welcome to the center for pre-health advising!
The Center for Pre-Health Advising (CPHA) is a dynamic resource for UW-Madison students and alumni who are exploring, preparing, and applying to health professional programs. We are here to support you in your path to serving others as a health care professional wherever you are in the process. Please make use of everything we offer: sign up for our pre-health orientation, ask to receive our newsletter, join a book club, come to a workshop, meet with us in drop-ins and appointments, and when you are applying to a health professions program, enroll in one of our application courses. Information about all of these resources is available on this website. Please learn more! And look below for information about pathways to health professions (e.g. prerequisite courses, involvement, application processes).
- Newsletter
- Orientation
- First-Year Advising
- Drop-Ins and Appointments
- Service Abroad Guidelines
- Find CPHA
“Preparing for Professional Programs in Health Care” is our most-trafficked advising interface with first-year students, and we ask that all first-year students complete this orientation before meeting with a pre-health advisor in an appointment after your first year on campus. We designed it with first-year students in mind. But we encourage anyone with interest in a health profession to enroll. It is a robust guide to all things pre-health.
Please sign up here.
Welcome to UW-Madison! We are excited for you to begin an exciting phase of life and are eager to work with you. Dr. Michael Hill is our first-year pre-health student specialist. He facilitates our pre-health orientation (“Preparing for Professional Programs in Health Care”). This is your first step to all things pre-health. Dr. Hill also offers drop-in advising for first-year students every Friday during fall and spring semesters (“First Year Fridays”) and runs four-year planning workshops for first-year students. And as a first-year student, you also have access to pre-health advisors five days a week (Monday-Friday) via email at questions@prehealth.wisc.edu.
Please make use of all these first-year student resources:
- Preparing for Professional Programs in Health Care (sign up here)
- First-Year Fridays every Friday during fall and spring semesters (9-12 at CPHA, Suite 205 in the Middleton Building)
- Four-Year Planning Workshops (look for announcements in the CPHA newsletter)
- Quick question? Please email us at questions@prehealth.wisc.edu!
And please make an appointment to have a longer conversation with a CPHA advisor after your first year on campus!
Drop-In Advising happens at the Center for Pre-Health Advising. Please find us in Suite 205 of the Middleton Building.
DROP-IN ADVISING DURING THE SUMMER:
- Summer is application season. For this reason, we dedicate drop-in advising to applicants in the summer.
- Tuesdays, 9-12, 1-3
- Wednesdays, 1-3
DROP-IN ADVISING DURING FALL AND SPRING SEMESTERS:
- Second-year, third-year, fourth-year, fifth-year, and transfer students
- Tuesdays, 1-3:30 pm
- Wednesdays, 1-3:30 pm
- First-year students: Fridays, 9-12
appointments
Appointment Advising also happens at the Center for Pre-Health Advising. If you are an alum, second-year, third-year, fourth-year, fifth-year and or transfer student, please make an appointment to talk with us about your interests and plans:
WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR APPOINTMENT NOTE:
- Your pre-health interest (e.g. pre-PT, pre-OT, pre-vet, pre-med, pre-PA)
- What you want to talk about (e.g. courses, volunteering, research, shadowing)
WE RECOMMEND:
- 30-minute appointments if you want to talk about one or two of the above topics (e.g. courses, volunteering, research, shadowing)
- 60-minute appointments if you want to talk about more than two of the above topics or applying to a health professions program
If you are an alum and cannot find an appointment at a time you are free to meet, please call our office (608.263.6614) or email us (questions@prehealth.wisc.edu) and we will find a time for you.
Choosing a career in health care is committing to a lifetime serving others. Many students want to serve in other countries as you build experiences for health professional programs. It is important to understand concerns that revolve around serving abroad. Providing care or services in other countries you are not trained and/or licensed to provide in the United States is deeply unethical. In addition, serving in cultures you are not familiar with requires cultural learning, humility, and sensitivity. If you choose to pursue this experience, you have the critical responsibility to ensure that any service you provide abroad is ethical, responsible, and culturally informed.
Please learn more.
The Center for Pre-Health Advising is located in the Middleton Building (1305 Linden Drive). We are upstairs in Suite 205.
