WHAT ARE MY OPTIONS FOR A BACHELOR'S DEGREE IN HEALTH & EXERCISE SCIENCE (HES) AT PACIFIC? We have three tracks. Three options for a degree. Two of those options are a Bachelor of Arts (BA) and the other is a Bachelor of Science (BS). These: 1) BA in Human Performance. 2) BA in Health and Exercise Science. 3) BS in Health and Exercise Science. |
WHICH DEGREE OPTION SHOULD I CHOOSE? Choose the one that aligns most closely with your career goals (physical therapy? nursing? physician? physician assistant? research? nutrition or dietetics?). If you want to work in an athletic or fitness setting, and you want to begin your career immediately upon graduation, go with Human Performance. If you want to pursue graduate school, go with Health and Exercise Science. If your graduate studies will be in either Physical Therapy or Occupational Therapy, go with the BS. If you're an aspiring Physician Assistant, go with the BA. If you're pursuing academia (MA/MS, then PhD), BA or BS is fine. Same with DO/MD programs; you just have to make sure you include all of the prereqs. No matter what degree option you choose, you will be taking similar courses and you will have the same resources available. Resources include studying abroad and publishing research. Regarding research, we're one of the most represented institutions in America at the American College of Sports Medicine national conference. Here's a list of our recently-published student-led research projects: Pacific Paper Mill, Past Publications.) And regarding studying abroad, here are some journals of HES students who did summer internships in Uganda: Carlos (1), Carlos (2), Carlos (3), Brianna, Lonnae, Cynthia, and a Stockton Record article about the trip. Not everyone takes advantage of those resources, but they're available, and once students graduate and enter the wide and grinding world of careers, they may never encounter such abundant resources again. So you should definitely be one of the students who does take advantage. Get your tuition's worth. |
WHAT ARE THE EXACT REQUIREMENTS FOR EACH OF THE THREE DEGREES? Below, you'll find summaries of each of the three programs. For the full detailed breakdown of each program's requirments, click on the titles. |
BA in Human Performance 120 total credits 64 units outside of HESP 42 GE units (counts toward 64 above) 9 GE category requirements 2 semesters of foreign language PACS I, II, and III Diversity requirement 5 HESP electives HESP 129: Ex. Phys. HESP 133: Funct. Anatomy HESP 135: Nutrition & Metab. HESP 143: Care of Inj. & Ill. HESP 157: Clinician HESP 180: Epidemiology HESP 182: Ex. Test. & Rx BIOL 011 or 061: A. & P. CHEM 023 or 025: Gen. Chem. |
BA in HES 120 total credits 64 units outside of HESP 42 GE units (counts toward 64 above) 9 GE category requirements 2 semesters of foreign language PACS I, II, and III Diversity requirement 5 HESP electives HESP 129: Ex. Phys. HESP 133: Funct. Anatomy HESP 147: Muscle Phys. HESP 157: Clinician HESP 180: Epidemiology HESP 187: Internship BIOL 051: Biology I BIOL 061: Biology II BIOL 170: Human Phys. BIOL 180: Human Anatomy CHEM 025: Gen. Chem. I CHEM 027: Gen. Chem. II |
BS in HES 120 total credits 64 units outside of HESP 42 GE units (counts toward 64 above) 9 GE category requirements PACS I, II, and III Diversity requirement 3 HESP electives HESP 129: Ex. Phys. HESP 133: Funct. Anatomy HESP 135: Nutrition & Metab. HESP 147: Muscle Phys. HESP 157: Clinician HESP 180: Epidemiology HESP 187: Internship BIOL 051: Biology I BIOL 061: Biology II BIOL 170: Human Phys. BIOL 180: Human Anatomy CHEM 025: Gen. Chem. I CHEM 027: Gen. Chem. II PHYS 23: Gen. Physics I PHYS 25: Gen. Physics II |
ONCE I'VE PICKED MY PROGRAM, AM I STUCK IN IT FOR EVER AND EVER? Nah. Notice all the overlap? All three programs are really similar. Sometimes people will start in the BS, then decide one of the BAs has a bit more freedom, and switch. That involves paperwork, and paperwork is obnoxious, so if you have aboulomania (pathological indecisiveness), hold off on the official program change until you're sure sure it's your final decision. You might be edging in on graduation at that point... which is fine. All of the official forms can be found here and the actual form you'll need to change degrees is the Change of Program form. |
