Applying to any professional school is a daunting task.
That’s where Florida Southern College Director of Career Services Dr. Lauren Albaum can help.
Since she arrived at Florida Southern in 2016, Albaum has guided a steady rise in the College’s student acceptance rate to professional schools across the country thanks to her implementation of the Pre-Professional Program (P3).
In the recently released 2019-20 Health Professions Applicant Report, Florida Southern had its highest ever acceptance rating, reaching a 92.3% acceptance rate of all students in P3. The program also had 100% acceptance rate to physical therapy school, physician assistant programs, and veterinary medical school.
“This milestone is a testament to the many faculty and staff who have worked diligently to support our students, most notably the members of the Health Professions Advisory Committee (HPAC),” Albaum said.
“Since my arrival in late 2016, I have been continually impressed with Florida Southern College pre-health students. They are resilient, teachable, motivated, and highly intelligent. In a few short years, we have capitalized on their strengths and created manageable pipelines to ensure student success, as shown by our impressive acceptance rates.”
The Pre-Professional Program is a rigorous, competitive program for students pursuing admission to health professions schools after obtaining their undergraduate degrees. P3 assists students with academic and career goals to prepare them to be qualified candidates for these professional programs. In this respect, “Pre-Professional” refers to most medically related fields, including the medical, dental, veterinary, physician assistant, optometry, podiatry, and physical therapy fields. However, the program does not apply to nursing or to pre-law studies and other paths that lie outside of the natural sciences and health professions.
In this program, students participate in specific activities that encourage ongoing exploration of the health care field and prepare them for success in this highly competitive arena. Activities include workshops, classes, one-on-one advising, and professional observation and volunteer experiences. Students who complete the program are well prepared to submit a holistically competitive application to outstanding professional programs.
Students must apply to the P3 in their sophomore year, where they are taught to begin to understand the holistic profile that will ultimately be used in their application to professional schools of their choice.
“At most schools you go to, there will be no one to help you understand the pre-requisites,” Albaum said. “We do all of that through this comprehensive plan. We go with them through this journey from sophomore year and onward. It’s very difficult to understand what a competitive application is … this is a very intensive process. It’s very difficult to do unless you have a coach that understands the process and is able to highlight the student’s strengths. If you want help with the application, there’s no reason you should be submitting without an advisor.”
In total 51 health professional schools offered acceptances to Florida Southern College applicants during the 2019-20 report, in and out of P3.