Health Professions Programs

What Are Health Professional Schools Looking For?

Preparing for health professional schools begins early on in your undergraduate career. At Iona, we have a dedicated health professions adviser to help you navigate this challenging but exciting journey. Over 80 percent of recommended Iona students are accepted into health professional programs.

Most professional schools do not require a specific undergraduate major. We’ve found Iona College students who have been most successful getting into medical, dental, and other health professions programs majored in Biology, Biochemistry or Chemistry.

To be a successful medical, dental and health professional school applicant, consider the following:

• Required and recommended coursework; start with Biology 101 and Chemistry 109 your first semester and see below for profession-specific checklists.
• High GPA; professional schools will look at your overall and your science GPA. A GPA of 3.6 or above is recommended for competitive programs.
• Good standardized test scores; you’ll want to make sure you prepare for the required exam, which may be the MCAT, DAT, GRE, OAT or PCAT, depending on your program.
• Field experience; Some professional schools often require hours of direct patient contact, while others may recommend shadowing experiences and/or that students perform scientific research.
• Excellent recommendations; Medical and dental schools usually require, if possible, a committee recommendation letter instead of individual letters, as PA and PT programs do. At Iona, the Health Professions Recommendations Committee is comprised of various science faculty and is chaired by your health professions adviser, Dr. Kang.

We have recommended coursework checklists for the following health professions programs:

• Pre-Medical, Pre-Dental, and Pre-Podiatry
• Pre-Physician Assistant and Pre-Physical Therapy
• Pre-Veterinary
• Pre-Pharmacy
• Pre-Optometry

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