The following general timeline, applicable to undergraduate students, is a guide to help you plan the courses and activities that will help to prepare you for a future application to a professional health graduate program. While many of the courses you will take are common to most health professions—medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine or others—the specific courses, your major, and the steps you take will be unique to your own choice of profession. *University of Puget Sound Graduate Students are strongly encouraged to consult one-on-one with a Health Professions Advisor to design an application timeline tailored to their specific educational goals and academic/clinical history.

First Year

Sophomore Year

  • Plan the focus of your curriculum and choose a major.
  • Check course requirements for the schools you may be interested in attending, and fine tune your long-range plan to accommodate them if necessary.
  • Get exposure and experience in your field of interest by volunteer work, community service, research, leadership positions during the semester, semester breaks or in the summer.
  • Talk to various health professionals about their careers and their own career decisions. 
  • Visit the AMA's Virtual Mentor, an interactive website that seeks to sharpen knowledge and to encourage consideration of ethical dilemmas in medicine and other professions.
  • Begin researching finances.    
  • Consider applying for a Puget Sound summer research grant, external undergraduate summer research program or internships.

The sophomore year is a time to self-evaluate and reassess your original career plans or to begin to investigate options for the first time; you may reconsider your future plans many times and it is wise to do so. Becoming aware of health-related issues and expanding your world view as well as discovering the many opportunities available to you in your professional and personal life is challenging.

Your knowledge of yourself should also be growing and you may find that careers previously unknown to you are appealing. Don't be afraid to consider new paths and weigh them against your current career plans. Our world needs multi-faced individuals in the roles of healthcare provider. It is assumed that you will never lose your fascination with science, however, your major area of study should reflect your deep interests whether it be in the sciences, humanities, social sciences or any other area of study.

Exposure to a variety of people with different cultural background is important to those entering a medical profession. Experiences such as study abroad are valued by professional health program admissions committees. Planning will need to be given to the scheduling of the prerequisites courses as well as the required admission examinations.

Some students have considered delaying their application a year or more; the sophomore year is a good time to think about this option. Experience shows that admissions committees value a well-thought out decision to delay and consider it a sign of a mature and thoughtful approach to reaching your career goals.

Junior Year

  • Attend Fall (October) & Spring (January) Applicant Meetings to become familiar with the application process.
  • Map out your personal application timeline. When will you take the relevant admissions exam (if required)? When will prerequisite courses be complete? When will you be applying to programs?
  • Do you want to start your health professions program immediately following graduation? Consult the application page for steps and timing.
  • Most Puget Sound students take a gap/growth year or two to strengthen their applications. Explore options for a potential gap/growth year. 

Senior Year

  • Have you submitted an application to a health professions program? If so, continue gaining experience and volunteering in case you find yourself needing to re-apply. 
  • If you haven't applied yet, attend Fall (October) and Spring (January) Applicant Meetings to become familiar with the application process.
  • If you will be applying to programs after graduation from Puget Sound, firm up plans for your gap/growth year(s).
  • If you plan to apply immediately after graduation, consult the application page for steps and timing. 

Note: Many applicants are now choosing to take gap/growth years and apply after graduation. This provides time to gain relevant experience and to pursue passions while continuing to prepare for professional programs. Regardless of when you apply, the services of the Health Professions Advising Office are available to you.