At Holy Cross, you can pursue your passion in any of the liberal arts while successfully preparing for a career in medicine, dentistry and other health fields. By offering outstanding academic preparation as well as many volunteer, clinical and research opportunities, Holy Cross has attained an excellent record in preparing students for graduate training in health care, with a medical school acceptance rate of approximately twice the national average. Holy Cross boasts many distinguished alumni who lead the health care field.
The goal of Health Professions Advising is to assist you in planning a curriculum and cocurricular experiences to prepare for successful application to medical school, dental school or many other health professions graduate schools.
You will be encouraged to take advantage of the broad variety of cocurricular opportunities at Holy Cross while receiving scientific training within nationally recognized programs in our state-of-the-art science laboratories. You will have opportunities to participate in undergraduate research. Our relationships with Worcester, Boston, and national teaching hospitals and biotech companies as well as our wide network of alumni working in the field allow us to offer access to outstanding research, clinical, and learning opportunities.
In concert with our Jesuit mission, we emphasize the ethical and humanistic side of education, through coursework, service activities, internships and the collaborative environment that we endeavor to create within our community. We also encourage students to reflect carefully on these activities as they consider a vocation of caring for others.
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Program Highlights
The Health Professions Advising Office offers the following support to our students and alumni:
- Open access to health professions advising for all students and alumni. Health Professions Advising is not a major or formal program. The office provides advice and feedback for all students interested in pursuing careers in health care.
- Assistance for all students with developing a plan that allows students to successfully complete the requirements for health professions graduate schools while taking advantage of the opportunities of a liberal arts college in a dynamic setting. Different health professions schools have different requirements; these can be explored in detail on our website.
- Access to a variety of internships, volunteer experiences, research opportunities, special events and shadowing programs offered through the College.
- Comprehensive support and evaluation by the Health Professions Advising Committee and subsequent composite recommendation letter to accompany a candidate’s medical school application. Students are assigned an individual advisor from the committee to assist in the process of discerning a vocation and assembling the necessary materials for application.
Most medical and allied health professions school applicants nationally and at Holy Cross apply to their program after graduation from college. Holy Cross offers lifetime advising and application support for all of its students and alumni. We encourage all students and alumni to contact the Health Professions Advising Office for an appointment to speak to a health professions advisor. Applicants need to be aware of critical deadlines.
Learn more about the feature that distinguishes our program from almost every other similar college program.
Consider different paths to medical school and make the most of the academic resources at Holy Cross.
Navigate the application process and compile all required materials.
A wide variety of experiences can help you build strong qualifications over time.
Health Professions Advising News
When Ja-Naé Duane introduces entrepreneurship to students at the College of the Holy Cross, she doesn’t start by talking about business ideas, product development or marketing strategy. Rather, she tells students: “Pick a problem.”