Academic Preparation

Choose a Major

Academic course requirements for health professional programs may be integrated into any major at Northeastern.

Students admitted to U.S. health professional programs come from ALL undergraduate majors. Health professional schools appreciate academic diversity. Choose a major based on your interests. Students should meet with both their Academic Advisor and a PreMed/PreHealth Advisor to determine the best way to successfully complete their required coursework.

Common Courses

The courses listed below meet the course requirements of many health professional programs.

These are intended to provide a foundation in subject areas relevant to the student’s intended health professional program and its corresponding entrance exam.  It is the student’s responsibility to research the academic requirements for specific schools of interest, and work with their advisors to determine an appropriate course of study.

Most health professional programs will consider a grade of C or higher in required coursework as passing (for some PA programs, the lowest passing grade may be higher than a C, and applicants are encouraged to confirm this information with individual program websites). If your final grade in any required course is below a C, you may be required to retake the course. More information on coursework standards and expectations can be found on our FAQ webpage.

Although there are common courses required for entry into various health professional pathways, many programs—especially those for PA, Dental, Veterinary, and Optometry—may have specific academic requirements. It’s crucial to research the requirements for the programs you’re interested in to see if you need to complete additional coursework. To help you monitor your academic progress on your PreHealth Pathway, you can use the PreMed and PreHealth Advising Program’s Schools-List-Builder-Template

A typical course of study may include the following:

Commonly Required courses

  • 2 semesters of Biology with labs
  • General Chemistry I & II with labs (or CHEM 1161/1162 or CHEM 1151/1212)
  • 2 semesters of Organic Chemistry with labs
  • 2 semesters of Physics with labs
  • 1 semester of Biochemistry with lab (prerequisites: Genetics & Molecular Biology with lab and Organic Chemistry II with lab)
  • 2 semesters of Math (1 semester of Calculus and 1 semester of Statistics)
  • 2 semesters of Writing (i.e. First-Year Writing and Advanced Writing)

other recommended courses

  • 2 semesters of Behavioral Science coursework are strongly recommended for MCAT PREP (1 semester of Psychology and 1 semester of Sociology)

Prerequisites to medical school are school specific. Additional coursework across disciplines may be required. Please refer to the relevant website below for detailed course requirements.

Commonly Required courses

  • 2 semesters of Biology with labs
  • General Chemistry I & II with labs (or CHEM 1161/1162 plus an additional chemistry course, if needed, to meet school-specific requirements)
  • 2 semesters of Organic Chemistry with labs
  • 2 semesters of Physics with labs
  • 1 semester of Biochemistry with lab (prerequisites: Genetics & Molecular Biology with lab and Organic Chemistry II with lab).
  • 2 semesters of Writing (i.e. First-Year Writing and Advanced Writing)

OTHER RECOMMENDED COURSES

  • 2 semesters of Math (1 semester of Calculus and 1 semester of Statistics)
  • Anatomy & Physiology I with lab
  • Microbiology with lab

Prerequisites to dental school are school specific. Additional coursework across disciplines may be required. Please refer to the relevant websites below for detailed course requirements.

 

Commonly Required courses

  • 2 semesters of Biology with labs
  • General Chemistry I & II with labs (or CHEM 1161/1162 plus an additional chemistry course, if needed, to meet school-specific requirements)
  • 2 semesters of Physics with labs
  • 1 semester of Organic Chemistry with Lab
  • 1 semester of Anatomy & Physiology
  • 1 semester of Biochemistry with lab (prerequisites: Genetics & Molecular Biology with lab and Organic Chemistry II with lab)
  • 1 semester of Microbiology with lab
  • 2 semesters of Math (1 semester of Calculus and 1 semester of Statistics)
  • 2 semesters of Writing (i.e. First-Year Writing and Advanced Writing)
  • 1 semester of Psychology

OTHER RECOMMENDED COURSES

Prerequisites to optometry school are school specific. Additional coursework across disciplines may be required. Please refer to the relevant websites below for detailed course requirements.

Commonly Required Courses

  • 2 Semesters of Biology with labs
  • General Chemistry I & II with labs (or CHEM 1161/1162 plus an additional chemistry course, if needed, to meet school-specific requirements)
  • Organic Chemistry I & II with labs
  • Biochemistry with lab (Prerequisites: Genetics & Molecular Biology with lab, Organic Chemistry II)
  • Anatomy & Physiology I & II with labs
  • Microbiology with lab
  • Statistics
  • Psychology

Other Recommended Courses

  • Medical Terminology or Basic Clinical Skills for the Healthcare Professional (HLTH 1203)
  • Calculus
  • 2 semesters of Writing (i.e. First-Year Writing and Advanced Writing)
  • Spanish (especially if applying to schools in the Western or Southern U.S.)

Prerequisites to PA school are school specific. Additional coursework across disciplines may be required. Please refer to the relevant website below for detailed course requirements.

commonly required courses

  • 2 semesters of Biology with labs
  • General Chemistry I & II with labs (or CHEM 1161/1162 or CHEM 1151/1212)
  • 2 semesters of Organic Chemistry with labs
  • 2 semesters of Physics with labs
  • 1 semester of Biochemistry with lab (prerequisites: Genetics & Molecular Biology with lab and Organic Chemistry II with lab)
  • 2 semesters of Math (1 semester of Calculus and 1 semester of Statistics)
  • 2 semesters of Writing (i.e. First-Year Writing and Advanced Writing)

Other Recommended Courses

  • 2 semesters of Behavioral Science coursework are strongly recommended for MCAT PREP (1 semester of Psychology and 1 semester of Sociology)

Prerequisites to podiatry school are school specific. Additional coursework across disciplines may be required. Please refer to the relevant website below for detailed course requirements.

