Advising
You can schedule an appointment with our office via walk-in, schedule via STAR, or email/call our office to assist with scheduling. We have appointments available through Zoom, phone, or in-person. Information on how to schedule an appointment can be found here.
Please visit us at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Physical Sciences Building Room 214 for a walk-in appointment.
Phone: (808) 956-8646
Email: uhpac@hawaii.edu
Yes! PAC is open to the public, and we see prospective health and law students from all walks of life. We offer a variety of services, such as making personalized application strategy timelines, helping you to create your list of potential professional schools, providing mock interviews, and reviewing resumes and personal statements for your application.
- You can come in for walk-in advising or schedule an appointment here!
PAC is a walk-in resource center, meaning that appointments with peer advisors are not required! If a student is interested in getting advising, they can walk in anytime without having made an appointment in advance.
Financial Aid and Student Support Services
There are a number of financial aid options out there, but it is the student’s responsibility to seek out information through different resources and to apply for grants, scholarships, and loans. While you are an undergraduate, try to keep you debt load as low as possible, because Federal student loans will likely be your primary means of support when you are in professional school.
The Financial Literacy Program can help students learn how to budget. PAC is not a financial aid office, but does offer basic information about programs such as the:
- Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education’s (WICHE) and;
- Professional Student Exchange Program (PSEP)
Additionally, many of PAC’s reference books on admission requirements include a section on financial aid.
TRIO Mānoa Student Support Services (SSS) is a resource for first-generation college students and students with high-financial need. TRIO Mānoa is an academic advising office specialized in helping students succeed and offers services such as one-on-one advising, a computer lab, free printing, study room spaces, educational workshops, and exclusive events for accepted students.
Academics and Major/Degree
You can major in whatever you are passionate about! This is because most professional schools do not require a particular major. Rather than focusing on a specific major, schools generally prefer students who excel in their chosen field of study. Majors provide the foundation for your future career, reflect who you are, and demonstrate your capabilities on a subject. However, majors do not grant acceptance into or make you more competitive in your career field in health or law; any major can enter almost any field and statistical evidence shows no advantage of one major over the other. Professional schools appreciate having a diverse student body, and will accept students with a range of different educational backgrounds. Therefore, you should pick something that aligns with your interests and will encourage your success in school! Here are our webpages for:
Health: Health Professional fields require different prerequisite courses. Prerequisites can also be found by searching through national or individual schools’ online websites, but that is much more time-consuming. To get you started, PAC offers compiled lists of prerequisites for a variety of health professions:
Law: There are no specific classes or prerequisites that you need to take in order to get into law school. You should focus on getting the best GPA that you can and building relationships with your professors (it’s never too soon to think about letters of recommendation!). For your reference, the PAC office has compiled a:
- Pre-Law Recommended Course List that can help you develop skills that will be utilized in law school, but none of these classes are required for law school admittance.
If you are interested in changing your major, please schedule an appointment with the advisor for the college or school that you are interested in. For example, if you would like to declare a major in Biology, which is in the College of Natural Sciences, you would go to their website and complete their major declaration form.
- If you are having trouble finding your advisor, here is the Advising Guide.
Most professional schools, such as law, medicine, physical therapy, and physician assistant typically require a bachelor’s degree. Although not all schools list a bachelor’s degree as a requirement for admission, few students are admitted without one. For those schools that do not require a bachelor’s degree, completing a bachelor’s degree is still highly recommended. Admission to professional schools is highly competitive, and a bachelor’s degree significantly strengthens a student’s application and provides students with greater options for advancement and career opportunities. Most who apply either already have a degree or intend to finish it before enrolling. PAC can help you choose a major that will accommodate your future plans.
Gaining Experiences and Exploring Opportunities
The pathway to professional school requires specific coursework, shadowing, personal development, researching schools, entrance exams, applications, financial aid, and interviews. PAC Peer Advisors are trained to guide you through each of these steps and can connect you to additional resources.
- You can schedule an appointment through our website.
Experience can be in the form of job shadowing, volunteering, or paid work related to your field of interest. Professional schools highly recommend, and often require, students to obtain experience before applying. This ensures that students have explored a variety of fields, are familiar with current issues in their chosen field, and understand the demands of the profession. On a personal level, experience will help you evaluate your motivation and interest and will help you decide whether you want to dedicate your life to it. PAC provides contact lists of organizations and centers where students can volunteer.
Shadowing is highly recommended to understand whether the field you are interested in is the right fit for you. You can start by asking any health professionals that you have a prior relationship with such as your primary care doctor or dentist. PAC has a great resource on how to ask health professionals for shadowing opportunities and what to do while shadowing:
Entrance Exam
The specific prerequisite courses required by professional schools are your most important preparation for whichever entrance exam they require. Test materials can be found at most bookstores and online. Preparatory courses by independent organizations are also available online as well as at physical test centers, but they tend to be expensive. PAC has updated test preparatory books for the most commonly required exams, including the LSAT, MCAT, DAT, OAT, GRE, NET, etc.
- These can be borrowed from our PAC Lending Library at our office located at the Physical Sciences Building Room 214.
For more information about entrance exams: