Premedical, Predental, Pre-physician’s assistant, and Pre-chiropractic Programs
Unlimited Potential
You’ve discovered your passion. You know you want a career in medicine, dentistry, or chiropractic care. Now you need to prepare to enter a professional school. NMU can help you get there. We know that professional schools look for students with outstanding academic skills, diverse interests, and a broad educational background. That’s why our preprofessional programs are not undergraduate majors but rather suggested courses of study you take as part of a broader liberal arts education. Northern’s medical, dental, physician’s assistant, and chiropractic preprofessional programs are designed to help prepare you for the rigors of professional school, while our liberal arts curriculum will help you develop the critical thinking skills that are essential for beginning any post-baccalaureate school or profession.
Options
Although most premedical and predental students are science majors, you can pursue any major that interests you. And while you’re working through the requirements of your specific degree, you’ll also work closely with a preprofessional adviser, who will guide you through your preprofessional program and keep you informed about activities and deadlines pertinent to applying to professional schools.
Programs Offered
Pre-Dental
Pre-Engineering
Pre-Law
Pre-Medicine
Pre-Optometry
Pre-Pharmacy
Pre-Veterinary
Most Common Degrees Sought
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
Microbiology
Physiology
Biochemistry
Opportunity
At Northern, we understand that what you do outside the classroom is just as important as what you do inside the classroom in gaining acceptance to any professional school. That’s why we provide our preprofessional students with the opportunity to assist in research projects, discussions, and observations-both in the classroom and in a real-world setting.
We offer a different kind of mentoring program that’s not available at most schools. Through our preceptorship program, juniors and seniors (and sometimes even sophomores) get a glimpse into the medical or dental field from a professional perspective. We’ll pair you up with a physician or dentist with whom you’ll work on a regular basis. You’ll observe your mentor during hospital rounds, office visits, and even during surgery. This type of mentoring experience is critical to your successful application to professional school. Who knows? Your preceptorship experience may even turn into an internship.
Medical School Visits
Every other year, we take sophomores and juniors to visit Michigan medical schools so our students become familiar with the philosophy and facilities at a professional school before they apply.
Clinical Confrences
As a preprofessional student at NMU, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from the best. Every week, select preprofessional students are invited to attend a clinical conference at the local hospital to listen to various presentations by medical experts.
Premed/Predent Club
Learn with your peers instead of competing against them. These student organizations will provide you with an invaluable peer support network while you work through your program. Join the fun as you participate in various volunteer activities throughout the year.
Guidance in the Classroom
Your success is our first priority. The faculty in the physics, chemistry, and biology departments are some of the most respected in the scientific community, and while each member of our faculty is involved in research, their primary focus is on students and teaching.
Guidance Beyond the Classroom
The premedical, predental, and pre-chiropractic programs are directed by an advisory board comprised of NMU faculty members and local physicians, dentists, and chiropractors. In addition to providing professional guidance, when you apply to professional school, you may request that your advisory board conduct a personal interview with you. Based on that interview, the board will prepare an evaluation letter, which they’ll send to the professional school or schools of your choice.
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Study in Style
Premedical, predental, pre-physician’s assistant, and pre-chiropractic students must take certain courses in biology, chemistry, and physics, and NMU has outstanding teaching facilities in all of these areas. The Seaborg Science Complex is one of the premier university science facilities in the Midwest. Completed in August 2001, the complex is the largest academic facility on NMU’s campus. It consists of the newly built New Science Facility and the completely renovated Luther S. West Science Building and features state-of-the-art instructional equipment and technology including more than a dozen different types of scientific laboratories.
Get Involved in Research
We offer our students opportunities to participate in high-level faculty research projects-another activity that is highly regarded by professional schools. You might become involved in cancer or genetics research or you might help research particles and fields theory, create lenses that mimic the gravity that bends light around planets, or uncover the mysteries of the aurora borealis.
Student Success
Our placement rates are phenomenal. Approximately 80 percent of our premedical students who apply to medical school are accepted, and nearly 100 percent of our predental students who apply to dental school are accepted. Our graduates have gone on to successful medical and dental careers at the following locations (to name just a few):
- Bell Memorial Hospital
- Center for Radiation Oncology, Bandon, FL
- Independently-owned dental clinics
- Marquette County Health Department
- Marshfield Clinic
- Medical University of South Carolina
- University of Minnesota
- University of Oregon
- University of Florida
- University of Utah