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Pre-Professional Healthcare

Starting Out


Are you a recent high school graduate, or one who has never taken college courses, who has picked the health professions fields as a likely career? If so, please come talk to our health professions advisors as soon as you can. The odds are that you will be taking many biology courses, and possibly chemistry and physics courses. These lab courses needed to be dispersed among your other core courses so that they do not pile up at the end of your college career, waiting to be taken all together. For example, if you are going premedical or pre-dental, you will want to start on chemistry immediately, considering that you will need to take at least 4 chemistry courses for these programs.

Are you a nontraditional student, or a returning student---one who has had some college courses or who may already have a college degree? Then come talk to advisors in the health professions. You will likely have some courses from past college work that will help you with your program prerequisites. You may want to re-take some courses to refresh your memory, and some of the health professions have time limitations on the college math/science courses. In addition, we may be able to give you some insight into getting into the program that you have chosen. Another excellent idea is to talk to advisors or faculty in the program that interests you. Often you will find out about some program specifics, transferability of courses, etc.

Other recommendations:

  1. Apply for admission to the Dallas County Community Colleges as soon as possible. Do not expect to turn in the application and register immediately for classes. You can turn in an application at any of the colleges.
  2. Take a look at occupational resources in Career Services, El Paso building room E093. There are a variety of resources at your disposal if you are thinking about which health professions field to go into, confused about occupation descriptions, or even the outlook for a particular health profession.
  3. See Financial Aid in Thunderduck Hall if you need financial aid.

For Pre-Professional advising contact:
Lorrie Anderson, Vicki Wood, Mike Bell or Jackie Reynolds