Pre-Professional Advising
Assisting students interested in attending Professional Schools:
Medical, Dental, Physician Assistant, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Law, and Optometry
Services
PPAC offers the following services to students:
- Assistance with navigating the application process for professional school
- Providing direction on supplemental application pieces, attaining relevant experiences in community service, clinical experience, volunteering, research, and extra-curriculars
- Comprehensive guide to what makes a well-qualified professional school applicant (personal attributes)
- Advising appointments tailored to students’ individual needs
- Guidance on academic requirements, curriculum, and policy information
**The pre-professional advising center is committed to serving our current UNLV students. Before making an appointment with the PPAC, you need to be admitted to UNLV. Thanks for your understanding!
***Please note: you will have two advisors as you complete your degree. Visit with your respective college academic advisor for all things related to your degree (course planning, petitions, change of majors, etc.). We can not sign off on SAP appeal forms, VA forms, etc. The PPAC will compliment your degree advising with guidance directly related to your professional school application.
To make an appointment with our advisors, please call 702-895-2959 or visit the Rebel Success Hub and make an appointment online.
Events
Professional Track Information
Information & Resources
The PPAC has created a professional school self-assessment tool, for healthcare related tracks, that is a centralized document for you to keep everything related to your professional school journey. There are tabs and spaces allocated to application timeline, pre-requisite course completion, keeping track of experience hours, personal statement notes, etc. This document will give you a holistic view of your application components all in one place! The best part is you can share this with your PPAC Advisor and any other trusted mentors and peers. Please visit the Rebel Success Hub and request a copy.
The PPAC has compiled five years of data showing applicant numbers, matriculants, average GPA and professional school test scores, and schools that UNLV students have matriculated to. For more information on pre-professional students’ statistics, please see the links below.
Please note:
Not all application services provide information back to advising offices at UNLV, or don’t have five full years of data available. The data shown is based on what PPAC has access to. Also note:
- Information provided above includes all students affiliated with UNLV, not just graduates.
- Data provided is self-reported by students (for healthcare tracks).
As a result, numbers may not be an accurate representation of who is attending professional school.
Professional school programs have adopted a “holistic” admissions process, meaning you are more than just your metrics. How you demonstrate your motivation for your future profession, your personal characteristics, and the ways in which you give back to your community can make or break your application.
Please visit our PPAC Resource Board for volunteer, clinical, shadowing, etc. experiences, as well as examples of where to find these experiences in the Vegas valley. Please keep this link bookmarked, as we are always updating!
Are you applying and needing help with writing your experience descriptions? The PPAC has put together information and resources to guide you. Please visit our Writing Experience Descriptions document to start!
We have many pre-health and pre-law based student organizations at UNLV. These can be a tremendous asset during your tenure as a pre-professional student, providing resources, professional development and community service opportunities, and networking with your colleagues! To get involved, please visit their website or the UNLV Student Involvement Center.
- Association of Pre-Health Professionals (APHP)
- Alpha Epsilon Delta (AED)
- UNLV American Medical Student Association
- Pre-Dental Society
- Latino Pre-Medical Student Association
- Future Latinos in Medicine
- UNLV HOSA
- Lambda Kappa Delta (Pre-PT)
- Pre-PA Society
- AMWA Pre-Med Branch
- Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students
- Pre-Professional Wellness Club
Pre-Law
As a pre-professional student, it is important for you to keep current with the ever-changing healthcare landscape. Below are blogs, podcasts, etc. that may be useful in understanding the world of healthcare.
Blogs
Podcasts
- Medical School Headquarters
- Nonprofit Quarterly (NPQ)
- “All Access Med School Admissions” from Case Western Reserve University
Reading Material
The PPAC encourages students to be prepared for their appointment with specific questions, concerns, and needed guidance relative to their professional school application. If you are a freshman or sophomore, we encourage you to attend an “Introduction to Professional School” or “Intro to Pre-Law” workshop before you make an appointment with the PPAC. Workshops are offered year-round; dates, times, and RSVP information can be found above under “Events”.
