Program Description
Physicians study, diagnoses, and treat illness and injury. They may work in offices, clinics, hospitals, or laboratories, in private practice or for government or industry. Their professional training usually consists of 4 years of study in a college of medicine to earn the doctor of medicine (M.D.) degree, and then 3 or more years in hospital residency learning a specialty such as family medicine, pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics, or psychiatry. A degree of doctor of osteopathy (D.O.) is awarded to those students who complete 4 years in a college of osteopathic medicine before their residency. All medical schools recommend a broad preprofessional education that includes courses in biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, English, the social sciences, arts and humanities. The degree of a premedical student can be from any college and in any curriculum or major offered by the university. The major should reflect the student’s interests and provide appropriate preparation for an alternative career.
