Pre-Health Virtual Information Session

Hello Hello.

Hello.

Hello.

Hello, I hope you can all hear Maine.

I think we're ready to begin it's 5:00 o'clock, so let's begin.

Hi everyone.

And welcome to the spring 2020 umw pre health web and R.

I am professor Stephen Gallic, the umw pre health program advisor and I'm also the A Professor of biology.

I hope you are all staying very safe. Reducing your contact with others right now and importantly staying positive.

Some of you already have submitted questions. If others have questions, you can write them down in the chat box on the left and I will address all of these questions at the very end of today's web and R as we go through this web, web and R.

You should be aware that the umw pre health website is a source of lots of information about the program.

On the on this website, by the way.

There is a link to a guide for new students. Make sure you look for that. Also, we hope to add to our website. Many of our success stories, that is, identify many umw students that are either in schools currently or currently practicing.

But for our enrolled students.

Enrolled students we have a special umw pre health program portal that provides comprehensive information about all of our pre health Trax. This portal is made available exclusively to enrolled students through umw's course management system which is called canvas. If you matriculate at umw as soon as you get a umw network ID and password, you will have access to this portal.

And all of this information.

Here is a rundown of what we will cover in today's web. And are we will first identify umw's pre health career tracks.

Then what we will answer the question what should I major in?

We will go over the components of a pre health track.

Talk a little bit about the application process.

Look at the members of the Umw Pre Medical Pre Dental Committee talk about the special affiliation agreements that the University has with nearby.

Medical schools and other schools etc will talk about the pre health club at the University of Mary Washington and when we are all over I will answer your questions. So throughout the web and R, please type your questions into the chat bot box and I will answer them at the end.

So let's begin.

The umw pre how program offers academic and career advising?

2.

Any UMW student preparing for any health related careers? Here is a list of health related careers that typically recommend their applicants have a bachelors degree. Premedicine Pre Dentistry Pre Veterinary Medison Pre Physician Assistant Pre Physical Therapy Pre Occupational Therapy Pre Pharmacy Pre Optometry nursing and more.

And the umw pre help program offers academic and career advising.

To any UMW student preparing for any health related karere, Here is a list of our nine pre health career tracks. Premedicine Pre Dentistry Pre Veterinary Medison Pre Physician Assistant Pre Physical Therapy Pre Occupational Therapy Pre Pharmacy Pre Optometry Pre Bachelor of Science of nursing and there are more.

It is important to note that these are pre professional career tracks into which students can self and roll. And when I say self enroll I mean there is no need for a special application to any of these program tracks. So In other words these are pre professional career tracks, they are not majors. A student at self and rolls in one of these career paths still.

Must choose a major.

Students are always asking then what should I major in the answer to that question depends on the pre health track. So for premed and pre dentistry you can major in anything you want. Medical schools and dental schools accept students from all majors. Your major is not a factor. Therefore my best advice to you is major in a program that you like the most.

Because likely you will do better academically in a in a major program that you are genuinely enjoying.

But don't be afraid. In majoring in a non science, because non science majors have an application that typically stands out and it doesn't stand out because you've marked down that you're a mage, your music major or a history major. It stands out because when you look at your transcript, your transcript will look different than anybody else that has majored in a science. But in the end.

A pre medical student or predental student can major in anything you want the same thing with is with prevent. You can major in anything you want, but there is a preference for the Biological Sciences because I note at the bottom of the slide.

And the Biological Sciences. Because Biological Sciences offers courses in animal science, so it only makes sense. and I know that the note at the bottom of the slide that in the Biological Sciences students can major in biology or bio medical science.

Now for pre PA again you can major in anything you want, but remember that PA programs require anatomy and Physiology courses and these anatomy and Physiology courses are upper level courses that are given in Biological Sciences majors.

As far as pre physical therapy is concerned, again you can major in anything you want with Biological Sciences and psychology. Being popular choice is the same thing is true with pre occupational therapy. Pre pharmacy you can major in anything you want but chemistry and biochemistry are popular choices for students going into pharmacy. For optometry you can major in anything you want.

And for if you want to move on to a nursing program, then again you can major in anything you want with Biological Sciences and psychology being popular choices.

Let's go over the three components of a pre health track. There are three components of a pre health track. They are courses that you take clinical experiences and then community service, research and other extracurricular activities. We're going to go over each of these. Let's first talk about required courses.

The required courses for these pre health Trax varies to some extent.

Nearly all of those nine pre health Trax requires two semesters of General Biology with lab and two semesters of General Chemistry with lab.

In addition, many of the tracks require two semesters of organic chemistry and two semesters of introductory physics. Also, many of the tracks require one to two semesters of math, and that includes statistics. One semester of psychology, some tracks required to one semester of biochemistry, one semester of sociology.

And also some tracks include one require one semester anatomy and one semester of Physiology.

And I know that sounds like a lot of courses, but those courses can successfully be incorporated into your curriculum no matter what major you're talking about. I think you should go see our website for details about the required courses in any particular website.

Now students often have questions concerning dual enrollment or AP courses.

Most schools prefer students to complete all required courses at a four year undergraduate institution, but schools generally accept dual enrollment. An AP credits to meet course requirements. If those courses are documented on an official transcript.

Lab credit, however, will still be required. You know. Oftentimes AP classes do not have a lab component associated with them, and if they don't understand that lab credit is still going to be required, and that lab that lab requirement can be satisfied in a number of different ways.

Now, a very separate question is.

Will these will AP courses and dual enrollment courses be accepted in your major? And that's a very different question.

For questions about AP credits in your major, you should contact your major program.

Spaces website.

Beyond these required courses, these are some additional highly recommended courses and as you can see by this list, all of these are upper level biology courses.

Students are encouraged no matter what your major students are encouraged to take, as many of these courses that can fit into your schedule.

Now here is a sample fall semester schedule for first year pre health students.