**As of fall 2018, if you are a new incoming freshman to UNLV, you are required to attend an “Introduction to Pre-Health” workshop before you make an appointment with the PPAC. Workshops are offered during the academic year; dates, times, and RSVP information can be found above under “Events”. After attending a workshop, please call our office to make an appointment.
**Current first and second year students, if you have not had an appointment with the PPAC, it is highly encouraged you also attend the "Intro to Pre-Health" workshop before you make an appointment.
We suggest you bring the following to your appointment with the PPAC:
- List of experiences (clinical experience, shadowing, community service, etc.) to date, including average hours
- Professional school cumulative and science GPA. This can be vastly different from your MyUNLV GPA and you need to know where you stand for professional school. We suggest you google “AAMC GPA Calculator” and download the excel spreadsheet titled “AMCAS GPA calculator”. Complete this and bring to your appointment. Please see “How do I complete the GPA calculator” under FAQ’s below for more information
- General list of programs you want to apply to and requirements for each
- For seniors getting ready to apply:
- List of letter writers for letters of recommendation
- Personal statement draft should be emailed AT LEAST one week ahead of appointment for feedback/review
- A strong sense of your motivation for your desired professional school, as well as a positive attitude and professional demeanor!
If you are a post-baccalaureate student, you will need to apply and be admitted to UNLV before you schedule a 1:1 appointment with an advisor. We do offer prospective students quick phone calls with the Director on Tuesday afternoons. Please call the office at 702-895-2959 to schedule. Once you have an appointment scheduled, please have the aforementioned documentation ready for your appointment.
Remember, if you are more than 5 minutes late to your appointment, it will be canceled. Due to high volume of student appointments, we can not accommodate late arrivals. Please research or call ahead of time if you need information on our location or parking. If your appointment is canceled, call our main line at 702-895-2959 to reschedule.
For any copies of the handouts received during your appointment, in a workshop, etc. please visit the Rebel Success Hub to request a copy and we will send them within 2-3 business days.
Health Professions Scholarship Program
For future and current MD, OD, PA and Dental school students, the Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP) offers two-, three- and four-year military scholarships. The HPSP covers civilian medical school tuition, pays for fees, provides a monthly living stipend and includes a signing bonus under certain conditions. This scholarship is offered by the Army, Navy and Air Force, and the benefits are the same across all three Services.
- Start applying at the same time you apply to professional schools. You can wait to apply, but you may wind up competing with more people for fewer slots, and each branch takes only about 300 students per year. Keep in mind that the acceptance process generally takes about three months.
- Contact a recruiter for each Service that interests you. You can apply solely to the Services that interest you, or you can apply to all three — Army, Navy or Air Force. Fill out a separate application for each Service that interests you.
- Once you are accepted to an accredited program, your recruiter or recruiters will finalize your application for review by the selection committee. Keep in touch with your recruiter during the process.
*If you are an active-duty commissioned service member or in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) or a Service academy, your application process will be the same as for civilians, except you will need to request a contingent release from active duty to apply to the HPSP from your Service branch. ROTC also requires an education delay form. If you are an active-duty enlisted service member, you will also need a LOA from your commander. Finally, if you are in the Reserve, you will need to request permission from your commanding officer.
When accepted and, as an HPSP scholarship participant, you will be an officer in the Individual Ready Reserve. For that reason, your requirements and benefits differ in some respects from service members on Active Duty. You do not wear a uniform to your classes, you are not eligible for active-duty pay unless on training orders and you are expected to attend officer training if you can fit it into your academic schedule. In the third year of medical school, you will start interviewing for residency positions, and you will participate in a military match process and possibly a civilian match process, which will determine where you go for residency.
For more information, please ask your PPAC Advisor for the most recent military recruiter contact information.
Staff
Amber Benton, Ph.D.
Melyssa Barrera
Rosalyn Jimenez
