For students hoping to become doctors, physician assistants, physical therapists, occupational therapists and other healthcare professionals, getting into graduate school is often the biggest hurdle. At SUNY Oneonta, students are clearing it.
Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the university's Pre-Health Professions Program is helping students turn career aspirations into reality through specialized advising, professional school partnerships and hands-on experiences that prepare them for what comes next.
The outcomes speak for themselves. Over the past four years, SUNY Oneonta students applying to osteopathic medical (DO) programs have been accepted at a rate of 82 percent. During the same period, students applying to physician assistant programs achieved a 50 percent acceptance rate despite increasingly competitive admissions standards and growing expectations for direct patient care experience.
Behind those numbers is a program designed to help students navigate one of higher education's most challenging pathways.
Housed within the Office of Health Careers, SUNY Oneonta’s Pre-Health Professions Program serves hundreds of students each year. From choosing prerequisite courses and gaining clinical experience to preparing applications and exploring career options, students receive guidance throughout every stage of the process.
A key part of that support comes from Program Director and Pre-Health Advisor Tami LaPilusa.
"These students have very specialized needs," LaPilusa said. "Our goal is to help them understand the process, explore their options and build the experiences they need to be successful."
That guidance is paired with opportunity. SUNY Oneonta maintains partnerships with seven health professional schools across eight pathways, creating routes into medicine, physician assistant studies, physical therapy, occupational therapy, nursing, optometry and more.
"The articulations allow our students to apply early and receive preferred acceptance instead of waiting for the regular admission cycle for what are very competitive programs," LaPilusa said.
For many students, those pathways provide a clear roadmap to their future careers.
Learning extends well beyond the classroom. Throughout the year, students visit professional schools, tour healthcare facilities and connect directly with faculty, admissions representatives and practitioners in the field.
This year, pre-health students toured SUNY Upstate Medical University's Simulation Center and learned about graduate programs in physical therapy, physician assistant studies, respiratory therapy and perfusion science. Students interested in medicine visited LECOM, where they observed problem-based learning in action and toured medical school facilities. Future physical and occupational therapists explored classrooms and clinical learning spaces at Russell Sage College.
Through partnerships with organizations such as Bassett Healthcare Network and Springbrook, students can also gain clinical and professional experience while helping address workforce needs throughout the region.
Some graduates ultimately return to Central New York as healthcare providers, bringing their skills back to the communities that helped shape them.
“I enjoy being back in my hometown and providing a needed service to people in my community,” said Taryn More, a Class of 2018 graduate who returned to establish her own dental practice. “It's something I've looked forward to for years, and it feels very empowering to finally be here working.”
As an undergraduate, More interned at FrieslandCampina in Delhi, volunteered with Opportunities for Otsego (OFO) Head Start’s dental program for children, and worked as a dental assistant during summer breaks.
“Tami was instrumental in helping me gain necessary volunteer experiences with the OFO Head Start program,” More said, “which I believe helped me gain admission to the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine (where she earned a DDS in 2023). I felt fortunate to have a support system of faculty from SUNY Oneonta that helped me and checked in on me throughout my studies, and they continue to support me to this day!”