All About Health Sciences

Health Sciences is one of the most popular majors at Furman – and one of the best if you ask me! There are so many things you can do with this major from medical school to physical therapy, nutrition, or really anything in health-related fields. I’m on the Pre-Physical Therapy track so I am currently taking classes necessary for any of my graduate programs, but your advisor will help you find the right track for you and make sure you take all the classes you need to. There are so many different things I love about this major, but honestly the best part is taking classes that I find so interesting. Most of my courses have had hands on projects where I get to do some kind of research or training that prepares me for the future. Yes, the classes can get hard at times, but if it’s a topic that really interests me then having to work hard for the grade is honestly so rewarding!

One of my favorite classes I’ve taken so far is Analysis of Human Performance. This class taught us how to examine different aspects of performance and how to use complex machines for testing. I forced my friends to be test subjects for a lot of assignments – some they loved, but others were definitely not their favorite. We got to do body composition tests in the Bod Pod machine and VO2 Max tests in one of our labs on campus. These were such cool lessons that will help me with future research and classes during my time at Furman!

Anatomy and Physiology is another interesting class I’ve taken. I won’t say it was easy, but it could be fun sometimes to go to the lab and study all the different bones, muscles, or nerves of the body. While taking this class, I had 24-hour access to the lab with a ton of different resources to study. I learned so many things that are essential for this major that have already carried into my other classes. It can be challenging because there is so much material, but my professor did everything he could to help us learn.

This semester, I’m taking a class called Fundamentals of Physical Rehabilitation and just based on the name you know it’s a perfect class for physical therapy. I never knew how complex injuries were, but after this semester, there’s still so much more to I need to know. This might be one of the most challenging classes I’ve ever taken, but it’s also a class that I really enjoy studying. We do clinicals for each area of the body we study, and this is when we go through all the necessary steps to evaluate an injury. It’s hands on testing that will actually help me so much with future physical therapy lessons!

These kinds of experiences are so cool, and I love that I’m getting to do all of it during undergrad school. I was able to focus on classes specific to my interests starting freshman year and every new course always seems to amaze me. I would recommend the Health Sciences major to anyone considering a career in the healthcare field and especially with the amazing professors and department here at Furman!

All the love!

Andersen