WHAT ARE ALL OF THE COURSES OFFERED IN HES? First, here's the official university webpage's list of all course offerings in HES. What's good about that list: it has course descriptions. What's bad: not all of those courses are actually taught at Pacific. Some of the entries are simply relics of an earlier age, courses that haven't been taught in ten years and aren't likely to be taught in the next ten. And other courses on that list that haven't gone extinct aren't really recommended... for many reasons (for example: graduate schools won't recognize them on transcripts). A much more useful list of courses offered in Pacific's HES program (i.e., a complete list of courses we really do offer and really do recommend) is this: HESP 027. Introduction to Athletic Training (1) HESP 041. Health and Wellness for Life (4) HESP 045. Nutrition for Health (4) HESP 061. Medical Terminology (4) HESP 110. Health and Exercise Science Law (4) HESP 129. Exercise Physiology (4) HESP 133. Functional Anatomy (4) HESP 135. Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism (4) HESP 143. Care & Prevention of Athletic Injuries (3) HESP 145. Therapeutic Modalities (3) HESP 146. Health, Disease, and Pharmacology (4) HESP 147. Muscle Physiology (4) HESP 149. Clinical Evaluation and Diagnosis (3) HESP 150. Clinical Evaluation and Diagnosis II (3) HESP 157. Clinician in Health and Exercise Science (4) HESP 163. Therapeutic Exercise and Rehabilitation (3) HESP 177. Cardiovascular Physiology (4) HESP 180. Clinical Epidemiology (4) HESP 191. Independent Study (1-4) HESP 193. Special Topics (3-4) HESP 197. Independent Research (1-4) |
WHAT SEMESTERS ARE THOSE COURSES OFFERED? Fall Semester: HESP 110, HESP 129, HESP 133, HESP 147, HESP 157, HESP 177, HESP 180, HESP 187, HESP 193 Spring Semester: HESP 129, HESP 133, HESP 135, HESP 147, HESP 157, HESP 177, HESP 180, HESP 182, HESP 187, HESP 193 Summer Sessions: HESP 129, HESP 133, HESP 135, HESP 157, HESP 187 |
WHAT COUNTS AS HES ELECTIVES? Required courses can't also count as electives, obviously. You can't double up in that way. Electives must be at least 3 credits, not be required for your BA or BS, and appear on this list: HESP 041: Health and Wellness for Life HESP 045: Nutrition for Health HESP 061: Medical Terminology HESP 110: Law in Health and Exercise Science HESP 135: Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism (prerequisite: HESP 129; BIOL 011 or BIOL 061) HESP 137: Psychosocial Aspects of Healthcare HESP 143: Care and Prevention of Athletic Injuries HESP 145: Therapeutic Modalities HESP 146: Health, Disease, and Pharmacology HESP 147: Muscle Physiology (prerequisite: HESP 129) HESP 149: Clinical Evaluation and Diagnosis (prerequisite: HESP 133 or BIOL 071) HESP 150: Clinical Evaluation and Diagnosis II (prerequisite: HESP 149) HESP 163: Therapeutic Exercise HESP 173: Health Care Management and Professional Development HESP 177: Cardiovascular Physiology (prerequisite: HESP 129) HESP 182: Exercise Testing and Prescription (prerequisite: HESP 147) HESP 191: Independent Study (must submit an abstract or paper for publication) HESP 193A: Best Practices in Exercise Science HESP 193B: Stress Physiology HESP 197: Independent Research (must present research at a national conference) |
WHAT OUTSIDE-OF-THE-MAJOR COURSES ARE RECOMMENDED? Lots. But here's a list of many outside-of-the-major courses we recommend: ANTH 053: Cultural Anthropology (meets: diversity) BENG 104: Biomedical Imaging (prerequisite: MATH 055, PHYS 055; COMP 051 or ENGR 019) BENG 124: Biomechanics (prerequisite: MATH 53) BIOL 072: Vertebrate Biology (prerequisite: BIOL 051, BIOL 061) BIOL 101: Genetics (prerequisite: CHEM 27) BIOL 122: Principles of Immunology (prerequisite: BIOL 101, CHEM 121) BIOL 124: Cancer Biology (prerequisite: BIOL 101) BIOL 126: Neurobiology (prerequisite: BIOL 051, BIOL 061) BIOL 145: Microbiology (prerequisite: BIOL 81) BIOL 153: Cell Biology (prerequisite: BIOL 051, BIOL 061, BIOL 101, CHEM 025, CHEM 027) BIOL 157: Topics in Biomedical Research (prerequisite: BIOL 051, BIOL 061, BIOL 101, CHEM 121) BIOL 179: Evolution (prerequisite: BIOL 051, BIOL 061) BIOL 182: Medical Endocrinology (prerequisite: BIOL 051, BIOL 061, BIOL 101, CHEM 025, CHEM 027) BIOL 186: Hormones and Behavior (prerequisite: BIOL 051, BIOL 061, BIOL 101) CHEM 121: Organic Chemistry (prerequisite: CHEM 27) CHEM 123: Organic Chemistry (prerequisite: CHEM 121) CHEM 151: Biochemistry (prerequisites: CHEM 121, CHEM 123; CHEM 159 or CHEM 161) CHEM 153: Biochemistry II (prerequisite: CHEM 151) ECON 161: Empirical Methods (prerequisite: ECON 053 and ECON 055, but that could be waived) ECON 183: Health Economics (prerequisite: ECON 051 or ECON 053) HIST 060: A History of Medicine (GE2B) HIST 061: Global History of Food HIST 167: Gender in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology (meets: diversity, gender studies) INTL 077: Contemporary World Issues INTL 101: Social Science Research (GE3B) PSYC 053. Behavioral Psychology PSYC 109: Biological Psychology (prerequisite: PSYC 105) PSYC 111: Abnormal Psychology (GE1A) PSYC 156: Behavioral Medicine/Health Psychology (prerequisite: PSYC 053) RELI 145: Biomedical Ethics (meets GE2B) SOCI 125: Sociology of Health and Illness (meets diversity, GE1B) Notes: INTL 101 (Social Science Research) covers research from a global perspective. It's about 25% quantitative and 75% qualitative. INTL 077 (Contemporary World Issues) involves a considerable amount of writing, but isn't difficult (except for the time). |
