American medical and dental schools are extremely interested in students who have a strong liberal arts background – precisely the education Ohio Wesleyan provides.
The Pre-Medicine/Pre-Dentistry major gives you the broad background necessary to prepare you for many health professions. The courses required are those most frequently required for admission to colleges of medicine and dentistry. You should consult the pre-medical/dental advisor early in your college career for the admissions requirements of specific medical or dental schools. If you major in Pre-Medicine/Pre-Dentistry, we highly recommend that you combine it with a second major, such as zoology, chemistry, botany-microbiology, psychology, neuroscience, or other areas, because it alone does not provide enough depth of background in any single area if you do not enter one of the professional schools.
Download this helpful list of the OWU courses you will be required to take in order to apply for admission to medical/dental school.
Nationwide and at OWU, fewer than half of medical students start their medical training the August after they graduate. The reason: To start professional school directly after graduating, you must take either the Medical College Admission Test or the Dental Admission Test by late spring of your junior year, and also apply that June. Completing all the necessary coursework by then and as well as studying enough to excel on the admission test requires careful scheduling and extreme self-discipline. It can also leave you unable to fully engage in other activities on campus, including doing service work and gaining clinical experiences that the professional schools either desire or require.
Undergraduate research with faculty mentors is a key element of The OWU Connection.
Research opportunities are available to any Pre-medicine/pre-dentistry student. We encourage you to apply for the Summer Science Research Program, a 10-week intensive research program where students work closely with faculty and present their results at an all-campus Patricia Belt Conrades Summer Science Research Symposium in the fall. Students also gain research experience in internships and off-campus opportunities.
Landry Cowles '20 used a Theory-to-Practice Grant to study STEM cells at the Mayo Clinic.
From your first year on campus, you can get off campus with Travel-Learning Courses, a key part of The OWU Connection. Journey to a distant land and immerse yourself in another landscape and culture.
In recent Travel-Learning Courses have studied biology and zoology in Brazil, Costa Rica, East Africa, the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador, and North Carolina.
At OWU, you connect the classroom and the real world. OWU's pre-med students have participated in research internships at medical centers such as the Mayo Clinic and Nationwide Children's Hospital and at research universities. A Theory-to-Practice Grant could fund your research internship.
Top-of-the-line instrumentation exists throughout the Schimmel/Conrades Science Center, including a scanning transmission electron microscope, enabling you to carry out advanced research that’s often impossible at other liberal arts institutions.
Your OWU coursework equips you for the science sections of these crucial tests, and advisers offer guidance on test preparation.
The Pre-Health Club helps undergraduates understand and overcome the challenges of entering medical school by providing support and insight. Club members also help educate the public about illnesses, preventative measure to take to remain healthy, and how to perform self-exams.
The chief pre-health advisor can help you be informed about the application process for medical and dental schools. You should get to know them early in your time at OWU and heed their guidance. They also will prepare the composite letters of evaluation that are favored by medical and dental schools.
After graduating, Madeleine was accepted into the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine. While at OWU, Madeleine participated in a Travel-Learning Course comparing the national health care systems in the U.S. and Europe and conducted summer research on songbirds and on biochemistry.
Prof. Gatz (the program director) watches a student present during class.
Students present their work every fall semester.
Pre-Medicine & International Studies major Brenda Gable ’15 (second from left) studied abroad in Jordan, where she focused on health and community development.
During an internship at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Samuel Stull '17 did a research project on Hepatitis C and the opioid epidemic.
In the Summer Science Research Program, students work with faculty in paid research positions.
Students receive special training to prepare for the Medical College Admission Test.
