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This is an exciting time to enter the health professions. Changes in society create a need for health professionals with a strong background in natural, behavioral, and social sciences, as well as the humanities.

Over the past few years, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) have reviewed the framework needed for premedical training and the lifelong training needed for medical school and practice. They issued a report, “Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians,” outlining the scientific and quantitative competencies that premedical students should master as well as a companion report, "Behavioral and Social Science Foundations for Future Physicians," indicating that the conceptual framework in these disciplines that premedical and medical students need to understand socioeconomic and cultural determinates of health and to address health care disparities.

Drawing upon this extensive research by several advisory panels, AAMC’s Group on Student Affairs and Committee on 91���˶������ endorsed 15 core competencies for entering medical schools.  AAMC defines competency as an “observable behavior that combines knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes related to a specific activity.” Although medical educators developed this list of fifteen competencies, it is relevant for all health professions. 

We recommend that all those considering health professions: 

• Visit the  to review the list of competencies.
• Review AAMC’s Self-Assessment Guide, “Anatomy of an Applicant: Competency Resources and Self-Assessment Guide for Medical School Applicants.   
• We urge students to consider these competencies when making decisions about courses, potential experiential learning experiences, community service, health-related service in research, and clinical care. Students can meet with the Health Professions Advisor to reflect on the competencies they are developing through these activities.  
• The Health Professions Advisor can help students prepare a portfolio to track and reflect on their progress and begin to frame this information in ways that would be useful when applying to health professions schools.   

The 15 Core Competencies for Entering Medical Students have been endorsed by the AAMC Group on Student Affairs (GSA) Committee on 91���˶������ (COA) and are listed below:

Pre-Professional Competencies (combining interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies):

• Service Orientation: Demonstrates a desire to help others and sensitivity to others’ needs and feelings; demonstrates a desire to alleviate others’ distress; recognizes and acts on his/her responsibilities to society, locally, nationally, and globally.
• Social Skills: Demonstrates an awareness of others’ needs, goals, feelings, and how social and behavioral cues affect people’s interactions and behaviors; adjusts behaviors appropriately in response to these cues; treats others respectfully.
• Cultural Competence: Demonstrates knowledge of socio-cultural factors that affect interactions and behaviors; shows an appreciation and respect for multiple dimensions of diversity; recognizes and acts on the obligation to inform one’s judgment; engages diverse and competing perspectives as a resource for learning, citizenship, and work; recognizes and appropriately addresses bias in themselves and others; interacts effectively with people from diverse backgrounds.
• Teamwork: Works collaboratively to achieve shared goals; shares information and knowledge with others and provides feedback; puts team goals ahead of individual goals.
• Oral Communication: Effectively conveys information to others using spoken words and sentences; listens effectively; recognizes potential communication barriers and adjusts approach or clarifies information as needed.
• Ethical Responsibility to Self and Others: Behaves honestly and ethically; cultivates personal and academic integrity; adheres to ethical principles and follows rules and procedures; resists peer pressure to engage in unethical behavior and encourages others to behave in honest and ethical ways; develops and demonstrates ethical and moral reasoning.
• Reliability and Dependability: Consistently fulfills obligations promptly and satisfactorily; takes responsibility for personal actions and performance.
• Resilience and Adaptability: Demonstrates tolerance of stressful or changing environments or situations and adapts effectively to them; is persistent, even under difficult situations; recovers from setbacks.
• Capacity for Improvement: Sets goals for continuous improvement and learning new concepts and skills; engages in reflective practice for improvement; solicits and responds appropriately to feedback.

Thinking and Reasoning Competencies

• Critical Thinking: Uses logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
• Quantitative Reasoning: Applies quantitative reasoning and appropriate mathematics to describe or explain phenomena in the natural world.
• Scientific Inquiry: Applies knowledge of the scientific process to integrate and synthesize information, solve problems, and formulate research questions and hypotheses; is facile in the language of the sciences and uses it to participate in the discourse of science and explain how scientific knowledge is discovered and validated.
• Written Communication: Effectively conveys information to others using written words and sentences.

Science Competencies

• Living Systems: Applies knowledge and skill in the natural sciences to solve problems related to molecular and macro systems, including biomolecules, molecules, cells, and organs.
• Human Behavior: Applies knowledge of the self, others, and social systems to solve problems related to the psychological, socio-cultural, and biological factors that influence health and well-being.