Commonly required courses

  • 2 semesters of Biology with labs
  • General Chemistry I & II with labs (or CHEM 1161/1162 plus an additional chemistry course, if needed, to meet school-specific requirements)
  • 2 semesters of Organic Chemistry with labs
  • 2 semesters of Physics with labs
  • 1 semester of Biochemistry with lab (prerequisites: Genetics & Molecular Biology with lab and Organic Chemistry II with lab)
  • 2 semesters of Math (1 semester of Calculus and 1 semester of Statistics)
  • 2 semesters of Writing (i.e. First-Year Writing and Advanced Writing)

Other Recommended Courses

Prerequisites to veterinary school are school specific. Additional coursework across disciplines may be required. Please refer to the relevant website below for detailed course requirements.

Supporting Information

Northeastern’s Global Campus Network and suite of study abroad programs offer PreMed and PreHealth students unique opportunities to travel abroad to expand their academic and experiential learning and truly become global citizens.

However, there are several factors to consider if you are a PreMed or PreHealth student looking to study abroad.

Please review our Global Experience webpage to learn more!

Generally, applicants may use AP or IB credit toward prerequisite courses. However, depending on the subject, credit earned may not reduce the required coursework needed at the college level.

Below are the PreMed and PreHealth Advising Program’s coursework recommendations based upon common health professional programs AP/IB credit policies. STUDENTS MAY BE EXPECTED TO COMPLETE ADDITIONAL COURSEWORK BASED ON SCHOOL-SPECIFIC POLICIES. PLEASE REVIEW THE ADMISSIONS CRITERIA AT PARTICULAR SCHOOLS OF INTEREST TO DETERMINE IF ADDITIONAL COURSEWORK IS REQUIRED.

Please note, it is at the student’s discretion to re-take a course and forfeit credit-earned if they do not feel prepared to enroll in the recommended upper-level course.

Credit Earned

Recommendation

All courses below should be at least 3-credit hours.

Bio I & IIContinue with Genetics & Molecular Biology w/lab and take an additional upper-level Biology elective.
General ChemistryContinue with Organic Chemistry I.
Physics IContinue with Physics II.
Physics I & IIRetake Physics II (students with Engineering, Mathemetics, or Physics majors may instead choose to enroll in an upper-level physics elective).
Calculus I and/or IITake an upper-level or more focused Calculus course.
StatisticsTake a subject-focused statistics course.
First-Year WritingContinue with Advanced Writing and take an additional social science or humanities* course.
* Typically, any humanities or social science course involving substantial writing will satisfy the Writing requirement for most health professional programs. Relevant branches of the humanities and social sciences include anthropology, criminology and criminal justice, communication studies, cultural and global studies, economics, English, history, international affairs, philosophy and religion, and political science.

College-level, dual enrollment courses taken during high school can often be used to satisfy academic requirements for health professional programs.

You must confirm with the host institution that you received academic credit, a grade, and a corresponding college transcript for the course(s). Centralized application services will include the credit hours and grade earned in their GPA calculations, even if the course was not transferred to Northeastern or used toward your undergraduate degree.

Strong grades and experiential preparation are integral to acceptance to a health professional program. Once you begin your medical studies, you will find that this remains equally important.

Northeastern has a number of resources on campus to help you succeed both in and out of the classroom:

A successful Grade Point Average (GPA) is an essential component of an application to a health profession program.

There are three types of GPAs a health profession program may evaluate: Science GPA, Non-Science GPA, and Cumulative GPA. These GPAs may be evaluated on a year-by-year basis and/or cumulatively.

PreMed Degree Audit

One way to calculate your Northeastern Science, Non-Science, and Cumulative GPAs would be to run a “PreMed” degree audit. Any student at Northeastern can run a “PreMed” Degree Audit. “PreMed” Degree Audits sort your classes into Science, Non-Science, and Overall categories and calculate your corresponding GPAs for you. Follow these instructions for running a “PreMed” Degree Audit:

1. Log-in to your StudentHub

2. Click on the Resources tab

3. Click on Academics, Classes & Registration

4. Click on My Degree Audit

5. Under Audits select “Request New”

6. Click “Select a Different Program”

7. Under “College” select “Special Programs” and “Special Programs Pre-med – PRE-MED” should prepopulate

8. Choose the most current catalog year

9. Click “Run Different Program”

10: Finally, under “Audit Results” you will see “MED-GPACALCULATED GPA for PRE-MED”. Click on the adjacent right facing arrow to view a drop down of your courses into Science, Non-Science, and Overall GPA categories.

Note: The GPA calculations on your Northeastern Degree Audit may vary from the GPA that your Health Professions Program may calculate. For example, transfer credit and original grades from repeated courses are not included in your Northeastern GPA, but will usually be included in the GPAs your Health Professions Program calculates.

GPA calculations by application service

What goes into your Science GPA, Non-Science GPA, and Cumulative GPA varies by application service. Thus, you may wish to manually calculate your Science, Non-Science, and Overall GPAs based on the application service(s) (listed below) that you intend to utilize.

Comparing GPA to national averages

It is important to know how your GPA compares to national averages and be sure you meet the requirements for the individual programs you are interested in. Here are some links to help gauge where your GPA ranks:

Being admitted to a health professions program takes years of preparation and mastery of difficult science coursework. Thus, it is common for people to pursue additional education after completion of an undergraduate degree in order to become a more competitive applicant. The two most common forms of additional education are either a Special Master’s program or a Post-Baccalaureate program. Additional information on Special Master’s and post-Baccalaureate programs can be found on our Gap Year webpage.