Cara Hueston '07 shadowd Carmela Pane '78, neonatalogy physician at Valley Hospital, Ridgewood, N.J., in an interim-session externship.

Health Professions Program

Preparation for health professions is not a degree program at Lafayette College, but a pre-professional intention for our students. Health-related graduate programs seek candidates with broad academic, social, and extracurricular backgrounds. The Health Professions Advising Program will help you to become such a candidate.

The Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science curriculum, regardless of major, provides the necessary background for entrance into schools of medicine, dentistry, osteopathy, optometry, and veterinary medicine, provided the student completes the health professional school's requisite science and other undergraduate course work. Some medical schools require or recommend one year of college mathematics, including a semester or full year of calculus and/or statistics, and recommend courses in biochemistry, physical chemistry and quantitative analysis. No course should be taken on a pass-fail basis.

Health professions-bound students may graduate with any major or minor offered at Lafayette College. They should follow their own intellectual and academic interests. However, health professional schools expect students to have a strong foundation in the natural sciences (i.e., biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics). Lafayette students majoring in biochemistry, biology, chemical engineering, chemistry, neuroscience, psychology, and religion have been accepted to medical, dental, veterinary and other programs in recent years. The College also offers a “Health Care and Society” minor.

Liaison is maintained with a number of our programs concerned with medical school admissions, including the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), (www.aamc.org) the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) (www.aamc.org) administrators, the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS), (www.aamc.org) and contact is maintained with the chairman of the admissions committee or admissions director of several medical schools. This allows for the timely dissemination of information regarding changing policies or requirements for admission.

Various registration and application forms are available from Office of the Dean of Studies and assistance is available in preparation of documents required in support of your application, including a Health Professions Committee interview and preparation of composite recommendation letter. All serious premedical students are urged to become familiar with the services available and to make full use of this assistance. Also available online is our Health Professions Program Handbook (http://www.lafayette.edu/academics/dean/proadvis/hpac.pdf) that provide guidelines essential for a career in the health professions.

Periodic group meetings are held for students interested in health professions. Topics of interest to the particular class are discussed and questions answered in what are essentially group advising sessions. At the spring meeting for juniors, application materials are distributed and detailed instructions are given on completion of the application and the necessary supporting documents, including a Health Professions Committee interview and preparation of a composite recommendation letter.

In the Office of the Dean of Studies, 10 Markle Hall, there are reference materials on the health professions, information on careers and programs in the health professions, the official study guide for the MCAT, practice tests, the foreign medical school catalogue, the medical school curriculum directory, and several medical and dental school catalogues. Information on post-baccalaureate and summer programs is also available in our office, as well as DAT (http://www.ada.org/), AMCAS (http://www.aamc.org/), AADSAS (https://aadsas.adea.org/aadsas2006/), AACOMAS (http://www.aacom.org/) information can also be obtained from this office.

In addition to the usual services provided by academic advisors, the Health Professions Faculty Advisors help students keep abreast of the courses and other requirements necessary to make them competitive applicants. Academic advising is important for all students, but it is particularly important for those interested in a career in the health professions.

Students interested in a career in the health professions are:

• Invited to attend monthly talks by professionals. Recent speakers have been medical school admissions deans, financial aid advisers, a physical therapist, and an academic year internship coordinator from The Philadelphia Center.
• Invited to attend an annual Health Professions Alumni Dinner are held on campus. Lafayette graduates who are presently in medical, dental, and veterinary schools are guest speakers and serve as mentors
• Invited to participate in a MCAT test-preparation workshop during the academic year and summer. The workshops are aimed at teaching students test-taking skills and the relevant logical, rhetorical, and mathematical problem-solving techniques. Students will learn test management strategies including how to reduce test anxiety and how to better process information.
• Take advantage of the support and information provided for internship and externship experiences, job opportunities, and post baccalaureate programs. Noncredit internship/externship agreements are set up with local hospitals and veterinary hospitals, as well as a local dentist. Contact the Career Services (http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~careers/) for additional information. Additional resources are also available on our web site at http://www.lafayette.edu/academics/dean/proadvis/.
• Travel with your peers to tour medical, osteopathic, dental, and veterinary schools in the New Jersey and Philadelphia areas.

Health professions students with specific questions about any aspect of career preparation, including course work, the major, evaluations, preparation for the MCAT, where to apply, etc. are urged to make an appointment any member of the Health Professions Advisory Committee (http://www.lafayette.edu/academics/dean/proadvis/) and/or visit the Office of the Dean of the College, 1 Markle Hall to discuss any concerns. It is also a good idea to periodically (at least once during the sophomore year and more often during the junior year) stop by to review your record and make plans with the associate dean who coordinates advising in the pre-health program. Appointments may be made to meet with Dean Julia Goldberg by calling Mrs. Thompson (610) 330-5521 or email thompsoj during office hours.