This sample can also be found on our guide for new students that appears on our website. Let's look at this sample over. First of all, we have our a general biology course, biology 121 or biology 125 will fulfill that course requirement. We have an introductory chemistry course chemistry 111 now to get into chemistry 111 a placement exam is required.

And when you take that chemistry exam.

If you're if you're put into Chem 101, understand that kept 101 does not satisfy the pre health program after Chem 101 you will have to go into Chem 111. That will put you a little bit behind. In addition to biology and chemistry, you have to take. You should take one of the following courses.

Courses which may be taken in this first year but also may be taken during a students second or third year as well. So perhaps take an English composition course such as English 202. Perhaps take a psychology or sociology course, such as psychology 100 or sociology 105 or 155, or perhaps take a math course or a statistics course such as stat 180.

Now, psych majors an many and any major in the Department of Biological Sciences.

Have their own stat course.

That fulfills this requirement. So if you're going to measure its major in Psych or major in one of the majors in the Biological Sciences, you don't need to bother us taking stat 180, you could take the statistics course in your major.

And finally, all students are required to take.

Freshman seminar or F Sam in their first semester. So when you Add all of these credits up for credits in biology 121 for credits and Chem 111 three credits in either English composition or psych or sociology or math or stat and then 3 credits in F SEM, you come up with a total of 14 credits.

14 credits, which is which is a good course load for your first semester at the University of Mary Washington?

The second component to all pre health Trax is clinical experiences. Clinical experiences are important because they expose students to the professionals and the profession to which they aspire, giving them a realistic understanding of what their profession involves. Clinical experience also gives students opportunities to interact with patients and to find out whether they enjoy working with patients.

The number of required clinical experience hours vary significantly among our pre health Trax and among the among and amongst schools and programs. So this is something I cover with new students when they enroll and I meet them for the very first time during orientation.

UMW is very fortunate in being able.

To offer special clinical experience programs to offer to our students, how does that work?

UMW is able to offer special programs.

To our students, we offered the Mary Washington Healthcare HHWHC, The Mary Washington Healthcare.

University of Mary Washington student clinical observation program.

Which is a special program, a unique program that offers umw pre health students shadowing opportunities with physicians out local hospitals. We also offer opportunities with alumni that are practicing physicians, practicing dentists, etc etc.

The Fredericksburg area also has many venues where students can gain clinical hours, including volunteering with the area rescue squads. We have many rescue squads in the area.

Volunteering at free clinics at veterinary clinics at physical therapy clinics, senior citizens home Hospice centers and there are there are many others.

The third component of every pre health track is community service research and other extracurricular activities now by community service. We are talking about non clinical volunteering within the community. These volunteer projects display as students compassion and commitment to serving their community. This is extremely important for many medical schools, and while it's important for other pre health tracks as well.

It's a bit less important than it is for Pre Med Acen.

Umw provides students with many service learning opportunities within its curriculum. And the umw pre health club engages in volunteer projects as well.

Undergraduate research is a positive thing, especially for medical schools, but it's not required, and as a bit less important for other tracks. While there are many research opportunities available to you, I'm still umw students in any major. A student does not need to get involved in a complicated long term research or scholarship project, some courses.

Have simple research projects embedded in them and these simple projects satisfy this research recommendation.

Finally, there are other extracurricular activities that are are of value to students, such as in gauging in leadership roles undertaking.

Undertaking leadership rules such as student government or the leader such as being involved in student government or being an officer in a club or other organization. Military service is valuable.

Varsity Athletics of valuable extracurricular activities as well as as working being employed while you are at school.

OK, so those are the three components of each of our pre health Trax courses, clinical experiences, community service and other extracurricular activities.

Now, when students applied to wherever they apply to, they will need to take a standardized test.

Such as when you apply to medical school. You have to take the Medical College admission test. the M cat when you apply to dental school, you have to obtain the dental admission test or the Diety. That's cool. And PA programs typically take the correct the graduate record exam, the jirari. Some of them require the Mcat is the M cat instead for physical therapy in a OT programs, physical therapy and occupational therapy programs. Generally, those students take the GRE.

Ticket into pharmacy school. You need to take the pharmacy school admission test, otherwise known as the peak at and for optometry programs you have to take the optometry admission test or the OAT to learn more about any one of these. You might want to look look them up online to find out more.

The University of Mary Washington has partnered with Kaplan Test Prep services to provide test prep courses for the M cat for the diety an for the GRA provide these test prep prep courses to umw students at significant savings. We are working on expanding those services to include the others standardized tests as well. There is more information about these courses.

On our website, so please visit our website.

Let's talk briefly about the application process. The general which meaning the general process through which students applied to their schools of choice.

Traditionally, students apply to their schools of choice during the summer following their third year at umw. But this is not a requirement you can apply and later years schools do not care when you apply. Schools don't care how old you are when you apply.

However, when you apply, you are expected to have all requirements completed. All of your courses taken. You have a strong record of clinical experiences under your belt, a strong record of community services under your belt, etc, etc.

For every track, when one applies, one applies through an online application service and through the through all the umw pre health program. All umw pre health students are well versed in these applications services.

What is a students likelihood of being accepted?

As when one goes through these application services, what is the students likelihood of being accepted? Well, that depends on a large number of factors, including grades.

Grades are very important. The average overall GPA of.

Of students that get accepted into these, any of these programs that average overall GPA is anywhere from a 3.3 two or three point Seven, depending on.

The pre health track the minimum acceptable overall GPA.

For applicants.

Depending on the pre health track is anywhere from 3.0 to 3.3, so you can see how important it is to get good grades to be accepted. Standardized test scores are also very important. You need to score competitively well on these test scores. An Watt competitively well means depends on what standardized test you are talking about.

And there are lots of other factors as well. One other factor is that students also need recommendations. Many schools ask for a recommendation from a pre Health Committee.

UMW has a pre Health Committee Pre Medical Pre Dental committee that writes recommendations for students and here is a list of the six members of our committee. All of them whole terminal degrees and either biology, chemistry or psychology.

UMW has a strong working relationship with all area health career programs.

But you MW is proud to have a special affiliation agreement with several regional schools and programs. For example, we have an agreement called the George Washington School of Madison early acceptance program, which is exclusively for umw honor students. We also have the Edward via Virginia College of osteopathic medicine, or vicom early acceptance program.

Now, both of these early acceptance programs in both of these programmes qualified umw students are conditionally accepted into their medical school at the end of their sophomore year. That's fantastic when you think about it, right.

If you are qualified and you apply and you get accepted, then you will be conditionally accepted into medical school in one of those two medical schools at the end of your sophomore year.

Another program we have is the vicom guaranteed interview program, which is, as it says, a program. You are guaranteed an interview in at that medical school, which is a big deal. Becausr in order to get accepted you have to get an interview and less than 50% of students that apply get interviews. We have the Shenandoah School of Pharmacy 3 + 4 program where a student goes to UMW for three years.

They immediately in their in their next year. They move on to the school of Pharmacy and that first year in the school of pharmacy is their 4th year at umw. So after that first year of the school of Pharmacy they have, they get their UN tub there umw diploma. They graduate from UMW.

And they also have one year of pharmacy school under their belt.

And then of course we have, as I mentioned before, the Kaplan umw test prep courses. You can find out more about each of these agreements on our website.

Then there is our pre health club are plea are pre health club is a student run organization that host meetings events and speakers, organizes community service projects, organizes trips to various schools and programs.

All pre health students are encouraged to become members are final thoughts. Let's answer and that's our final thoughts.

So with that there is the end of our web and R, but I am now ready to answer a variety of questions and I'm going to begin by answering those questions that have already come in.

Previously, one question that came in previously is.

Hello.

Hello, is anybody else out there?

Hello, is anybody else out there Natalie? Are you there?

Hi Natalie, I see that you are connected to the web and R.

I'm hoping others will show up.

We are two minutes away. I'm hoping others will show up.

I see your chats.

Natalie, I see your chats.

I'm not going to start until at least a few students.

Connect

Well, let's officially five o'clock.

It's officially 5:00 o'clock and I see we have a number of participants.

Connected so we are going to begin.

I want to welcome you all to the spring 2020 umw pre health web and R.

I am professor Stephen Gallic, the umw pre health program advisor.

And I'm also a professor of biology. I teach a variety of biology courses. I hope you are all staying very safe. I hope you are reducing your contact with others right now and importantly, I hope you are staying positive now. Some of you have already submitted questions.

If others have questions to submit, you can write them down in the chat box to the left and I will address all of these questions at the very end of this web and are OK.

Now you cannot see me, I understand that I'm just working with audio today, so please bear with me as I simply present this web and R to you and then answer your questions at the end.

Now as we go through this web and are you should be aware that the umw pre health website is a nice source of lots of information about our program. So go there and look around on this website. By the way there is a link to a guide for new students. Read it through and see what it says.

Also, we hope to add to our website. Many of our success stories. We hope to identify many umw students that are either in schools currently or are currently in practice. We are accumulating that information and hope to put those six to post those success stories online very shortly.

For our enrolled students, we have a special umw pre health program portal that provides comprehensive information about all pre health Trax. This portal is made available to enrolled students exclusively through umw is course management system which is called.

Canvas if you matriculate at umw as soon as you get a umw network ID and password, you will have access to this portal and you will have all of the access to all of the information that all pre health students have access to.

So here is a rundown of what we will cover in today's webinar. We're going to identify the nine pre health career tracks that are part of the umw pre health program. I'm going to answer the question what should I major in will talk about the important components of any pre health track. We will briefly talk about the application process.

I will share with you the list of names of the individuals who are on the Umw Pre Medical Pre Dental Committee.

I'll show you some of the special affiliation agreements umw has with Regional Medical schools.

We'll talk a little bit about the student Pre Health Club.

And then we will finish.

By answering your questions, so please I remind you throughout the web and R, please type your questions into the chat box and I will answer them at the end.

So let's begin.

The umw pre health program offers academic and career advising to any UMW student preparing for any health related careers and what you see in front of you is a list of our nine pre health career tracks. We have a pre Med acen track pre Dentistry Pre Veterinary Medison Pre Physician Assistant Pre Physical Therapy Pre Occupational therapy.

Pre pharmacy pre optometry we have a pre Bachelor of Science in nursing track and we have others as well.

It is important to note that these are pre professional career tracks into which students can self enroll.

So there is no need for a special application for any student to get into any of these program tracks, but since their pre professional career tracks, that means they are not majors and any student within one of these tracks still needs to choose a major.

Right, so the question is, what should you major in?

The answer to that question depends on what pre health track you're involved in. So for example for both pre medison and pre dentistry you can major in anything you want. Medical schools and dental schools don't care what you major in.

They accept students from all majors. Your major is not a factor for your acceptance. Therefore the best advice is for you to major in whatever major program that you like the most that you are going to enjoy the most because you are likely to do better academically in a major that you enjoy. The worst thing you can do is choose a major because you think that.

Major is a good major for your pre health track or whatever.

Please don't be afraid to major in a non science.

You know if you want your application to really stand out then don't be afraid to major in a non science because a transcript of a non science major is what is what stands out there are a wide variety of courses in for a student that's in a non science major that science major transcripts just don't have in them so if you really want to stand out.

And you are interested in majoring in a non science. I really do encourage you to do so.

Prevent you can major in anything. There is a bit of a preference for the Biological Sciences because the Biological Sciences have courses in animal science, right? And that asterisk there is there to tell us that in the Biological Sciences, students can choose to major in biology or they can also choose to major in Biomedical Sciences.

For pre physician assistant again you can major in anything, but remember that for in pre PA Anatomy an fillet, an Physiology or required courses and know that these courses are Biological Sciences major courses so sometimes piese choose to major in one of the courses offered in the Biological Sciences.

For pre physical therapy and pre Occupational Therapy again you can major in anything but you-know-what. Psychology are popular choices are popular majors for these two as well as a major in the Biological Sciences.

