Health and society B.S. majors develop a broad understanding of health and its determinants to prepare them for outstanding careers in the health professions. The program incorporates the sciences, social sciences, humanities and behavioral sciences to offer career development opportunities through interdisciplinary teaching and research collaborations between students and faculty involved in the major.
Students can tailor their coursework to their own goals so that they are best able to match the requirements needed for their future career plans. Health and society majors are prepared to pursue postgraduate studies in medicine, public health, psychology, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, health care administration, the social sciences, (e.g., medical sociology, medical anthropology), and the humanities, (e.g., history of science, medical humanities, philosophy of science, bioethics). Students have also continued on directly to non-profit and for-profit careers in many health-related careers.
Application Process
Admission is competitive and requires an application. Applications are accepted electronically once per year in February. Applicants may only apply once.
Eligibility Requirements
Applications must be made in a student’s freshman or sophomore year to have time to complete all requirements, unless applicants are transfer students who are eligible to apply in their junior year if other eligibility criteria are met.
Applicants must have completed, or be in the process of completing at least 24 credit hours at SMU. They must have completed one of the laboratory science requirements and ANTH 3306 . Transfer student applicants must have completed the laboratory science requirement at SMU and have completed or be currently enrolled in ANTH 3306 at SMU. This means that enrolling in these required courses by fall of the junior year is critical for these applicants to be eligible to apply.
Program Policies
- Core courses in the program must be taken at SMU. This includes: ANTH 3301 , ANTH 3306 , and the capstone.
- Students who choose to study abroad may only transfer in six credit hours of coursework to the major.
- All coursework must be completed before students can register for the capstone course, usually taken in their final semester. Before enrolling, students must notify the department of their choice of capstone course.
- Students must be admitted to the program before they can register for the capstone.
- Students pursuing a major in health and society may additionally pursue a minor in anthropology, but only six credit hours may be double-counted.
Note: Students preparing for admission to health-related graduate schools must consult with the pre-health professions adviser to ensure they meet application requirements.
SMU Degree Requirements
An SMU undergraduate degree requires a minimum of 120 credit hours and must include completion of the University’s Common Curriculum , one major and a combination of electives and/or other majors or minors. Completion of certain majors requires more than 120 hours to finish the degree. The credit hours within this curriculum are distributed as follows: