General description

The Natural Sciences General Program’s office provides information to students interested in continuing Allied Health Studies. The Program’s counselors give orientation on the particular curricular requirements for Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Physical therapy, Optometry, Chiropractic and Veterinary schools, among many others. During the academic evaluation periods, counselors guide the students in the selection of courses which will help them complete the requirements for their particular professional school of interest.

Our goal is to inform and provide orientation to students interested in health related careers. The Program’s office has information on the requirements for various professional schools which helps students evaluate the requirements for different careers in order to make an informed decision on their professional interests. Our counselors can also aid in guiding students towards various career options and academic opportunities in Puerto Rico, especially at the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences campus, and abroad.
Students are encouraged to visit our office and review the various catalogs from different universities in Puerto Rico, the United States and other locations. In addition, the library at the College of Natural Sciences has orientation videos from many of these universities. Updated information can also be obtained on the internet.

Opportunities for students

Each year we provide orientation on the various academic opportunities to freshmen accepted at the College of Natural Sciences and to those still taking courses at the College of General Studies. Our counselors also provide information on the professional schools’ admission exams, review courses for these exams, school application dates, internship opportunities, etc. Internship and other student opportunities are also available through the UPR-RP Blackboard course “Internados y Oportunidades de Investigación”.

The Program also collaborates with companies such as Kaplan and the Almeida Institute in offering practice tests at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras campus for several of the admission exams required by professional and graduate schools. These practice exams allow the students’ self assessment and helps them to adequately prepare for these tests.

Kaplan usually provides these exams on a Saturday once each semester, in October and March, while Almeida usually administers their exams on a Sunday in August and January. The exams offered by these companies include the MCAT (Medicine), PCAT (Pharmacy), DAT (Dentistry), GRE (Veterinary and Graduate schools) and LSAT (Law Schools).

Academic evaluation

All students at the College of Natural Sciences are required to visit their counselor each semester for an academic evaluation. This process allows the student and counselor to discuss study plans in order to determine if the pre requisites for specific courses have been completed, suggest courses which would enrich the students academic preparation for their chosen field of interest and provide general academic orientation in terms of the student’s performance at the University. The orientation received during the academic evaluation is of particular importance for graduation candidates in order to determine that all of the College’s requirements have been fulfilled.

Due to the large amount of students registered in the Natural Sciences General Program, students must make an appointment for their academic orientations with their counselor during the evaluation period. Counselor appointments are usually given from September to October for the first semester and from February to March during the second semester. Evaluation periods correspond to dates prior to registration for Fall, Spring and Summer sessions in order to help the students with their course selection. Course registration periods are usually during the last weeks of May for the Fall session, during November for Fall and in April for Summer.

Our goal is to be able to offer personalized attention to each of our students; therefore, it is of extreme importance that students punctually attend their appointments on the established date. Once the evaluation period is finished, if a student requires general orientation on a particular subject other than an academic evaluation, there is no need for an appointment.