Bryn Mawr offers many exciting academic opportunities of interest to prehealth students. Students should develop their academic plans with their dean, faculty advisors, and the prehealth advisor. Students are urged to develop a long-range plan as they enroll at Bryn Mawr and to revisit it each semester in consultation with advisors. This would enable students to craft ways to engage in stimulating courses and rewarding activities while fulfilling the prerequisites for the health professions schools that interest them.

Make an appointment with Assistant Dean Gail G. Glicksman to discuss your prehealth pathway: gglicksman@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7350.

This is an exciting time to prepare for the health professions. Educators in all types of health professions programs are reconsidering how their fields can prepare students to meet the emerging global health needs. Health professions schools are identifying competencies that are essential for entering students. Over time, they are articulating how these competencies can be considered in the admissions process. Allopathic medical schools have been leading the way in designing guidelines for competency-based preparation for application. Some schools have been moving away from identifying specific course requirements. They still require particular areas of content.

Recognizing that scientific fields are changing and emphasizing multidisciplinary approaches, medical schools realize that some students can gain knowledge through courses with different titles. All these schools still require students to gain knowledge in specific areas. Many of these schools point out that classes remain the most effective way to gain knowledge and skill in these areas. Further, in some cases, they require more knowledge than the “traditional” sequence of courses.

The knowledge is still needed, but schools are willing to consider a broader range of approaches to mastering the material.    

Also, please note that most schools require the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). Please visit the  to learn about the exam, what to expect on test day, and how to register for a fee waiver or testing accommodations. This site includes extensive information about the , so students can use this resource to ensure that they are engaging in academic experiences that will help them perform effectively on the exam.

Although many professional schools require a traditional set of prerequisite courses, there is no core that works for all professions or for all schools within a specific profession.

The Health Professions Advising Office has collected information about the MCAT and tests for schools in other health professions. Visit the HPAO resource room in Park Science to view copies of test books prepared by various test preparation companies.    

91���˶������ students take a variety of approaches to preparing for the relevant standardized tests. Many find it helpful to consider the strategies that helped them prepare for previous tests and discuss the range of options. Please remember that Bryn Mawr has negotiated a special discount for students or alums seeking online or in-person prep courses for the DAT, GRE, MCAT, OAT, and the PCAT. Consult the Health Professions Advisor for more information.

, which the Health Professions Advising Office uses to send helpful information, including announcements about special events on campus, research and internship opportunities, and application deadlines. The undergraduate student also announces its meetings and activities over its listserv.

Preparing for a career in the health professions means more than just classroom preparations. Learn more about the core competencies endorsed by the Association of American Medical Colleges for incoming medical students and other ways to prepare for health-care-focused careers.

In addition, the Health Professions Advising Office organizes and sponsors events and workshops on campus throughout the year, and has sponsored and co-sponsored programming on various topics, including presentations and discussions about Bryn Mawr graduates' firsthand experiences in health professions school.

Students interested in the health professions find that summers are ideally suited for gaining experience related to the health professions and to the biomedical sciences. Many students find ways to engage in scientific research or to assist in health-related settings. Although some students participate in formal, organized programs, others craft informal opportunities. Contact the Health Professions Advising Office to discuss your interests and circumstances as well as strategies for seeking programs and crafting opportunities. For information about funding, visit summer funding. The external links below describe more summer experiential learning opportunities. 

The Bryn Mawr promotes students as leaders for extracurricular activities and organizations and this is evident in the prehealth community. Undergraduates direct several organizations related to the health professions. In recent years prehealth students have been instrumental in organizing volunteers for hospice programs and visitors for nursing home residents and inpatient hospital units. Visit Student Activities to view current student groups.

Pre-Health Society

The Pre-Health Society is for all students interested in careers in the health professions. In recent years, Pre-Health Society activities have included student panels to discuss summer internships, fundraisers for the American Cancer Society and talks by outside speakers who work in health care. There is no official procedure for joining the Pre-Health Society; if the organization plans an event that interests you, you are welcome to participate. The Pre-Health Society announces their events over the  so be sure to sign up for these email announcements.

Health Interest Programming (HIP)

The Health Professions Advising Office supports undergraduate and postbac premed students who collaborate to develop programming related to healthcare. This provides a great opportunity for prehealth students on campus to get together and share perspectives and expertise. Examples of recent HIP programming include: hosting speakers or panel discussions on campus, viewing movies or documentaries, organizing brown bag discussions on compelling topics, and sponsoring experiential workshops (e.g., a hike to learn wilderness first aid techniques).

