Do you have questions for a pre-health advisor?
We are available throughout the spring and summer to assist with fall course selection and any other pre-health questions.
Please email pre-health@mtholyoke.edu.
Every health profession and each individual school will have their own variation of prerequisite courses.
When choosing your first semester courses, consider:
Mount Holyoke distribution requirements,
your academic interests,
your career interests, and
your prior preparation for the courses you are considering.
Taking courses across a variety of academic disciplines during your time in college is recommended for pre-health students, so explore broadly! Balance lab sciences with courses in other areas. Using the suggestions below, work with your academic advisor and the pre-health office to create your first semester schedule.
There are many academic pathways toward health profession school. While determining your first-semester schedule, carefully assess your academic background and your comfort level with each of the subjects you are considering.
These recommendations are based on the most common prerequisite courses for clinical professions (those that involve directly treating individual patients, whether human or animal).
Step 1: Complete the first-year seminar preference form that was sent to you by the Registrar.
Step 2: Assess your high school science and math background as it relates to your readiness to enter college-level science courses with labs. Consider which science courses you took, how many, at what level, and what grades you earned in the courses. While most students begin Mount Holyoke College STEM classes at the 100-level, successful completion of advanced STEM coursework in high school (e.g., Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, A-levels, dual enrollment) may indicate that you should begin at a more advanced level. You may wish to take a placement exam in math. It is wise to discuss your readiness with an advisor.
Step 3: Most students hoping to become a clinician will take one or two STEM lab classes in their first semester.
NOTE: The options below are best for students who are especially interested in the life sciences and non-STEM fields. If you are interested in studying in a quantitative-heavy field such as math, statistics, physics, computer science, astronomy, or data science, we encourage you to email pre-health@mtholyoke.edu for guidance.
Consider the following six options for biology/chemistry course selections, and choose one that would be most appropriate for you. Speak with an advisor if you don't think you should take any of these courses. All of the courses listed here have associated laboratory sections that meet once a week for 3 hours.
NEURO-100 (four credits, including lab): Introduction to Neuroscience and Behavior is a comprehensive survey course that explores the brain and the biological basis of behavior. Students interested in pursuing a major in neuroscience should register for this course. You might choose to take only NEURO-100 as your fall lab science course if:
You feel that you will be most successful with only one lab science course in your first semester,
AND
you wish to major in neuroscience.
BIOL-145 (four credits, including lab): Introductory Biology is a liberal arts introduction to biology in a small-class atmosphere. While different sections emphasize different topics, all are appropriate for pre-health students. Read course descriptions to select your section of interest. You might choose to take only BIOL-145 as your fall lab science course if:
You feel that you will be most successful with only one lab science course in your first semester
AND
you do not intend to major in Neuroscience,
AND
this course feels like the best fit.
CHEM-150 (four credits, including lab): This course, Foundations of Chemistry, is usually the first chemistry course for an entering Mount Holyoke student who has taken fewer than two years of high school chemistry. You might choose to take only CHEM-150 as your fall lab science course if:
You feel that you will be most successful with only one lab science course in your first semester, and you are not exploring a major in neuroscience, and this course feels like the best fit.
OR
You have already taken at least one college biology course, you have been advised by the biology department to take a 200-level biology course in a different semester, and you are not pursuing a neuroscience major.
BIOL-160 and CHEM-160 (eight credits, including lab): This combination of two courses, Integrated Introduction to Biology and Chemistry, is a gateway to both the biology and chemistry core curricula. While BIOL-160 and CHEM-160 are listed separately, they must be taken concurrently. There is only one lab (CHEM-160L), but professional schools requiring labs in both biology and chemistry will accept this course as having fulfilled that requirement. You might choose to take BIOL-160 and CHEM-160 as your two fall lab science courses if:
You feel prepared to successfully complete two lab science courses in your first semester,
AND
you do not intend to major in neuroscience,
AND
based on the course descriptions, these courses feel like the best fit.
BIOL-145 (four credits, including lab) and CHEM-150 (four credits, including lab): See descriptions, above. You might choose to take this combination of two courses for your fall lab science courses if:
You feel prepared to successfully complete two lab science courses in your first semester,
AND
you do not intend to major in neuroscience,
AND
based on the course descriptions, these courses feel like the best fit.
NEURO-100 (four credits, including lab) and CHEM-150 (four credits, including lab): See descriptions, above. You might choose to take this combination of two courses for your fall lab science courses if:
You feel prepared to successfully complete two lab science courses in your first semester,
AND
you wish to major in neuroscience.
Step 4: At this point, you should have selected two to three courses. Choose one to two additional courses of interest. Look widely across the curriculum!
You may wish to select something related to a potential major and/or something that fulfills Mount Holyoke College general distribution requirements.
If you would like to study a language, and particularly if you hope to study abroad, you might select a language course.
Interested in math and other quantitative topics?
