Pre-Health/Pre-Medical Advising

Earning a B.S. or B.A. degree in college requires selecting a major. Terms such as pre-med or pre-dental are only descriptive labels since North Carolina Central University (NCCU), like most other schools, does not award any pre-health degrees.  Most graduate health and medical professional programs require a four-year college degree prior to acceptance.  These programs require applicants to have a solid foundation in the natural sciences, biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. In general, graduate health and medical programs do not have a strong preference for what students choose as a major if the student successfully completes the prerequisite course work and is competitive for their program.

Students can use two criteria to help select a major:

1. Call or visit the Health Professions Career Center to schedule an appointment. The University pre-health professional advisor will assist you in preparing yourself for a career in healthcare, the medical field or veterinary medicine.
2. Select a major that you are interested in, something that would be a backup plan if you are not successful in getting into a program of your career choice.
3. If you do not have an interest outside of the health field, choose a major that includes the prerequisites required by your career field such as biology, chemistry, mathematics or physics.

The majors offered at NCCU that come close to including the prerequisite course work are Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Specific information about these and other degree programs offered at North Carolina Central University can be found on the College of Health and Sciences website. In addition to the traditional science majors and degrees, the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities offers health-related fields that require most of the medical, dental, pharmacy and veterinary school prerequisites.