The pre-dental minor enhances the competitiveness of students interested in applying to dental school. The American Dental Education Association (ADEA) recommends that interested students, regardless of the major chosen, should select courses that emphasize critical thinking, professionalism and ethics, communication and interpersonal skills, and health promotion.
This 18-credit minor is highly interdisciplinary and was developed for students preparing for professional or graduate training in a health care specialty. The courses were specifically selected to focus on the desired core competencies for dental students. This minor is particularly suited for students with a natural science major (such as Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences, Biology, or Chemistry) who wish to take a suite of integrative courses that will provide them with perspectives from the social sciences and humanities. In addition, some courses for the minor will provide them with useful skills or experiences that will make them more competitive in professional school applications. Students not majoring in the sciences should meet with the pre-health advisor as early as possible during their program at Nazareth to ensure all the prerequisites are completed.
The Health Professions Advisory Committee (HPAC) is dedicated to all of our pre-dental minors and organizes workshops in personal statement and interviewing practices and conducts formal interviews as part of the comprehensive composite letter preparation for students applying to dental school. The (HPAC) Chair acts as the program director, oversees the minor programs and advises students in both individual and group sessions.
Pre-dental students must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 and a minimum grade of C- or higher in all minor coursework. Students must also perform a minimum of 200 hours of community/pre-dental clinical service. Interested students should contact the program director/HPAC chair to develop an appropriate course of study for their four years of college.
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