IN WHAT ORDER SHOULD I TAKE THESE CLASSES? Depends if you want to do a three-year plan (really cram education into every moment of free time) or a four-year plan (more reasonable approach to education).
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WHAT COURSES SHOULD I TAKE TO PREPARE FOR A SPECIFIC GRADUATE PROGRAM? Have you ever played pool? The billiards version of pool? You hit a white ball with a stick and it hits a bunch of other-colored balls and some of them fall into holsters, which players call "pockets"? You know that game? The players who win don't focus on making the immediate shot; they focus on setting up the next shot, while also pocketing this one. Success is about planning. It's about plotting tomorrow's course. It's not about fulfilling today's responsibilities. And one of the most important components about a student's plotting is graduate preparation. If you have specific graduate aspirations, and you've decided on a few target schools, you can spend your Pacific years setting up that shot. And you should. You definitely should. But preparing for specific graduate programs is a task that falls exclusively on the student; professors don't have the means to contribute here. "Why can't the professor tell me what classes I need to take to get into a specific graduate program?!" Because every graduate program has different admission criteria. You have to actually look up individual schools. And there are ~300 HES students, about two-thirds of whom are looking at half a dozen graduate programs, so... it's not part of a professor's job to keep constant tabs on every health-related graduate program in America (thousands) or do the students' laundry, etc. Some responsibilities belong to the student. This is one of them. But(!), below are some very genernal requirements for DPT, OT, and PA programs (these are susceptible to differences depending on the school you'll be applying to): Requirements for Physical Therapy graduate programs: BIOL 051, BIOL 061, BIOL 170, BIOL 180, CHEM 025, CHEM 027, PHYS 023, PHYS 025, HESP 061, HESP 129, PSYC 017, a second psychology course (PSYC 031 recommended), English Composition (PACS will count). Some programs (not Pacific) require BIOL 145 (Microbiology). Requirements for Occupational Therapy graduate programs: BIOL 051, BIOL 061, BIOL 170, BIOL 180, ANTH 053 or SOCI 051, MATH 035, COMM 027, HESP 061, PHYS 023, PSYC 017, and PSYC 129 (prereq: PSYC 105). Minimum grade that counts: C. Overall GPA must be above 3.0. Preference given to candidates who have all courses completed prior to application. You are eligible to apply if you have no more than two prerequisite courses may be in progress the spring semester prior to the program's start and no more than one course may be in progress during the fall semester prior to the program's start. Online courses accepted for HESP 061, ANTH 053, and SOCI 051. No other online courses. Courses must be taken in the last seven years. Also need at least 40 hours of observation in OT clinics (HESP 157 will help meet this). You might be able to substitute PSYC 029 for PSYC 129; it depends on the program. Requirements for Physician Assistant graduate programs: BIOL 051, BIOL 061, BIOL 170, BIOL 180, BIOL 145, CHEM 025, CHEM 027, MATH 035 (or MATH 037), PSYC 031, General Sociology or Cultural Anthropology, English Composition (PACS will count), and an Experiential Learning component (HESP 157 will count). Recommended courses (you get points for these but they're not required): Organic Chemistry, Genetics, Immunology, Molecular and Cell Biology, Life Span/Developmental Psychology, and additional math (Algebra and/or Calculus). What's important to know about PA programs is that the requirement for extra-curricular, in-person, patient-contact hours is enormous. Requirements vary depending on the school, but plan on at least 1,000 hours minimum, with 2,000 or more being optimal. For many students this means a full year of work, but it's possible