Please find us here.
pathways to health professions
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Allied Health
Allied health professionals may work collaboratively with physicians, physician assistants, dentists, nurses, pharmacists and others to provide quality care for patients, or they may work independently. According to the Association of Schools of Allied Health Professions:
Allied health encompasses a broad group of health professionals who use scientific principles and evidence-based practice for the diagnosis, evaluation and treatment of acute and chronic diseases; promote disease prevention and wellness for optimum health, and apply administration and management skills to support health care systems in a variety of settings.
Chiropractic
Chiropractic is based on the principle that spinal joint misaligments interfere with the nervous system and can result in different conditions of diminished health. Chiropractors provide natural, drugless, nonsurgical health treatments, relying on the body’s inherent recuperative abilities.
Dentistry
Dentistry is devoted to maintaining the health of the teeth, gums, and other hard and soft tissues of the mouth and adjacent structures.
Medicine
Physicians may be allopathic (MD) or osteopathic (DO) practitioners. There are many career paths within both. Most physicians work full-time. Many also teach, engage in research, work in administration, and contribute to health care policy.
Nursing
Nurses provide direct patient care and need to be both detail-oriented and strong team players. Nurses can also specialize in a specific area of patient care (surgery, trauma, etc.) and be accredited in specialties such as ambulatory care, pediatrics, and many others.
Note: This page contains information for students seeking admissions to accelerated nursing programs. If you want to apply to the B.S. in Nursing at UW-Madison, please contact the School of Nursing for Advising.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapists help people of all ages do everyday activities (occupations) in all the settings they inhabit (home, work, school, community).
Common occupational therapy interventions include: helping children who are differently- abled to develop social skills and participate in school, helping people recovering from injury regain function through retraining and/or adaptations, and providing supports for older adults experiencing physical and cognitive changes.
Optometry
Doctors of optometry (ODs/optometrists) are primary care specialists in eye care. Optometrists examine, diagnose, treat, and manage diseases, injuries, and disorders of the visual system, the eye, and associated structures. They also identify related systemic conditions affecting the eye.
Pharmacy
Pharmacists work in a range of settings: community pharmacies, hospitals, long-term care facilities, the pharmaceutical industry, mail service, managed care, and government. They also frequently counsel patients in planning therapy regiments.
Note: This page contains information for students applying to PharmD programs after completing a bachelor’s degree. If you want to apply to the PharmD program at UW-Madison without a bachelor’s degree, please contact the School of Pharmacy for advising.
Physical Therapy
Physical therapists diagnose and treat people of all ages who experience limited ability to move and perform daily function due to illness and/or injury.
PTs develop treatment plans to promote the ability to move, reduce pain, restore function, and prevent disability. PTs also help prevent the loss of mobility through fitness- and wellness-oriented programs. They provide care in a range of settings: hospitals, private clinics, out-patient clinics, home health agencies, schools, sports and fitness facilities, work settings, and older adult care facilities.
Physician Assistant
Physician Assistants examine, diagnose, and treat patients under the supervision of a physician. They have considerable autonomy and may specialize in a specific field of medicine.
Podiatry
Podiatrists are doctors of podiatric medicine (DPMs). They diagnose and treat conditions of the foot, ankle, and related structures of the leg. Podiatrists can specialize in many fields, including surgery, sports medicine, wound care, pediatrics, and diabetic care.
Public Health
Public health focuses on preventative care for populations rather than curative care for individuals. There are five core areas of public health: Behavioral and Social Science, Biostatistics, Environmental Health, Epidemiology, and Health Policy and Management. In addition to these core areas, many public health professionals concentrate on specific areas, such as Community Health, Maternal and Child Health, Health Communication and Promotion, Health Disparities, Health of Minoritized Populations, and Global Health.
Veterinary Medicine
Veterinarians provide medical care for large and small animals, including farm animals, domestic animals, exotic animals, and working animals (e.g., those in the equine industry). They often take a holistic approach to animal welfare and human wellbeing and provide care for companion animals through private medical practices.
Health is more than the absence of disease. Health is about jobs and unemployment, education, the environment, and all of those things that go into making us healthy.
Wellness
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Campus Climate
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