Interested in becoming a doctor, dentist, P.A., pharmacist or pursuing another health-related career? CBS undergraduates can meet with the CBS Pre-Health Career Coach to prepare for health professions and schools. Schedule an appointment with a Pre-Health Career Coach by calling 612-624-9717 or schedule an appointment online. 

Students can meet with a CBS Pre-Health Career Coach for help with:

• Exploring and preparing for health professions and schools
  1. Schedule an appointment with a Pre-Health Career Coach and start the conversation about what are your first steps in the process of exploration and preparing for a career in the health professions.
  2. Prior to your appointment, review the Pre-Health First Steps Planning Meeting guide to prepare for common topics of conversation in your exploration and planning process.
• Becoming competitive for health professional school
  1. Review and reflect on experiences commonly gained by competitive applicants prior to applying to health professional school, especially those valued by your profession.
  2. Watch a short video on becoming a competitive applicant
  3. After thinking about your own experiences and what you’d still like to gain, schedule an appointment with a Pre-Health Career Coach to talk about becoming more competitive.
• Practice interviews for health professional school
  1. Review our interview guide.
  2. Schedule a 45-minute practice interview with a Pre-Health Career Coach by calling 612-624-9717 where you can receive personalized coaching to improve your interviewing skills. Once you’ve scheduled your appointment, e-mail a Pre-Health Career Coach and indicate if you would like practice with the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) format of interviewing, utilized by many medical schools, or the traditional style of interviewing, utilized by many other health programs across the country.
• Shadowing and Networking

  Review some of our networking tips for pre-health students. Follow up with an appointment with our career staff for more information on building your network.

• Planning a gap year
  1. Review our gap-year guide to learn more about what a gap year is.
  2. Meet with a Pre-Health Career Coach to determine how you may best spend your time after graduation before health professional school!
• Résumé writing and cover letter reviews
  1. Review our résumé guide. Also review résumé samples if you're interested. (Sample one, Sample two, and Sample three) 
  2. Watch a quick webinar on résumé writing 101.
  3. Bring a draft résumé to a career coaching appointment for tailored feedback based on your goals. You can also pick-up our Cover Letter Guide while you’re here! 
• Career planning courses

  CBS currently offers several courses that may be useful to students in planning their careers:

  • BIOL 2001: Career Planning for Biologists
  • BIOL 3610: Professional Experience in the Biological Sciences
• Applying to health professional school after completing Chemistry for the Life Sciences

  If you have completed the Chemistry for the Life Sciences course sequence, CBS has created some resources to assist you in applying to health professional school.

  1. Here is a website you can refer health professional schools you're apply to for more information about your chemistry sequence.

  2. Visit the following page for application support related to applying to health professional school after completing Chemistry for the Life Sciences.

Interested in hearing from program alumni and current participants? Check out this series of brief student and alumni profiles.

CBS Pre-Health Career Coaches

Luke Feuling Porter, Pre-Health Career Coach, porte257@umn.edu

CBS students looking for pre-health coaching can meet with Luke Feuling Porter. He helps students explore programs and careers in health fields, prepare for the application process, review personal statements and take part in mock interviews. Luke can also assist students looking for health-related internships.

Rebecca Luebbert, Assistant Director for Career Development, luebbert@umn.edu

CBS students looking for either  career or pre-health coaching can meet with Rebecca Diaz to prepare for life after their undergraduate career. She works with students on career exploration, résumé, cover letter and graduate school personal statement development, as well as preparing for the job search or professional health-education programs.

Additional Resources

• What Do Medical Schools Look for in Applicants?
• Diversity Career Resources
• Why Diversity Matters to Health Professionals?
  • Why Use the Term “Cultural Humility”? (Article)
  • Narrative Humility: Sayantani DasGupta at TEDxSLC (Video)
  • Becoming a Competitive Applicant Webinar