For pre pharmacy again you can major in anything but chemistry and biochemistry are very popular choices for pre pharmacy students, optometry. You can major in absolutely anything. There really is no preference. An nursing as well. But when I say nursing I'm talking about a pre Bachelor of Science in nursing path where you get your bachelors degree at Mary Washington.

And then move on to a BSN program somewhere else here. Biological Sciences and psychology are both popular choices for majors.

Let's talk about the three important components of a pre health track. OK, these three components are number one. The courses that you take #2 clinical experiences that you must have a #3 community service, research, and other extracurricular activities.

Let's go over each of these first. Let's talk about required courses.

The required courses for these pre health Trax varies to some extent for nearly all of those 9 tracks we identified before, students need to take two semesters of General Biology, two semesters of general chemistry, both of them with labs. Now In addition to this biology and chemistry, many tracks require two semesters of organic chemistry.

And two semesters of introductory physics, both with lab In addition to all of these, many tracks require one to two semesters of math, and that includes a course in statistics. One semester of psychology, some tracks required to one semester of biochemistry and one semester of sociology.

And then, In addition to these a few tracks.

Require one semester of Anatomy and one semester of Physiology. Now I know this sounds like a lot, but these this list of courses can absolutely be incorporated into the structure of any major that you choose. So remember that we're not adding a whole lot. Of course is to your curriculum. These courses can be combined and integrated.

Into the curriculum of any major that you choose.

Now I want you to look at our website, go to our website if you are interested in the required course details for any one of the particular tracks that I showed you before.

You know, students often have questions concerning dual enrollment or AP courses, and whether they can be used to fulfil pre.

Wealth track prerequisites. Most schools most medical schools dental schools PA schools, PT schools, etc. Most schools prefer students to complete all required courses at a four year undergraduate institution. However, schools generally accept.

Dual enrollment or AP credits to meet course requirements. If you can documente those on an official transcript.

Oftentimes, those courses these AP courses and during Roman courses, etc. Oftentimes these do not have a lab component, but the lab component. The lab credit is still required.

But there is Fortunately a variety of ways you can fulfill that lab requirement.

This is for meeting prerequisites for these pre health tracks. This is very different from being accepted in your major at. That's another question entirely. Will AP courses do enrollment courses, etc. Will they be accepted in your major? That's a different question entirely. So for questions about AP credits in your major, you should contact your potential major program.

With those with those questions.

Now, beyond these required courses, there are some additional highly recommended courses, and as you can see by this list, that's in front of you, all are upper level biology courses now. Unless you're a biology major or Biomedical Sciences major, it might be hard to incorporate all of these or many of these into your schedule, but all students are encouraged to take as many of these courses.

As they can possibly fit into their schedules.

In front of you, here is a sample fall semester schedule.

For first year pre health students now don't worry about quickly writing this down. This sample can also be found on our guide for new students that appears on our website. So just go to our website, go to the guide for new students and you will see this same thing. So let's look at this sample first semester schedule for first year pre health students you should take.

Your fall Semester General Biology course, which would be biology 121 or 125. Four 4 credits. It has a lab.

In addition, you should take Chem 111, four, 4 credits. It has a lab, but under understand something about this chem 111 course to get into it I put you must take a placement exam.

If you take that placement exam, you possibly might not be placed into Chem 111. You might get placed into Chem 101 instead. Please understand that Chem 101 does not satisfy any of the pre health tracks and it's going to put you a semester behind at least in terms of your chemistry requirement for your pre health track. So you must strive.

To do well enough in that placement exam to be placed into Chem 111. If you find that you are not placed in Chem 111, you're placed in Chem 101. Come and see me contact me by email, or or if you see me in an orientation session, contact Maine and we'll have a little discussion about that, OK?

Now In addition to biology 121 and can 111, you need to take one of the following courses. You need to take an English composition in English composition course at that course might be English 202. That's one suggestion. English 202 if not an English composition course, then maybe a psychology course or a sociology course like Psych 100 or sociology. 105 or 155.

And if neither of the if neither of those, then perhaps a math course or statistics course a statistics are good introductory statistics courses stat 180.

Now warning If you plan on being a psychology major or any of the majors in the Department of Biological Sciences. Both all of those majors have their own stat course that fulfills this requirement, so you won't have to stake stat 180. You can take the statistics courts that's built into the psych major or the Department of Biological Sciences major.

So take one of those courses there. If you don't take it in the ones you don't take in your first year, that's OK. You can also take the courses during your second or third year as well. So whichever of those three or four courses you don't take, you can take it and your second year or third year at the University of Mary Washington. Finally, you need to take freshman seminar. FS M freshman seminar.

This is required by all students and it's an absolute requirement in your schedule.

So when you put all of these courses together, the four credits in biology 121, the four credits in chemistry 111, the three credits in either English composition or psychology or sociology or math or stat, and the three credits in your freshman seminar that comes to a total of 14 credits. And that's a good number of credits for your for your first semester at the University of Mary Washington.

The second component to all pre health Trax is clinical experiences, clinics. Clinical experiences are important because they expose students to the professionals and the profession to which you aspire giving, giving students a realistic understanding of Watt. Your future profession involves clinical experience, also gives students opportunities.

To interact with patients and to find out whether you enjoy working with patients that have a variety of illnesses, right?

The number of required clinical experience hours vary significantly among those nine pre health Trax an among the various schools and programs to which will apply.

So this issue of how many required clinical experience hours do I have to have? This is something I cover with new students when they enroll and I meet them for the first time.

WMW is very fortunate in being able to offer special clinical experience programs to our students. It's something very special about our program we offer.

What is what we call the Mary Washington healthcare UMW student clinical observation program? Mary Washington Healthcare is the is the organization that manages hospitals in the Fredericksburg area. This program offers umw pre health students shadowing opportunities with physicians out local hospitals shadowing opportunities.