to get in right out of undergrad. First: seek a certification, even a minimal certification to get a clinical job (EMT-B, CNA, or MA certifications are good options). The most common is EMT-B; Unitek offers an accelerated program and sometime people get them through Delta, Sac State, Consumnes River College, or American River College. Second: take HESP 157 as soon as you can and express to Dr. Ciccolella that you need to get into a clinical environment. At this point, it's up to you to dazzle the people who populate that environment. Being impressive here is the only way to open more doors. Unless you have friends and family at medical clinics; if you do, and they're willing to hire you, go get hired. Especially for jobs in which you work directly with patients (Direct Patient Contact or DPC hours are of particular importance). Lastly: the Medical Terminology course is very important, as it allows you to apply for medical scribing jobs. (Pacific offers HESP 061, which counts as an elective.) Being a scribe is the best way to immerse yourself into a medical role; the hours may not always count for DPC, but they are extremely valuable and useful for applying to graduate school and getting experience. |
WHAT IF I HAVE OTHER ADVISING QUESTIONS (GENERAL ELECTIVES, TRANSFER UNITS, ETC.)? If your question is about physiology or statistics or preparation for a specific PhD program, then come talk to a faculty member. But if your question is about classes themselves ("How do I meet the diversity requirment?" or "I took a class at Delta and I'm not sure if it articulates correctly on ROAR; how do I go about this?") then the faculty members are not go-to-gurus. For these sorts of questions, the Academic Advising and Career Services Center is where you want to go. The website is here (https://pacific.edu/stuff...), but more specifically, Dida Estrada is the Pre-Health Academic Advisor there. Here is her contact info: Email: eestrada1@pacific.edu Phone: (209) 932-2815 |
WHO ARE THE PROFESSORS IN THE DEPARTMENT? Ciccolella, Jensen, Van Ness, Wang, and West. Click anywhere on that roster for more information about the faculty. But before you do that clicking, here's a perk of that roster's composition: it contains remarkably diverse academic disciplines. A lawyer-physiologist, a public health specialist who works with professional bull riding, the founder of Pacific's athletic training program, a muscle physiologist, and a cardiovascular physiologist. Take the last two. What a muscle physiologist says is bad ("AMPK is terrible! Ahhh!"), a cardiovascular physiologist says is good ("AMPK is wonderful!"). They're both telling the truth... as it applies to their specific field. And that's the beauty of learning opposing systems at the same time. Also, regarding research, we have qualitative scientists (health law) and quantitative (emergency medicine, athletic enhancement, and metabolic dysfunction). Among the quantitative folks, we do both randomized, controlled trials and retrospective epidemiological investigations. |
HOW DOES "ADVISING" WORK? The HES program is sort of huge. I'm sure you've noticed. Despite all of the perks of huge academic programs, they're beset with unique limitations. One of those limitations is advising. It is not possible to advise individually. "But I pay top dollar!" or whatever. Okay. We can sympethize but not solve that problem. To understand advising in the department, please read the Advising Information page. That should sum everything up. |
WHAT ARE THE RULES ON REPEATING CLASSES? The official rules can be found on Pacific's Academic Regulations page. But in short, this: To repeat a course, you need to have received a C- or lower the first time you took it. Once that's on your transcript, you can repeat the course once. After repeating a course, the top grade ("best institutional grade attempted") is used to calculate your GPA, both overall and for your major or minor (whatever that class counts toward), but both grades will be visible on your academic record. You can't retake unlimited courses, though; you can only do a grade replacement for three courses. After the third class, further repeats will result in an averaging of grades. A C and an A gives you a B. To quote Aladdin's genie, there are a few provisos: 1) If you've completed a course that had prereqs, you can't repeat those prereqs, 2) You can't repeat "Fundamental Skills" courses, and 3) You can't bring people back from the dead. |
