ExploreHealthCareers.org
A broad guide to health careers, including job descriptions, training pathways, and salary information
Pre-Health Journey
Not sure if you’re “pre-health”? Whether you’re committed to a healthcare career or
just exploring your options, these steps are for you.
Pre-health isn't a major. It's a plan.
A career in healthcare takes more than good grades. It takes shadowing hours, the right coursework, recommendation letters that say something real, and a clear sense of why you want this.
Start Here
Florida Southern's pre-health program is built around one idea: the students who get into professional school don't wait until junior year to start preparing. They start early, with the right support. Here's what that looks like.
- 1
PHP 1100: Introduction to Health Professions is a two-credit First-Year Seminar for students considering a career in healthcare, taught by a pre-health advisor. It introduces you to the health professions and what building a competitive application looks like, starting in your first semester rather than your third year.
What the course covers:
- The health professions and the roles they play in healthcare systems
- How to find and approach shadowing and volunteering opportunities
- What goes into a competitive application: required coursework, ways to stand out, and recommended timelines
- The basics of professional school applications, including entrance exams and an introduction to the personal statement
You'll also meet the other pre-health students in your year. That peer network tends to outlast the course by three years.
PHP 1100 is required for all students who plan to apply to P3.
- 2
Choosing a health profession is one of the biggest decisions you'll make in college. Each path has different requirements, different training timelines, and a very different daily reality. Florida Southern's pre-health tracks cover medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, physical therapy, and more.
- 3
Prerequisite coursework, a competitive GPA, an entrance exam score, hundreds of hours of healthcare exposure, and evidence that you'd be the kind of provider someone would want to see. That's what a competitive application takes, and it comes together over years, not months.
- 4
Healthcare exposure is not optional. Professional schools expect hundreds of hours, and the hours only count if you handle them properly.
Before you start shadowing or volunteering in a healthcare setting, complete the required training. It's required once, no matter how many pre-health activities you complete.
- HIPAA Training and Quiz
- Healthcare Code of Conduct
- Global Ambassadors Training
Then report every experience to Career Services, whether or not you're earning academic credit. Keep your own record of it too. You'll draw on those notes for personal statements and applications two years from now, and you will not remember the details.
Additional Pre-Health Tracks
There are many additional health care professions to explore, and here are some resources we recommend for our students to find out more about these possibilities.
NAAHP Health Professions
Student resources from the National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions
CAAHEP Allied Health Program List
The full list of accredited allied health programs
The Pre-Health Professional Program (P3)
P3 is Florida Southern's competitive pre-health program for students preparing to apply to professional health schools. Students who complete P3 currently have a 90%+ placement rate in their specific professional program.
Through P3, you'll work with the Health Professions Advisory Committee, get access to events and opportunities open only to P3 students, receive feedback on your application as you build it, and earn a committee letter of evaluation sent directly to the professional schools you apply to.
P3 isn't required to pursue a health profession. Any FSC student can receive pre-health advising, attend pre-health workshops, and use all resources on this page, whether or not they apply to P3 or are accepted.
Get Experience: Shadowing and Volunteering
Healthcare exposure is not optional. Professional schools expect hundreds of hours, and the hours only count if you handle them properly.
Before you start shadowing or volunteering in a healthcare setting, complete the required trainings. This training is required only once, no matter how many pre-health activities you complete.
Professional School Pathways
Florida Southern has direct partnerships with two osteopathic medical schools, providing a clearer pathway into professional programs for students who perform well as undergraduates.
FSC–LECOM Early Acceptance Programs
Qualified students may take part in one of four FSC–LECOM Early Acceptance Programs. When program requirements are met, students are guaranteed acceptance into one of LECOM's professional programs: the LECOM College of Medicine (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine), the LECOM School of Dental Medicine, the LECOM School of Pharmacy, or the LECOM School of Podiatric Medicine.
OCOM Guaranteed Interview Program
Florida Southern's agreement with the Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine (OCOM) offers qualified pre-medical students a guaranteed interview for possible admission to OCOM.
Get in Touch
Not sure where to start? Reach out—no question is too small, and we’re here to help you every step of the way.
Nancy Morvillo, Ph.D.
Department Chair, Professor of Biology
- 863.680.6240
- nmorvillo@flsouthern.edu
- Polk Science - 126