2017-18 HIP Topics

• Addiction and Substance Abuse

• Bioethics

• Emergency and Wilderness Medicine

• Global Health

• Health Disparities/Social Determinants of Health

• Health Industry and Policy

• Infectious Diseases

• Pediatrics/Adolescent Medicine

• Psychiatry/Mental Health

• Sports Medicine/Orthopedics

• Surgery

• Women's Health

As described in other sections of our website, health professions educators have been articulating the core competencies that are essential for their fields. Increasingly, they are seeking students who have demonstrated evidence of these skills before applying for admission.

One key element that is gaining increasing attention is experiential learning through participation in community service and involvement in health care contexts and in health-related research. More than in the past, schools are seeking students who have demonstrated a genuine interest and awareness of the field. They also perceive these as wonderful settings to gain some of the interpersonal, intrapersonal, thinking and reasoning, and scientific competencies.  

Before applying to medical school you will need to gain some experience working in a clinical setting. The Health Professions Advising Office and Civic Engagement maintain a directory of health care volunteer opportunities in the greater Bryn Mawr and Philadelphia area. Read the. Set a time to meet with the prehealth advisor to discuss your specific goals and interests, any specific constraints you’re facing, and to consider the types of volunteer experiences that would enable you to offer service to others while exploring your fields of interest.

New college students may want to participate in one of the many established community service programs through Civic Engagement, which maintains a database of local volunteer opportunities and a library of interesting and useful publications for students seeking volunteer opportunities. Students volunteering in the greater Philadelphia area are also eligible for partial reimbursement of their transportation costs to and from their service site.

Career Planning provides many resources to help students find summer internships, and the career counselors will assist with resumes, cover letters, and mock interviews. Of particular interest to prehealth students is Career Planning’s extern program. 91���˶������ alumnae invite current students to shadow them at work during winter or spring break. 

Many organizations sponsor service trips that enable students to learn about health care delivery in other countries, or language immersion programs that include clinical healthcare shadowing opportunities. Below are links to some resources to help you research international opportunities.

It is essential to thoroughly research any international services program and critically assess the program's arrangements for student and client safety, housing and transporting students, and the total costs of participation. Some programs allow students to provide hands-on patient care or to engage in other activities that they would not legally or ethically be allowed to do in their home country.  

Review the following guidelines regarding the level of involvement of students in patient care abroad: 

• prepared by the Forum on Education Abroad at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice
• Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) guidelines (PDF)
• American Dental Education Association (ADEA) guidelines (PDF)

Review Child Family Health International's (CFHI) collection of global health information, which includes practical information about preparing for international health experiences. Consider reading a new handbook for students by Akshaya Neil Arya, .

Schedule an appointment with Dean Glicksman to discuss additional resources: .

What is a Glide Year?

It is now very common for people to work for one or two years between college and medical school. This is commonly referred to as a "glide year." Medical schools often look favorably on candidates who are more mature and bring some “working world” experience with them when they begin their medical studies.

Approximately 80 percent of Bryn Mawr applicants graduated from college and then worked for a year or more before enrolling in medical, dental, or veterinary school. During the glide year(s), many alums have worked as scribes at hospitals and clinics or as research assistants for biomedical, translational or clinical research projects in universities. Some have served with the , , or . Others have assisted with health-related work in government or not-for-profit organizations. 

The Career & Civic Engagement Center works with students and alumnae looking for internships and job opportunities in the health professions. Work closely with the CPD as you explore glide year job opportunities.

Postbac Programs

Some graduates pursue training for prehealth professions schools after they complete their undergraduate degrees. Postbaccalaureate prehealth programs — often described as “postbac programs” — are designed to help individuals prepare for the academic and other competencies they need for training in the health professions. The two main types of programs are “career changer” programs (for those who decided to pursue health care either late in or after college) and “record enhancement programs” (for those seeking a chance to strengthen their academic preparation for graduate study in the health professions).

91���˶������ is proud of its “career changer” program, one of the nation’s oldest, strongest, and most respected postbaccalaureate premedical programs. 

Although most postbac programs are designed for students preparing to enroll in medical school, many programs accommodate students with the additional courses needed for some of the other health professions. 

• For an introduction to postbac programs, visit the .  
• Also visit the AAMC Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Programs Database, a searchable resource that includes filters for program characteristics such as type of program or location. It includes programs that accommodate students interested in health professions other than medicine and those designed for students from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine. 

91���˶������ undergraduates and alums are encouraged to contact Gail Glicksman, Assistant Dean for Health Professions Advising, to discuss postbac preparation for health professions schools.