St. Bonaventure University offers majors, academic advising, and extracurricular opportunities that will prepare you for a career in health care. Our emphasis on the value of others, compassionate & ethical service, and academic excellence transforms good students into great health care professionals.

Medical schools and other healthcare graduate programs require specific prerequisite courses, but accept applicants with a wide range of undergraduate majors. The wide variety of health-related major options at St. Bonaventure prepare our students for success in a range of different healthcare fields.

• Biology is the most popular major for students preparing for medical school and other healthcare careers. St. Bonaventure’s Biology Department offers a wide range of research opportunities and state-of-the-art equipment.
• St. Bonaventure’s Chemistry, Biochemistry, Bioinformatics, and Physics programs are also strong options for students interested in medical school, pharmacy, and other healthcare programs.
• Students interested in physical therapy, occupational therapy, or physician assistant studies will find St. Bonaventure’s Health Science major to be ideally tailored for their future graduate studies.
• Students in the new Health & Society major take courses in the natural sciences and psychology, while exploring the role of healthcare in the modern world through courses in the humanities and social sciences.
• The Psychology major combines the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities to appeal to students interested in the human brain and human behavior.
• Our new Public Health major prepares students to enter careers in public health fields, or to pursue advanced studies in public health and policy, health administration, and epidemiology.

Medical schools value well-rounded applicants who are committed to a career in healthcare but have other interests as well. In fact, national studies show that students majoring in the humanities and arts are just as successful in getting into medical schools as students majoring in the natural sciences.

• Dedicated & experienced Health Professions advisers guide students interested in careers in health care.
• Students participate in The Experience in Clinical Medicine at Olean General Hospital, where they intern in many different departments of the hospital. To learn more, watch the "REAL MEDICINE" video to the right.
• Many of our pre-health students perform laboratory research under the supervision of faculty in the natural sciences, and present their findings at expositions on campus and at scientific conferences.
• Student-guided test preparation for graduate exams and student focused groups like our American Medical Student Association chapter and the on-campus Medical Emergency Response Team provide opportunities to learn from older students.
• Courses are grounded in the liberal arts and Franciscan tradition of St. Bonaventure, producing well-rounded students and ethical, empathetic practitioners.

Through our Franciscan Health Care Professions Program, St. Bonaventure’s pathway for talented high school seniors, students can be provisionally admitted to medical school before finishing high school. Early acceptance programs include:

• Medicine (M.D.)
• Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.)
• Dentistry (D.D.S.)
• Pharmacy (Pharm.D.)
• Physical Therapy (D.P.T.)

More information is available on the FHCP web page.