College of Arts & Sciences
Pre-Health Professions Advising
Transfer
Students
Many FIU students transfer
from community colleges, or other universities inside and
outside of the United States. Many students wishing to attend
professional schools may have even begun their professional
education (medical, dental, etc.) in other countries where the
educational system is different than here in the U.S. These
students come to FIU with professional school courses in
Anatomy, Biochemistry, Histology, etc., but have not taken the
basic undergraduate courses required for admission to
professional schools. International students who do not have a
University degree should complete a bachelor's degree in the
U.S. before matriculating in a professional school. For some
programs, it is necessary for international students to
complete a bachelor's degree in the U.S., and many
professional schools in the U.S. do not accept specific
prerequisite courses taken outside the U.S. Therefore,
prerequisite courses should not be taken in study-abroad
programs.
Students who are
transferring to FIU with an A.A. degree are considered to have
met the Undergraduate Core Curriculum requirements. It is also
hoped that many of the pre-professional courses have been
taken prior to receiving the A.A. degree. However, if these
courses have NOT been completed before transferring, these
pre-professional prerequisite courses may be completed at FIU.
According to the University catalog, "A maximum of 60 lower
division semester hours taken at a two or a four-year
institution may be counted toward a degree at the University.
A maximum of 30 additional upper division semester hours taken
at a senior institution may be counted toward a degree at the
University." Therefore, if you have an A.A. degree you will
receive 60 transfer credits. Any additional lower division
credits taken outside of FIU will still give you the same 60
credits towards the minimum 120 credits needed to receive a
bachelor's degree at FIU. If you do take additional lower
division courses elsewhere, other than FIU, you will receive
the OK that you have taken the courses, and these courses may
be used to meet specific course requirements, but the credits
in excess of 60 lower division credits will not count toward a
degree. In addition, any courses taken outside of FIU will not
be used to compute the FIU GPA. Please note, however,
that the grades in all coursework will be
used to compute a new GPA when you apply to professional
schools.
If
you are transferring to FIU with an A.A. from a community
college, here is a spreadsheet
that will show you the timeline you should follow in order to
be a competitive applicant to medical school. This same
timeline will hold if you are transferring to FIU after your
first two years at another college or university.
The basic courses
necessary for most professional programs are the
following:
Common Requirements for
Pre-Dentistry, Medicine (Allopathic, Osteopathic,
Chiropractic), Veterinary Medicine, Optometry, Podiatry,
Pharmacy
BSC 1010, 1010L
(General Bio I & Lab)
BSC 1011, 1011L (General Bio II
& Lab)
CHM 1045, 1045L (Gen.
Chem. I & Lab)
CHM 1046, 1046L (Gen. Chem. II &
Lab)
CHM 2210, 2210L (Org. Chem. I & Lab)
CHM
2211, 2211L (Org. Chem. II & Lab)
PHY 2053, 2053L (Gen.
Physics I without Calculus)
OR
PHY 2048, 2048L (Gen.
Physics I with Calculus)
PHY 2054, 2054L (Gen.
Physics II without Calculus)
OR
PHY 2049, 2049L (Gen.
Physics II with Calculus)
Some professional
schools require specific Mathematics courses, such as Calculus
and Statistics. Some schools require specific courses and
hours in Humanities or Social Sciences. Consult individual
schools for information on requirements. In particular, many
pharmacy schools have very specific requirements, which
include courses in business.
Although most professional
schools will accept AP credit in lieu of these courses, not
all will. Contact the school(s) you are interested in, or look
online, to find out if they will accept AP/CLEP credits. In
the case of some schools, if they accept AP credits they will
want to see additional courses taken in that subject area. For
most professional schools your GPA will be calculated as
Overall GPA as well as Science & Math
GPA. Courses taken for AP credit do not have a grade
averaged into your GPA.