COMSC-151: Introduction to Computational Problem Solving*
MATH-100QR: Precalculus: Problem Solving and Quantitative Reasoning
MATH-101: Calculus I
MATH-102: Calculus II
PHYS-100: Foundations of Physics*
PHYS-110: Force, Motion & Energy*
STAT-140: Introduction to the Ideas and Applications of Statistics
*These courses have once-weekly, 3-hour labs, like the introductory biology, chemistry, and neuroscience courses do. We do not recommend taking more than two lab classes at a time. Therefore, if you are already planning to take two of biology/chemistry/neuroscience, we do not recommend selecting from these courses as an additional fall class.
Interested in topics in health or science from different perspectives?
BIOL-236HA/PSYCH-259HA: Human-Animal Interaction
ENVST-150PH Environmental & Public Health
ENVST-233HA: Introduction to Human-Animal Studies
HIST-174: Introduction to the History of Science
HIST-207: Feminist and Intersectional Science Studies
PHIL-181: Medical Ethics
POLIT-248TE: Topics in Politics: Science, Technology and Public Policy
POLIT-255PA: The Politics of Abortion in the Americas
PSYCH-259AC: Animal Cognition
RELIG-209: Disability and Religion
Want something else that might meet a pre-health prerequisite course (depends on the profession, see prerequisites)?
ANTHR-105: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
ECON-110: Introductory Economics
ENGL-199: Introduction to the Study of Literature (can fulfill a writing intensive/English requirement for pre-health)
PSYCH-100: Introduction to Psychology
SOCI-123: Introduction to Sociology
Want to build some hands-on skills?
ARTST-120FR: Drawing I: Form, Structure, and Space (art courses may be of interest to pre-dental students)
PE-050: Introduction to Horses (no credit; meets PE requirement)
PE-306: Red Cross Lifeguard Training (no credit; meets PE requirement)
There are many academic pathways toward health profession school. While determining your first-semester schedule, carefully assess your academic background and your comfort level with each of the subjects you are considering.
Schools of public health, health administration and other nonclinical health professions (i.e., those that do not involve the direct treatment of individual patients) typically do not have set lists of prerequisite courses. Instead, they look for background in the areas most relevant to their particular program. Because of this, our recommendation to first-year students interested in these professions is to plan your first semester around your first-year seminar and other areas of interest.
Look widely across the curriculum! You may wish to select courses related to a potential major and/or something that fulfills Mount Holyoke College general distribution requirements. If you would like to study a language, and particularly if you hope to study abroad, you might select a language course.
Some fall courses that are pre-health related and available to first-year students include:
ANTHR-105: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
ARTST-120FR: Drawing I: Form, Structure, and Space (art courses may be of interest to pre-dental students)
BIOL-145: Introductory Biology
BIOL-160: Integrated Introduction to Biology and Chemistry (must be taken with CHEM-160)
BIOL-236HA/PSYCH-259HA: Human-Animal Interaction
CHEM-150: Foundations of Chemistry
CHEM-160: Integrated Introduction to Biology and Chemistry (must be taken with BIOL-160)
COMSC-151: Introduction to Computational Problem Solving
ECON-110: Introductory Economics
ENGL-199: Introduction to the Study of Literature (can fulfill a writing intensive/English requirement for pre-health)
ENVST-150PH Environmental & Public Health
ENVST-233HA: Introduction to Human-Animal Studies
GEOG-105: World Regional Geography
GEOL-105CC: Climate Change
GNDST-101: Introduction to Gender Studies
HIST-174: Introduction to the History of Science
HIST-207: Feminist and Intersectional Science Studies
MATH-100QR: Precalculus: Problem Solving and Quantitative Reasoning
MATH-101: Calculus I
MATH-102: Calculus II
NEURO-100: Introduction to Neuroscience and Behavior
PE-050: Introduction to Horses (no credit; meets PE requirement)
PE-306: Red Cross Lifeguard Training (no credit; meets PE requirement)
PHIL-181: Medical Ethics
PHIL-250EA: Topics in Philosophy: Ethical Problems in the Arts
PHYS-100: Foundations of Physics
PHYS-110: Force, Motion & Energy
POLIT-248TE: Topics in Politics: Science, Technology and Public Policy
POLIT-255PA: The Politics of Abortion in the Americas
PSYCH-100: Introduction to Psychology
PSYCH-259AC: Animal Cognition
RELIG-209: Disability and Religion
SOCI-123: Introduction to Sociology
STAT-140: Introduction to the Ideas and Applications of Statistics
Register early! You may find yourself with limited options if you wait until the last minute.
Have a few schedule combinations in mind in case your first-choice classes are full or have time conflicts. Put yourself on waitlists for your top choices, and then register for second choices to ensure that you are registered for a full 16 credits.
Don’t shy away from writing intensive courses. No matter what major you select or what profession you pursue, you will need strong writing skills. Start tackling any doubts or fears now, and build your writing skills over four years so that by graduation you will write with confidence and strength.
Don't shy away from anything that you believe will be difficult, or you don't like, but you know is valuable and important. Skills take time to build. Don't wait!
The first semester of college is a time of significant transition. Build a schedule that will engage and challenge you without becoming overwhelming. Leave time in your week to build relationships with peers and professors, to involve yourself in meaningful social and co-curricular opportunities and to take care of yourself with good food, physical activity, down time and enough sleep. If you register for courses with labs, we strongly recommend no more than two per semester.
Remember these other key academic planning resources: