Pre-Professional Curricula: Pre-Medical Sciences

The Pre-Medical Sciences curriculum is recommended for students who wish to pursue such careers as traditional human medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry, optometry or nontraditional medical arts that require intensive undergraduate preparation in biology and chemistry.

Professionals in these areas must be capable of assimilating a voluminous body of knowledge and accessing efficiently specific information from that mental data base. The premedical sciences curriculum begins building the student’s data base and testing the student’s qualification for medical or veterinary school through diverse, challenging courses. However, to become a good physician (of humans or animals), the student must possess or develop compassion, integrity, and dedication to service, in addition to intellect and stamina. Participation in co-curricular programs at Ozarks will both facilitate personal maturation and demonstrate the student’s interests and motivation.

The curriculum will include classes from biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and English that are normally required for admission into a medical sciences school. The student must plan carefully the scheduling of these courses with the pre-med advisor, so that essential courses are completed by the end of the junior year, when the student should take medical school admission tests. Although the pre-medical sciences curriculum focuses heavily on courses in the sciences, a student may major in any area in which he or she has completed all required classes. The following course guidelines are recommended for those planning on a career in the medical sciences, and meet the admission requirements of most medical science programs. However, students are advised to research the requirements of particular medical science programs that they intend to apply to, and, in conjunction with his/her advisor, craft a schedule that meets those particular requirements.

Required Courses

  • BIO 1214 - Principles of Biology I
  • BIO 1324 - Principles of Biology II
  • CHM 1014 - General Chemistry I
  • CHM 1024 - General Chemistry II
  • CHM 3014 - Organic Chemistry I
  • CHM 3024 - Organic Chemistry II
  • ENG 1013 - Composition I
  • ENG 1023 - Composition II
  • MTH 2015 - Calculus I
  • PHY 2014 - College Physics I
    or
    PHY 2114 - General Physics I
  • PHY 2024 - College Physics II
    or
    PHY 2124 - General Physics II

Recommended Courses

  • BIO 3134 Microbiology
  • 3444 General Physiology
  • 3534 Cell Biology* (required in some programs)
  • 4054 Embryology
  • 4333 Anatomy
  • 4432 Anatomy Laboratory
  • 4644 Molecular Genetics
  • CHM 4104 Biochemistry* (required in some programs)
  • CSC 1013 Introduction to Computer Science
  • MTH 2024 Calculus II* (required in some programs)
  • PHL 1003 Logic
  • One year of a foreign language
  • One of the following:
    • PSY 1003 General Psychology
    • SOC 1013 Introduction to Sociology
  • One of the following:
    • BIO 3643 Biostatistics and Experimental Design
    • MTH 3033 Probability and Statistics
    • PSY 3003 Fundamental Inferential Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences