Allied Health Professions

The Biology Department of Westmont College provides training appropriate for pursuing careers in many of the allied health fields. Since there is a large amount of variety in requirements for each graduate program, it is also important for students to look at a number of different schools of interest to gain a sense of what you will need to have taken before making applications to specific schools. This page is intended to provide some general information and recommended courses which will provide the best preparation for most of the non-doctoral level allied health programs. For doctoral level programs (eg, DVM, DDS, MD, DO), see the Premedical Information Pages.

For most of the allied health fields, several courses in biology are required, in addition to some courses in psychology and chemistry. Thus, choice of a Biology BA track is well suited as a major, as it allows flexibility in choosing the additional courses necessary (whether psychology, chemistry, mathematics, etc). Also, many physical therapy and nursing programs require courses in anatomy and physiology, and a Biology BA can include these courses. A typical program, then, could include a year of Intro Biology (Bio 5 & 6), a year of Intro Chemistry (Chm 5 & 6), Statistics (Ma 5), Human Anatomy (Bio 11), Physiology (Bio 102), Genetics (Bio 114), Microbiology (Bio 111), several courses in Psychology, and one more upper division Biology course.

The Career and Life Planning Office has a large amount of information available to review about the variety of health related careers, along with information about many of the programs and what to expect.

Also, there is good information on allied health careers at the Association of Schools of Allied Health. Sponsored by the American Medical Association, the “Careers in Allied Health” website is now up and running at http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/2322.html
The site draws information from the annual Health Professions Career and Education Directory (HPCED), including history of the profession, occupational description, employment characteristics, educational programs, and where to address inquiries.

General Requirements

Health Related Resources