Be very hard to come by for pre health students, but this program gets students into those local hospitals and provides students with shattering up shadowing opportunities with physicians at these local hospitals. We are very proud of this program.

We also offer opportunities for our students to shadow alumni that are practicing physicians, practicing dentists, practicing physical therapist, practicing veterinary medical Medison veterinary doctors, etc etc.

Now, beyond these special programmes, it's good to know that the Fredericksburg area also has many venues were students can gain clinical hours including volunteer rescue squads. We have free clinics in the area. We have vet clinics in the area. Physical therapy clinics, senior citizens home, Hospice centers etc etc where our students can glitch can get clinical experience hours.

The third component of every pre health track is community service research and other extracurricular activities. Now let's talk about community service first. OK, bye.

Unity service we are talking about non clinical volunteering within the community. These volunteer projects display as students compassion and commitment to serving their community.

I cannot overstate the importance of this. Too many, many medical schools. It's also important to other pre health Trax, but a bit less important than it is for medical schools. Now, Fortunately, umw provides students with many service learning opportunities within its curriculum. Umw is proud to offer a curriculum that is service learning rich.

And In addition to that, the umw pre health club engages in volunteer projects as well.

What about undergraduate research? Undergraduate research is not an absolute requirement. It is a positive for medical schools, but a bit less important for other tracks.

While there are many research opportunities available to umw students in any major, a student does not need to get involved in a complicated long-term project to satisfy this part of your application. Some umw courses have very simple research projects embedded in the course themselves, and these simple research projects very much satisfy.

This component of your pre health track.

But beyond community service and research, there are other valuable extracurricular activities taking on leadership roles. For example in student government or being a leader in some other organization or some other group is valuable if you have a military service record that's very valuable as an extracurricular activity, varsity athletics and other valuable extracurricular activity.

And even if you're employed while you are in school while you are going to school, you holding down a job that is a valuable act valuable activity as well.

OK.

So those are the three important components to each of our pre health Trax. When are they there courses that you have to take? There is clinical experiences that you have to have and then there is a variety of extracurricular activities including community service including.

Variety of other things like leadership etc etc and perhaps some research, right?

Now when students apply to wherever they applied to, they will need to take a standardized test.

So for example, we the list you see in front of you for medical school, you have to take the M cat. The Medical College admission test for dental school than dental admission. Test the diety for vet school and PA programs. You need to take their graduate record exam. In other words the Jirari. Some of them however require the M cat instead for physical therapy and occupational therapy programs.

The GRE is required for pharmacy programs. You need to take the pharmacy school admission test or the peak at and for optometry programs you have to take the optometry admission test or the OAT.

To learn more about any of these, I suggest you go online and Google that the name of the test and a lot of information will pop up.

Now the University of Mary Washington has partnered with Kaplan Test Prep services. I'm sure you've heard of them to provide test prep courses. 4 hours, 4 hours students for umw students at significant savings. Right now we have test prep courses for the M cat for the diety an for the GRE. All of these courses offered to umw students at significant savings beyond.

The list price you get from Kaplan.

We are working on expanding those services to include other standardized tests as well.

Again, there is more information about these courses on our website.

Let's talk briefly about the application process. In other words, the general process through which students apply to whatever schools there interested in applying to medical school. Applying to dental school, applying to vet school, PA to school, PT school, etc etc. Let's talk a little bit about that process.

Now, traditionally, students applied to these schools during the summer following your third year, which means you have to have everything finished by your third year as far as pre health is concerned, but this is not a requirement excuse Maine. This is not a requirement you can apply in later years. It doesn't matter how long after your third year.

Get your 4th year or later. It doesn't matter how old you are. Schools do not care.

But when you apply, you are expected to have all of your requirements completed. You've taken all of your required courses. You have a real solid body of clinical experiences and a solid record of community service and other extracurricular activities. All of that has to be done.

Now for every track.

One applies to an online application service.

You might not. You might know nothing about those application services now, but if you come to you at the University of Mary Washington through the umw pre health program, you will become well versed in these applications services. All umw pre health students are very well versed in how these application services work.

A question for you. What is a students likelihood of being accepted? Well, when an admissions committee decides on accepting his student, a lot of factors go into it, including the interview, which hopefully you will get.

But among the factors that are required that are included.

There are grades and standardized test scores. I do want to talk about grades for a moment.

You know the minimum and I under underlying minimum overall.

GPA.

For students that apply that.

Applied to these two schools, medical school, dental school etc etc. The minimum is anywhere from a 3.0 two or three point three depending on the pre health track we're talking about.

Now the average overall GPA of admitted students.

Varies depending on the pre health. Track varies between a 3.3 and a 3.7 or 3.8. That's the average overall GPA of admitted students.

So depending on the pre health track, so you have to do very well in your grades with your with your course is an you have to do competitively well on these standardized tests that I mentioned before.

Grades standardized test scores. A lot of other things. How well you do in your interview, etc etc. All those come into play, but something else that comes into play and that is that students need good recommendations. Many schools ask for a recommendation from a pre Health Committee.

UMW has a pre health committee that writes recommendations for students here in front of you is a list of the six members of our pre health committee and you can see that all of them hold terminal degrees. In other words pH DS and they hold pH DS in either biology or chemistry.

Or psychology.

Let's move on to one of my special topics and that is a brief look at our special affiliation agreements. You know, umw has a strong working relationship with all area.

Health career programs.

But you MW is particularly proud to have special affiliation agreements with several regional schools and programs.

There is the George Washington School of Madison early acceptance program exclusively for umw honors students. And there's the Edward via Virginia College of osteopathic medicine, or vicom early acceptance program. Now both of these early acceptance programs in both of these early acceptance programs qualified Unsw students.

Are conditionally accepted into.

One of these medical schools, whichever one they apply into these medical schools, they are conditionally accepted at the end of your umw sophomore year. Think about that. You are conditionally accepted to medical school, either George Washington or V. Com at the end of your sophomore year, you go into your junior year as an except conditionally accepted into one of these medical schools. That's fantastic.

