerated PA school and really liked Duquesne and Drexel. Quick google search says they both have nursing as well. Also, Marquette. Not direct entry, but it does offer the accelerated program- you apply to the PA school as a sophomore. Not east coast either, but we thought Milwaukee was cool.

I would have thought for undergraduate, someone would need to apply directly to nursing school, so it wouldn't really fall under the pre-health (medical, dental, optometry, vet, etc.) catch-all. Is the OP interested in nursing? Might need to clarify what pre-health means.

There are a couple of different routes for nursing. One is direct entry BSN. However, many schools have an option for those who hold a bachelor's degree to gain a nursing degree. Sometimes it's someone who decides to go back to school for nursing as a career switch. Sometimes it's people who were pre-med or similar, did shadowing, decided nursing was their calling rather than medicine, physical therapy, etc. Mason's option:

Accelerated Second Degree BSN Program: a 12-month, full-time program for students holding a baccalaureate degree outside of nursing and have completed nursing prerequisite requirements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look at Lehigh.

You can major in bio or biochem in the college of arts and sciences, or in their new college of health, you can major in population health, which has degree requirements that leave room to complete all premed requirements.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:is there a reason they aren't focusing on urban campuses- if internships are a must have, those seem like the best candidates

+1 And, if in-state Virginia, should take a serious look at VCU. Seems like she wants smaller/rural schools and VCU's the completely opposite (big/urban) but VCU is particularly known for pre-med/health -- has nursing school and pretty much any pre-health program you'd want. https://uaa.vcu.edu/preprofessionalhealth/

Also extremely competitive guaranteed admission to variety of health grad programs. The medicine direct-admit is best known, but not the only one: https://honors.vcu.edu/admissions/guaranteed-admission/

[Anonymous]

Is Shenandoah good? It has a direct entry PA program.

[Anonymous]

OP here. DD and I toured SMCM earlier this week and we were very impressed. Our two tour guides were excellent, the campus is very nice and they really want to get students into internships. DD also liked the pre-health advising, the small classes, non-snobby students, the no Greek life & no football. Also, the prospect of working closely with her professors and the St. Mary’s Project were also a draw. It might be at the top of her list. Coming from Virginia, we hope they can match our in-states with decent merit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tulane

Why anyone wants to go to New Orleans?!

[Anonymous]

Beloit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Beloit

I don’t know anything about the school except my daughter loves their turtle socks!

[Anonymous]

People seem very happy at SMCM. The setting is also lovely. My DD seriously considered it (for bio). They offered us (slightly worse stats) 5K aid, when the school cost about 25K. Juniata (and most of the private SLAC’s she applied to) offered more like 25K in merit but of course they were much more expensive.

Good luck to your daughter. She will do well I am sure.