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Northwestern University

A First-Year's Guide to Pre-Health

Following a pre-health path in your first year means that a lot of choices about what courses to take will be already made for you, but it also means that you’ll have a lot of other decisions to make. Being pre-health can be challenging, but your first-year adviser, the Weinberg College Advisers, and Health Professions Advising pre-health advisers can all help you face these challenges.

Pre-health students can pursue any major in Weinberg. So you’ll want to spend some time during your first year looking over department websites, talking to department advisers, and, when you have space in your schedule, choosing courses that let you try out areas of interest.

In addition, pre-health students must complete coursework required by medical schools:

Some medical schools may also require English/writing classes (in Weinberg, this usually means your first-year seminars), biochemistry, behavioral and social science courses, humanities courses, and advanced biology courses.

Typical first-year schedule for pre-health students

Questions to consider

During your first year, there will be a number of questions for you to think about:

These are great questions to discuss with your first-year adviser, a Weinberg Adviser, or a pre-health adviser. Don’t hesitate to make use of these valuable resources!

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