OK, another program is the V comma guaranteed interview program where if you are accepted into the program you are guaranteed an interview, which is very important because only students that get interviews it accepted into schools and about and I would say less less than 50% less than 50% of applicants get interviews. You need that interview if you have any hope of getting accepted.

And this program guarantees you an interview at V. Com.

We have the Shenandoah School of Pharmacy 3 + 4 program in this 3 + 4 program at the end, if you're accepted into the program at the end of your third year at the University of Mary Washington, you spend your 4th year at the school of pharmacy at Shenandoah University School of Pharmacy.

Show your 4th year at umw is actually your first year in Pharmacy School.

An when you finish your first year in Pharmacy School.

You not only finish your first year in pharmacy school, but you also fit you. Also graduate from the University of Mary Washington and have a kick start on your pharmacy education. That's very nice.

And then Lastly, we have the agreement with Kaplan to offer those test prep courses at significant savings. You can find out a lot more about each of these affiliation agreements by going to our website.

A word about our pre health club are pre health club is a student run organization that host meetings, events and speakers. I and the advisor for the club but I rely heavily on student officers to run this club. The club organizes community service projects. They organize trips to various schools and programs.

At all, pre health students are not only encouraged, but expected to become active. Members of this program.

So for some final thoughts, before we go to the questions.

We have summer orientation sessions for next years.

Accepted an matriculate ING students these summer sessions are the summer orientation sessions are likely going to be delivered on line, and I want you to look for a pre health session ioffer a pre health orientation session during the summer, for students interested in one of those pre health Trax.

I want you to remember that our website offers an overview of the umw pre health program. Go to the website to learn more about what we discussed today.

If you have questions after this webinar is over, then you can email those questions at my email address which is given there. OK so, so that's the body of the web and R.

I'm going to now begin answering questions and I'm going to start answering questions, answering those questions that were previously.

Provided to me before the web and R. OK, some of you submitted questions prior to the web and R. I'm going to answer those first. First question how does umw help students balance the social aspects of college majors outside of Health Professions and becoming prepared for medical school and similar programs? I'm going to break that up into two questions I'm going to treat that those two questions individually. First. How does umw help students balance the social?

Aspects of college with their academics.

Well, I have to say that balancing one social life with other academic with your academic life is not only an issue for pre health students but also an issue for all students.

Really, I think the way to strike a balance between social life and academic life depends on your particular experiences of school.

Students develop friendships with their classmates, and these friendships can be very helpful in shaping a healthy balance between social life and academic life.

Moreover, I always encourage students to join clubs on campus.

And among the many clubs that are on campus that I want you to explore, I encourage pre health students to develop friendships with other pre health students. By becoming active active members over the pre health club. And in that way I think you will be able to strike a nice balance between social life and academic life. The next question, the sex part of that question, how do you balance majors outside of Health and the Sciences with your preparation for health programs? So I assume you're talking about if you are a.

Non science major which we've talked about a little bit in this webinar. If you are a non science major.

You will need to work closely with Maine, your pre health advisor to make sure you insert required pre health courses and activities.

Into your.

Course schedule each semester.

And you can take all of the courses we talked about before within the framework of virtually any major, but it's a good idea to work closely with Maine to make sure that is happening.

And you will find by the way, that some pre health courses overlap nicely with some of your general education requirements. So the issue of majoring in a non science and still balancing that with with your courses that you need to take for your pre health track can we can do that easily. But I suggest you work very closely with Maine to make sure that's happening every semester.

OK, so I hope I answered that question adequately. Next question is the pre dental program useful for me if I want to become a dental hygienist? Or should I look somewhere else?

Well, I want you to realize that you do not need to get a bachelors degree to get into most dental hygiene programs.

I recommend that you target specific dental hygiene programs you are interested in, and I can contact them and find out what their specific requirements are.

So you might not even need.

To go and get your bachelors degree. But having said this, it is my belief that being educated to the point where you earn your bachelors degree is very valuable for anyone's life. No matter your career aspiration's.

So you decide what you want to do, but I will leave leave you with this question. What happens if you become a dental hygienists an you get the itch then to become a dentist and you want to go to dental school? What do you do next or you're going to have to take a whole lot more classes? Maybe even go to get your bachelors degree in order to go get into dental school, right? So just think about that.

Next question, are we paired or grouped with an advisor?

Now I assume in this question you mean as a first year student. Are you paired or group with an advisor in your very first year at Mary Washington and the answer to that question is I think yes you are. But you need to contact the admissions office and or the academic academic services to find out more about that. OK, but after your first year here.

Or after you've accumulated 28 credits at Mary Washington, you can declare your major and once you declare your major, you can request a specific advisor in that major. A specific faculty advisor in that major.

So you lose that pairing after your first year. Moreover, it's important to note that if you are a pre health student, you will also have.

Maine, as your pre health advisor, will I advise you on everything specifically for pre health? So once you declare your major you will have a major advisor and if you're pre health you also have a pre health advisor.

But for your first year here, you will likely be paired with a specific person Azure Advisor. Next question, how is the path to a Graduate School made smoother by faculty? Now I assume you are talking about a when you say Graduate School a health careers Graduate School like medical school or dental school, etc. Now to be honest, I hope this web and our shows you how.

The pre health program with me as your advisor will be guiding you through the entire process making your path.

Two, your health career Graduate School Graduate School. Much more smooth, so I hope that is illustrated by the web and R itself. Next question. What help and guidance will I receive to make sure I am completing the course work I need to apply to vet school?

Well, you know you can go onto the umw pre health website right now.

I gave you the the the URL previously and you an at the website. You can by the way if you don't get the if you didn't write down that URL, just go to the UMW home page and search for pre health and when you search for pre health you will come to that pre health web page. Then four to answer this question click on pre veterinary Medison or click on whatever pre health track you are interested and you will see.

The list of required and highly recommended courses you need for vet school.

