Veterinary Degrees Online

Being a Pre-Health student means that you intend to go into one of the health professions, once you have completed your degree. Your undergraduate preparation involves taking the courses required by the graduate-level professional school (medical school, vet school, etc.) that you would attend after obtaining your bachelor’s degree.
Fisher students go on to become:
Physicians (M.D. and D.O.)
Physicians’ Assistants
Veterinarians
Pharmacists
Optometrists
Chiropractors
Podiatrists
Dentists
Physical Therapists
Occupational Therapists
Is there a Pre-Health or Pre-Med major at Fisher?

Fisher does not have a Pre-Health or Pre-Med major. Pre-health students at Fisher can have any academic major. Most Pre-Health students major in Biology or Chemistry, but there are currently Pre-Health students at Fisher majoring in Management, Communication/Journalism, Psychology, and Anthropology.

The undergraduate courses typically required by medical or other health professional graduate schools are:
One year of biology with lab (soon to be two years)
One year of inorganic (or general) chemistry with lab
One year of organic chemistry with lab
One year of physics with lab

NOTE: AP courses are generally not accepted by pharmacy schools and may not be accepted by other health professional schools to satisfy any of these requirements.

Other undergraduate courses that may be required or are strongly recommended:
Biochemistry
Calculus and/or statistics
One or more courses in psychology
One or more courses in English
One or more courses in the humanities or liberal arts
One or more writing-intensive courses
One or more courses in public speaking

NOTE: Fisher students will generally satisfy the English, humanities/liberal arts, writing, and public speaking requirements through completion of Fisher’s college core.

Students interested in a health profession career are urged to make contact with the Health Professions Advisor during, or even prior to, their first semester at Fisher so that they may receive personal assessment and guidance as they pursue their undergraduate studies.

Numerous activities occur each semester that assist pre-health students in selecting schools, understanding the preparation process (beyond Fisher courses), preparing for the interview, and making decisions regarding acceptances and alternatives. The advisor is also able to provide students with the opportunity to meet with and/or observe Fisher graduates who are now health professionals in the Rochester area. These alumni also come to campus to meet with interested students and answer questions about the preparation for and practice of their particular health career.
What can a student interested in the health professions expect at Fisher?
Solid academic preparation in the natural sciences and humanities
Extensive hands-on experience in the laboratory sciences
Individualized attention from faculty
An accessible health professions advisor who knows each student and advocates for students applying to health professional programs
A dynamic Career Services Department that offers workshops and individualized counseling
Independent research opportunities on and off campus
Shadowing experiences
Internship opportunities with professionals in the community
Access to databases providing information on careers in the health professions, health professional schools, internships, and summer job opportunities
Regular seminars and presentations from health care professionals and graduate and professional school admissions representatives
Mentoring with Fisher alumni and professionals in the community
Workshops on preparing for:
graduate and professional schools
preparing for the MCAT, GRE, and other graduate school exams
interviewing techniques
creating a curriculum vitae
achieving academic success
Opportunities to build strong interpersonal, communications, and leadership skills

Hands-on experience required – and provided.
Most veterinary schools want applicants to have some previous experience working with large and small animals, along with at least 54 semester hours of college credit in specific fields. To help you meet both of those prerequisites, we’ll work with you freshman year to create a plan for winning admission to the vet school of your choice. If you’re planning to go the pre-veterinary route, you should choose a major and meet with Dr. John Hurd as early as possible.

Franklin College has a pre-professional program for veterinary medicine at Purdue University. To be considered for admission to the School of Veterinary Medicine at Purdue, the student must have completed a minimum of 72 semester hours of pre-veterinary medicine studies. Most students admitted to the veterinary program at Purdue have many more than the 72 hours. A large percentage now complete the B.A. degree prior to entering the pre-professional program.

Students applying to Purdue must submit an application to VMCAS (Veterinary Medical College Application Service). This organization serves as a clearing house sending your application materials to all of the vet schools that you apply to. Students applying to Purdue also must take the GRE (Graduate Record Exam). This exam must be taken in time to have your completed application postmarked to Purdue no later than October 1 of the year preceding your admission to vet school. The preprofessional requirements for admission to the Purdue program and the Franklin College course that Purdue has designated as a satisfactory equivalent for each required course are listed below.

Once you’ve narrowed your focus, you can experience your chosen area of interest in depth through the project-based WPI Plan. The Plan and WPI’s term system make it possible for you to spend one or two seven-week periods working on a major project at an off-campus site like the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, the Tufts University Vet School in Grafton, or a health care- or biotechnology-related business.

When you’ve completed your project, you’ll have far more than courses to list on your professional school application. You’ll have practical exposure to health careers and substantial experience conducting important, professional-level work in a health setting. We know of no other undergraduate medical preparation program that provides for this type of in-depth work in a medical environment.

Students seeking to apply to a College of Veterinary Medicine should major in biology or chemistry. Completion of courses in biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics will help prepare students for the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) or Veterinary College Admission Test (VCAT). In order to be accepted into most Veterinary Medical Schools an applicant must have completed 90 semester hours of college work. Specific course requirements vary from school to school.

South Carolina does not have a Veterinary School; hence South Carolina residents must attend an out-of-state Veterinary school. However, students may be considered in state residents for tuition purposes at the University of Georgia, Tuskegee University (Alabama) and Mississippi State University. Students should consider the following courses in preparation for application to Vet school.
BIO 121: Biological Science (4 hours)
BIO 122: Zoology (4 hours)
BIO 212: Microbiology(4 hours)
BIO 220: Pharmacology and Toxicology (3 hours)
BIO 315: Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy (4 hours)
BIO 321: Animal Development (4 hours)
BIO 331: Cell Biology (4 hours)
BIO 342: Immunology (4 hours)
BIO 301: Biochemistry (4 hours)
CHE 113-114: General Chemistry (8 hours)
CHE 231-232: Organic Chemistry (8 hours)
MAT 211: Calculus I – Differential Calculus (4 hours)
PHY 213-214: Physics for Science and Engineering Students (8 hours)