The Center for Career & Professional Development offers support to students and alumni planning to attend health professional school such as medical, dental, optometry, physical therapy, vet medicine, etc. As you weigh your options for your college career, here are some highlights of our pre-health resources and support at Lehigh.
Check out the Pre-Health Career Guide to learn more about academic, clinical, research, and community engagement opportunities.
Pre-Health By the Numbers
- 600-700 Pre-Health Students at Lehigh
- 15 Med Mentors who are paired with our incoming first-year pre-health students
- 10+ clubs and organizations with a health/medicine focus
- 2 major healthcare systems within 15 minutes of campus
- Only research university in the Lehigh Valley with hundreds of opportunities to engage in interdisciplinary research
- 40-60 students applying to medical school each year
- 48-58% acceptance rate to Allopathic medical school
- Thousands of health professions alumni to connect with
Academics
At Lehigh, being pre-health is not an official academic major, minor, or concentration. You can choose to major in any discipline you are interested in and take the prerequisites for health professional school along the way. We have had students successfully apply to health professional school for each of our undergraduate colleges and from a wide variety of majors.
In addition to major and university course requirements, pre-health student generally take prerequisite courses including:
- 3 semesters (with labs) biology
- 2 semesters calculus
- 2 semesters (with labs) general chemistry
- 2 semesters (with labs) organic chemistry
- 2 semesters (with labs) physics
- 2 semesters biochemistry
- 2 semesters English
- 1 semester statistics
- 1 semester psychology
- 1 semester sociology
Advising Resources and Support
First-year pre-health students are paired with a Med Mentor in the summer before starting at Lehigh. Your Med Mentor is a specially trained junior or senior who supports you during course registration and throughout the first year at Lehigh. Med Mentors offer a variety of events and workshops throughout the year to help you plan your time at Lehigh as well as meet other pre-health students.
Pre-Health Group Advising sessions take place throughout the first year at Lehigh. In group advising, you will get started with a Pre-Professional Portfolio to help track your progress toward health professional school. Students walk away from group advising with a 4 year academic plan to complete health professional prerequisites.
Individual advising is available to meet one on one with the Pre-Health Advisor by appointment. Students can meet with the pre-health advisor to talk through academic, extracurricular, or application related questions.
The Health Professions Advisory Committee (HPAC) provides a committee letter to those applying to medical, dental, optometry, and podiatry programs. The HPAC process consists of milestones throughout the year of application to help prepare students for the application process and culminates in the letter.
Students have 24/7 access to resources and support through the Pre-Health Advising Course Site.
Questions? Email us at inlumm@lehigh.edu to hear from the Lehigh University Med Mentors!