Moreover, I've already given you a sample course schedule for your first semester, which is also on our website so, so even before you get to umw, I've giving you guidance, haven't I? But you can expect that guidance to continue if you come to the University of Mary Washington.

As each semester rolls around, you will be invited to make an appointment with Maine to go over your course schedule to make sure it includes the necessary coursework. I hope that answers your question.

Next question, how often do I meet with the pre health advisor and do I schedule that?

Now you should know that I hold at least one mandatory meeting, usually more, usually more than one mandatory meeting of all pre health students every year. But for individual face to face meetings you can meet with me as often as you like, but you need to schedule that appointment OK as often as you like, but you need to schedule that appointment next question. How do I get into the 3 + 4?

Pharmacy program to get a pharmacy degree? Well that's a very big question. When you come to the University of Mary Washington, schedule an appointment with me so I can make sure you have all of the necessary information concerning the 3 + 4 program. But Having said that, here's a very short list of what you need understand when you apply. You don't apply for this program until the false November 1st.

Of the fall semester of your third year at the University of Mary Washington, so you don't apply for it right away when you apply, you need to have completed 90 credits at umw, including satisfying all graduation requirements by the end of your third year.

You need to complete all of the prerequisites for the pharmacy school with a grade of C.

Or better, an accumulative prerequisite GPA of no less than 3.2. And then finally you need a a a admissions test. A standardized admission test, your pharmacy college admissions Test score in the 50th percentile in greater. Now that's just a very short list of what you need to apply to the 3 + 4 program. Come and see Maine.

When you get here and we'll go over the rest of it, let's see other questions that we have as we were going through the web and RA question from Brianna. If you're a biology major, is it mandatory to take chemistry classes? Yes, it is a short answer. Yeah, I'm not here to talk about the biology major, but the short answer is yes, you have to take by our chemistry classes.

Question from Cameron. What are common clinical experiences umw students have participated in? While I think I've kind of gone over that Cameron, right? You know there are various venues in the city we have. We have shadowing up. We have a special program of shadowing opportunities.

Where students shadow physicians at area hospitals. We have special opportunities where students can shadow alumni, physicians and veterinary doctors, etc etc. We have lots of students become scribes and there are lots of scribing opportunities in the area. Alot of our students will volunteer with a free clinic that's in the area. Alot of our students.

Ride with rescue squads. An are trained and eventually get their emergency medical technician basic license and the list goes on and on and on. So these are just a few examples of common clinical experience is a question from Sylvia. What about the STP course that will coincide with the first semester due to COVID-19 Silvia?

Honestly, I know nothing. I know nothing about that STP course. I don't even know where you would go. I recommend you go to the admissions.

Office with that question or go to academic services with that question and they might be able to help you. It's a very good question. It's such a good question. I don't know the answer to it. OK, a question from Megan. If we are working at a hospital an already working with patients, should we join the clinical observation program, Megan.

When you write down when you fill out your application to medical school or whatever.

And.

And they ask you to to describe your clinical experience. Is the only clinical experiences they want our clinical experiences. After high school. They don't want clinical experiences that you have during high school, but what you should do is take the experiences you have during high school and build on them during your college years. So should you still.

Look into join that clinical observation program. You absolutely should join that clinical observation program. There is more information about that clinical observation program on our website and when you go there you will see.

That you need to have at least 28 credits of your 28 UMW credits under your belt before you're eligible you have to have a little bit of experience is taking classes at umw before you're eligible so come to UMW.

Get your first year, of course, is an.

With 28 UMW credits completed and and as long as you have.

And overall umw GPA of 3.0 you are eligible for that student clinical observation program. And yes, you should still look into it. Is there an application process? This is from Victoria. Is there an application process for that program? Yes there is. You need to contact Maine and I have the applications for you. Anne again, go to our website you will find.

Information about about this program. It's somewhere on the website. Uhm, I believe I believe somewhere on the website, if you go to the website and can't find it emailed Maine and I will make sure I make sure I will put it on the website. OK, but remember you have to have completed 28 University of Mary Washington credits that doesn't include transfer credits.

28 Mary Washington University of Mary Washington. Credits with an overall umw GPA of 3.0. To be eligible, is there an application process? Yes there is. See me for the application. OK and we will have a meeting.

Sometime in the fall that talks about this program. OK now, just so you know, this program is on hiatus right now for the same reasons that you are locked down in your house right now, but once the fall semester is going an once the.

Mary Washington Healthcare lifts. It's it's locked down on this program. Then we will have a meeting of all students to discuss this program, OK?

Do you need to be admitted into the nursing program to be in the prenursing pro to be in the Prenursing Program? Mackenzie? This is from McKenzie McKenzie than the pre nursing BSN program and the umw nursing program are two different things.

Two different things. The umw nursing program is in conjunction with with the area Community College Germanna Community College and you have to apply to the umw nursing program when you apply to umw at the very beginning and you will begin that program. You will begin your umw nursing program the summer before you start going to school. Here it's a completely different program.

Stand the prenursing program at umw to learn more about it. Go to the UMW website an and search for the nursing program. OK, a question from Tyler. I see it's 555 but I also see that this session runs until 6:15 so we have a little bit of time here.

A question from Tyler. If there are. If there are community service opportunities that we have been involved in in the past with those hours also count or or do we have to use the opportunities provided Tyler you do not have to use the opportunities provided. You can absolutely use your own opportunities but not the ones that you have in high school.

You only can count the count the community service hours you have during college, so all you have to do is continue those community service hours that you started in highschool into your college years and absolutely they are good to go with your pre health track. You do not need, you do not need to only use opportunities provided as a matter of fact.

I personally prefer that you don't only use the opportunities provided. OK, a question from Cameron. If a student chooses to pursue research, should that research be focused towards the pre health they are following? No no, absolutely not Cameron. You can have a research in absolutely anything. The point of the research is to understand the research process, understand the whole.

