What Does Pre-Professional Mean?

Pre-veterinary, pre-medical and pre-law are not majors, but rather statements of intention that indicate a career goal you are working toward while obtaining your bachelor’s degree. Pre-veterinary and pre-health (pre-medical, pre-dentistry, etc.) require completion of science courses while pre-law preparation focuses on acquiring a well-balanced education through which thinking, reading and writing skills are developed.

What Major is Required?

Pre-professional requirements can be met regardless of major. CASNR offers several pathways to help achieve your goal of pursuing an advanced degree. You should decide upon the major that is most compatible with your own interests, talents and skills.

Where Do You See Yourself?

Areas of Emphasis

Pre-Health
CASNR boasts several alumni who are practicing general medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, cardiology, dermatology and many other specialized health professions. The combination of the strong science foundation ingrained in several CASNR majors and student leadership opportunities allow students to achieve their goal of advanced study within the broad disciplines of human health-related studies.

Pre-Law
CASNR’s agribusiness major has a specific degree option for students interested in pre-law that promotes the development of problem-solving abilities and exceptional writing skills. Several students within various CASNR majors also have used their diverse agricultural knowledge as their foundation for law degrees.

Pre-Veterinary
Agribusiness, animal science, biochemistry and molecular biology, entomology, and natural resource ecology and management have specific degree options for pre-veterinary studies. Each major includes completion of necessary veterinary prerequisite courses.

Early Admission Programs

3+1 Early Admissions Program
The 3+1 early admissions program is a degree plan that allows a student to complete the first three years at OSU then transfer back up to 30 hours from a health professions doctoral program to complete the undergraduate degree. The following CASNR majors have been approved for use: agribusiness, pre-veterinary business management option, animal science, pre-veterinary animal science and biochemistry and molecular biology.

OSU Center for Veterinary Health Sciences Early Admission Program
Students accepted to this program agree to complete their bachelor’s degree within four years (or less) along with all pre-veterinary required courses and maintain the designated 3.5 GPA each semester of their undergraduate career. Students who finish the Early Admission Program are provisionally guaranteed a seat in the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) program once they have completed all requirements.

Rural and Underserved Primary Care 3+1 Program
The OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine (OSU-COM) seeks to admit students who desire to become primary care physicians in rural and underserved Oklahoma. OSU-COM recognizes biochemistry and molecular biology and animal science in CASNR as providing rigorous academic preparation for a variety of careers. Utilizing either of these curricula for the first three years combined with the OSU-COM first year curriculum as their fourth year, students in the program are able to earn a bachelor’s degree from OSU. Students then progress through the second, third and fourth years of the rural and underserved osteopathic medical track to graduate with a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) degree.

Pre-Law Option for Early Admission to Law School
OSU’s 3+3 Pre-Law Option for early admission to law school allows students to complete an undergraduate degree and a law degree in just six years. Students who complete at least 90 semester credit hours in a designated pre-law preparatory program and are admitted to an accredited law school will be awarded their baccalaureate degree upon the successful completion and transfer back of up to 30 semester credit hours in law school courses applicable to the OSU degree. Agribusiness, pre-law option is a designated program.

Want to schedule a campus visit or learn more about pursuing a pre-professional program? Visit our Future Students page.