Pre-Health Program
Program Overview
What is a pre-health track?
If you’re considering a career in a health-related field, a pre-health track provides opportunities to explore the health professional world. Often, students who are interested in health careers need advice on course selection, experiences in health care settings, and networking with alumni mentors to 1) confirm that a health career is the right fit, and 2) pinpoint what area in the vast health care field they might pursue. A pre-health advising track is the means for revealing and understanding your place in the world of health careers.
Why explore pre-health at Furman?
The Office of Pre-Professional Advising (OPPA) at Furman offers advising and resources, and guides students through the health professional school application process. We connect you to dozens of clinical experiences, from shadowing physicians at Prisma Health to conducting research in a biomedical science laboratory. OPPA prepares you for your future career, and ensures you are a competitive applicant when the time comes to apply to the health professional school of your choice, either directly after graduating or years later.
It might surprise you to know that 40% of our students who are interested in health careers are studying disciplines outside of the sciences. Pre-health at Furman gives you the chance to investigate health professions while you consider any of the more than 70 majors, minors and programs available at the university. Guided by dedicated, full-time pre-health advisors, you’ll amass a powerful set of skills – problem-solving, critical thinking, research, organization, collaboration and time-management – all while boosting verbal and written communication competencies. Plan a visit to Furman’s beautiful campus or start your application today.
How will you learn?
No matter the major you select, the advisors in pre-health will support you through every step of your academic journey, from providing expert guidance on courses to identifying clinical experiences that will bolster your career goals.
Get plugged into the Upstate Medical Legal Partnership as an intern. Working toward improving health outcomes of Upstate residents, especially those living in poverty, the MLP comprises Furman University’s Institute for the Advancement of Community Health (IACH), Prisma Health and South Carolina Legal Services.
Want a front-row seat to hospital procedures? The Prisma Health Clinical Observation Program gives you the chance to observe physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, therapists and other health care providers in over a dozen departments within the Prisma Health hospital system.
With these possibilities and many more, it’s good to have pre-health advisors who know you and are looking out for your interests. Connect with them early and often.
Health careers
A wealth of career possibilities exist in the health profession. The pre-health advisors, the Internship Office, IACH, and the Malone Center for Career Engagement can put you in touch with alumni mentors across practice areas.
Some options for careers include:
- Anesthesiologist assistant
- Audiology
- Biomedical engineering
- Cardiovascular perfusion
- Child life specialist
- Chiropractic
- Dental
- Epidemiology
- Genetic counseling
- Health care administration
- Medicine
- Medical physics
- Music therapy
- Naturopathic medicine
- Nursing
- Nutrition
- Occupational therapy
- Optometry
- Orthotics and prosthetics
- Pharmacy
- Physical therapy
- Physician assistant
- Podiatric medicine
- Public health
- Radiation therapy
- Respiratory therapy
- Speech pathology
- Veterinary medicine
Health-related courses
Best described as a pathway, pre-health at Furman has no academic major or course requirements. You’ll find health-related content in nearly every department on campus. Students should meet with the pre-health advisors to discuss current course offerings and courses they may find interesting.
Some samples include:
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40%students pursuing health careers at Furman who are not majoring in the sciences
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70%Furman medical school average acceptance rate in the last 10 years for senior applicants
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42%National medical school average acceptance rate in the last 10 years for senior applicants
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42%Furman students who show an interest in health careers
Our faculty
Your academic advisor will help you explore your passions, define your interests and achieve your goals. You’ll tap into a widespread network of community and alumni mentors to help you on your individual educational path – and to the opportunities at the end of it. Furman’s faculty, in addition to your pre-health advisors, represent decades of study and real-world expertise. Take your first steps by contacting the pre-health advisors, or contact Furman Admissions to learn more about how to apply.
While pre-health is a pathway, not a major at Furman, many of our faculty members teach health-related courses, and some of them have partnered with students on research. Some of our faculty who teach health-related courses include:
John Banisaukas
Victoria Turgeon
To connect with pre-health at Furman, contact the pre-health advisors in the Office of Pre-Professional Advising.
Each summer, the IACH funds student fellows in an array of community health internships and research opportunities. Just a few of the fellowships have included Magdalene Clinic, LiveWell Greenville, Prisma Health’s Summer Neuroimaging Research Program, Prisma Health Medical Legal Partnership, Summer Clinical Research Internship in Precision Medicine and Pharmacogenetics at VA Boston Health Care, Summer Program for Undergraduate Research in Surgery (Prisma Health) and Prisma Health’s Center for Integrative Oncology and Survivorship.
Furman’s study away programs represent engaged learning at its finest. Add a global dimension to learning as you cultivate intellectual curiosity, develop new skills and build self-confidence – keys to competing in a complex, ever-evolving world.
The majority of study away programs, including semester-long and three-week May Experience (MayX) courses, are interdisciplinary in nature and open to students of all majors.
Health-focused MayX options include IACH-developed programs such as The Emergency Department as a Microcosm of Society; The Southern Border: A Tale of Two Communities; Medical Legal Partnership: Poverty, Medicine and Law; Health and Medicine in the Global Context Exploration; and Medical Education in Orthopedic Surgery: Arthrex.
If you are interested in health careers, choose any major you are passionate about from the more than 70 majors, minors and programs available at Furman. Students typically declare a major by the end of their sophomore year, so there’s plenty of time to explore options. There are no academic major requirements to participate in pre-health activities at Furman. Grades matter in pursuing downstream professional schools as do professional school exam scores, so select a major that inspires you and one in which you think you’ll excel.
Our graduates go on to a variety of med schools and other professional schools for health careers. In the last 16 years, our students have been accepted to the following medical schools:
Alabama, Albert Einstein, Arkansas, Boston, Buffalo, Case Western, Central Florida, Chicago Medical, Chicago-Pritzker, Cincinnati, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Drexel, Duke, East Carolina, East Tennessee State, Eastern Virginia, Emory, Florida, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Florida State, Georgetown, George Washington, Harvard, Hofstra, Howard, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Jefferson, Johns Hopkins, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Loyola-Stritch, LSU-New Orleans, Marshall, Maryland, Mayo Clinic, Medical College of Georgia, Medical University of South Carolina, Meharry, Mercer, Miami, Mississippi, Missouri, Morehouse, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York University, North Carolina, Northwestern, Ohio State, Pennsylvania State, Pittsburgh, South Alabama, South Carolina-Columbia, South Carolina-Greenville, South Florida, Southern Illinois, SUNY-Brooklyn, SUNY-Stonybrook, Temple, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Texas-Galveston, Texas-Houston, Texas-San Antonio, Texas-Southwestern, Texas Tech, Tulane, UCLA, UC-San Diego, Uniformed Services University, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Washington University-St. Louis, University of Washington-Seattle, Wayne State, West Virginia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wright State and Yale.