Asking a question and doing research to answer that question and you can get involved in scholarly activities in any major you can get into involved in scholarly activities as a music major, you can get into involved in scholarly activities as an art major or a history major. It doesn't have to be a science related research project, it doesn't have to be a pre health research project.

Brianna ask the question is the time and date for the orientation set already the answer that question is not to my knowledge. To my knowledge, it has not been set yet. Um, when you I think that information becomes available. You know when you reply and you get accepted and if you accept it, if you accept the acceptance than the dates are forwarded to you. So as far as I don't know of the times.

Yet.

Hannah asked what is the acceptance rate of umw students into medical and dental schools, and I think if you look past over the past three or four years, our overall acceptance rate into medical and dental schools is about 50%. Maybe a little bit higher than that. Actually maybe 55% or so I have to look at the final numbers, but around 50 to 55%.

Is the acceptance rate of umw students into medical school and dental school a question from anabella hello at the end of this season, we will we receive an email with the link with the at the end of this session. Excuse me at the end of the session will we will we receive an email with a link with the recording. Thank you. Well, I'll tell you what I don't know. The if you will or not, but I'm making a verbal note.

To my assistant here. Natalie Davis, Natalie. Can we see that the registered students get a link to the recording of this web and R please, OK?

Natalie rights Natalie. My sistant, my unofficial assistant Natalie I'm sorry for calling you my assistant. Natalie Rights.

Your first year advisor is the question about the advisor.

Your first year advisor is your first year seminar professor and they are your advisor until you declare your major. So what Natalie is saying is when you take freshman seminar, your professor in that three credit freshman Seminar Course is your first year add visor, and once you declared your major, that person is no longer your advisor. That person is replaced by your major advisor.

Which you can. You can request who that's going to be. Thank you Natalie for that information. I didn't know that.

Hannah writes.

If you are provisionally accepted to GW School of Medicine at the end of your sophomore year, do you still take the M cat for the GW for the GW acceptance program? Yes, you do. You still take the M cat for the for the V com XI early acceptance program, not necessarily. It depends on some things. But Yes, Hannah, you you still take the M cat for the GW School of Madison.

Mackenzie asks, should we register for the pre health program now if we are incoming freshmen in the fall?

Why don't you wait?

You if you go.

As soon you can register for it as soon as you get your umw.

Network ID and password and once you get that network ID and password, if you go to.

They.

The UMW pre health website somewhere there and I'm not sure exactly where that somewhere there is a link.

To registering with our canvas site, but you're going to need your UMW network ID and password if you have that network ID and password right now. The answer is yes, you can register.

Omna I'm Natalie Rights.

To Silvia Silvia.

Sylviacontactadmitadmit@umw.edu

So you might even be able to see that comment. I don't know, admit Admi T@umw.edu.

Natalie also writes my assistant. Natalie also writes ohm.

I believe if Natalie I believe that the record button was checked, so I believe this is being recorded. I believe under settings the record button was checked so so anabella we will send you that email. Megan asks it's 603 but I think we're still going up Natalie. I think we're still going 'cause we have until 6:15.

Megan asks

My question about working in the hospital is because I am a CNA and working at a hospital. If you are a CNA and working at a hospital Megan then you've opened up more doors. You've opened up many more doors.

I don't know how that how that can interface with our with our observation program, but as a CNA.

You already are opening up so many more doors than our non CNA. Pre health students have so it's a very very good thing to be a CNA.

Natalie Davis writes yes. In order to be in the nursing program, she Natalie rights to mackenzie. Yes, in order to be in the nursing program, you do need to be admitted into the University as a pre nursing student, mackenzie. Please make sure when you apply to umw, you applied to the nursing program.

At the same time, 'cause You are admitted as a UMW student and as a nursing student, OK?

Cameron

Questions, do you think?

The GIS courses are valuable to have on your transcript when applying to medical school I mean, I don't know that there there particularly valuable. I don't think there are any more valuable than many more courses to be honest with you Cameron. They're not. They're not going to hurt your chances of getting into medical school, but I don't know that GR GIS courses are going to be particularly valuable. Nobody's aunts asked me that question before, but if you.

If you are going into GIS and you have GIS courses on your transcript, it's certainly not going to hurt.

Julia asked the question, can pre health students study overseas? Yes, Sylvia.

Pre health students can study abroad Victoria. Where do we apply to be in the pre health program? You don't apply to be in the pre health program you self enroll all you have to do.

And it and I want you to look at in the guide for new students. Look in the guide for new students on our website. It tells you what those things you things you need to do to be in the pre health program, but you do not have to go through a special application.

If you are, if you are, if you want to be pre health at Mary Washington you are pre health at Mary Washington anabella rights I see on the umw pre health website that there is an open house with Doctor Keller on April 10, 2020. No no April all of those have been canceled. That's old information. That was information we put on the website prior to COVID-19. Now with COVID-19 no more open houses. So that has been canceled.

OK.

So I guess I get the word that we are recording and we will make a note to send the recording and there is no open house this Friday. There is no open houses Friday folks. We are on lockdown right. All events have been canceled due to COVID-19.

OK, so we had quite the active session I was. I was very happy to answer your questions. Very happy to present this this web and R2 you Julia Anabella rights. Thank you. Julia rights. Thank you very much and I want to thank you all very much for being part of our pre health program are pre health web and are so that's it for today. I hope I see you all.

During orientation sessions at least virtually, I hope to see you online during our orientation sessions an I hope to see you all in the fall when you stop by my pre health advising office to say hello. Thank you all. Thank you. Brianna, thank you Victoria. Thank you. I honor thank you Megan. Thank you, Cameron. Thank you mackenzie. Thank you all so very much. I appreciate it.

So we're going to call this to an end. OK, and again, I hope that I see you all in the fall, so I'm going to do my duty and I guess I'm going to. How do I do this?

How do I do this? I need to.

Oh, that's right.

Control slides.

And I guess are we done?

Are we done, Diana?

We're end, we're done. I think we're done OK.

Thank you Diana. Thought you Natalie for all your help. I appreciate it.