Graduate & Professional School

Your life after Denison is full of options. You might obtain a pre-professional degree in medicine, law, or engineering, or choose to pursue a number of other graduate programs. And our undergraduates who go on to attain higher degrees say that Denison prepared them well for graduate school.

Get good advice

You’ll get good advice about pre-professional and graduate schools from career coaches at the Knowlton Center. The Knowlton Center also has a career library with guide books and standardized test prep materials for everything from the GRE to the GMAT, as well as other resources. Your Denison faculty advisors are also a valuable resource you should consult with.

We also help you develop a strong personal statement, find the right career labs to strengthen your resume and CV, and get professional advice tailored to your goals. Career coaches help you navigate the differences between programs, the admission process, and make sure your application reflects a compelling portrait of what you have to offer.

Before you apply to professional or grad school, you should consider these starter questions:

• Am I simply delaying my career decision-making?
• Why do I want this degree and not something else?
• What are my long and short-term professional goals?

Professional Programs

Healthcare

Medicine, dentistry, occupational therapy, physical therapy, nursing, and veterinary medicine admissions are based on your performance on tests such as the Medical College Admissions Test (M-CAT) and Graduate Record Examination (GRE). Your academic achievement in both science and non-science courses, as well as other components such as personal statements and experiences is also important. You can bolster your preparations and gain an overview of several related fields by conducting internships, externships and health-related volunteer work in hospital and/or clinical settings.

Law

The acceptance rate of Denison graduates is consistently well-above the national average. Your performance on the Law School Admission Test (L-SAT) and your academic records are the major determining factors in law school admissions. Representatives from a number of schools regularly visit the campus. Career panels, programs and internships in legal settings can also help you make an informed decision.

Business

Many Denison graduates go on to get degrees in business administration and management. Your career coach will give you great advice on preparing for business school.The current national trend is to work several years between undergraduate and M.B.A. programs.

Engineering

Denison offers two plans to prepare you for an engineering career.

1. Students can major in natural sciences or mathematics and receive their bachelor’s degree from Denison, and follow that with two years of graduate work at another institution leading to a master’s degree in engineering. Denison students are regularly accepted to graduate engineering programs at leading universities.
2. The second plan is a 3+2 / 4+2 program. You can study for three or four years at Denison, and do an additional two years at an affiliated engineering school, resulting in two bachelor’s degrees. Denison is affiliated in such dual-degree programs with Washington University (St. Louis) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Students interested in these plans should contact the Pre-Engineering Director, Steven Doty, at their earliest opportunity