CAN I TAKE SOME OF MY HARDER CLASSES AT COMMUNITY COLLEGES? Sure. In most situations, the best place to take (or repeat) a course is wherever you can get the highest grade. If you can get an A in the class here at Pacific, do it. If you're going to get a C at Pacific, but an A- at the nearest junior college, go get that junior grade. It's better for your transcripts and it's much cheaper. But realize it can be difficult to get into classes at the nearby community colleges. So just because you want to enroll at Delta (or wherever) doesn't mean you can count on enrollment. Biology (051 and 061) and Chemistry (025 and 027) are reasonable courses to take outside of Pacific. Massively important note: It's up to you, the student, to make sure those classes transfer correctly. Here's the registrar's transfer credit policies at Pacific. Lots of information there. In short-ish, this: The maximum number of transfer credits is 70. Sort of. It's only the first 70 units of your Pacific education. If you started as a freshman at Pacific and reached 70 units without ever taking a single unit elsewhere, you lose the ability to transfer in credits. So... if you plan on transferring units, take those external classes early. Freshman or sophomore years. Once you reach 70 units, all you're transferring is the requirement to take the course (for example, you'd no longer be required to take BIOL 061 if you did its equivalent at Delta), but you wouldn't transfer in the units (you don't get the 5 units added to your total). It gets a little trickier: once you're within 40 units of degree completion, you only get 8 more units total, and they have to come from a four-year institution. Also (and extremely important): if you want to take courses elsewhere and transfer them in, you need approval prior to doing it, and that approval comes in the form of the Transfer Approval Request form. You also need to make sure the credits will transfer in correctly. You'll have to use ROAR for that. (No, your professors cannot help you do this. Otherwise guiding students through credit transfers would be a full-time job and they would no longer be able to teach. And no, there's no way a professor will make an exception "just this once." But it's not too hard; all you have to do is follow the steps.) Last note: for the BA, if you plan on doing your language requirement at another institution, it must be pre-approved (just like everything else), but some community college courses are acceptable; others are not. No extension courses count. Really be careful with this one. Also, the two language semesters have to be the same language; you can't do one semester of French and another of Chinese. Yes, sign language counts. |
SOME HELPFUL LINKS AND CLOSING NOTES... Here is the PDF form to switch to Health and Exercise Science as your major. To search for classes on the Pacific.edu webpage, use the Dynamic Schedule Builder Tool or explore the Registrar's page with the schedule of classes. The Registrar's page also has a list of links they've decided are helpful here. You'll probably use E-Prowl a fair amount. Here's how to use it; that's the official Pacific instructions. You should be familiar with placement tests for Writing, Math, Chemistry, and Foreign Language. You'll find the information on your InsidePacific account. Meeting the GEs and Diversity Requirement is up to the students. Here are some helpful links to keep you informed: List of courses that count as undergraduate GEs and List of courses that count for the undergraduate diversity requirement. If you're going to do an Independent Study (HESP 191) or Independent Research (HESP 197) course, you won't see them in the catalog. You have to work with Miguel Medrano (mmedrano@pacific.edu) to set them up. At some point, you will graduate. You have to apply first. Way first. A long time ahead of time. Information about applying and the forms to do so are here. Freshmen: PACS. You have to take PACS (Pacific Seminar). Take PACS I in the fall and II in the spring. If you transferred in and missed your freshman year, ignore PACS until you're nearing graduation, then take PACS III. Only one you need to take. But freshmen need it. Take HESP 129 as early as you possibly can. First semester freshmen if possible. Unless you're a transfer student. Then it should be the first thing you register for. Take HESP 180 early-ish. You won't get it as a freshman, but maybe sophomore year. Definitely junior. Don't wait until you're a senior. Take HESP 133, 135, and 157 during your sophomore or junior years. Not when you're a freshman or senior. Take HESP 147 and HESP 177 during your junior or senior year. Don't even try to register as a freshman or sophomore. "Can I get on the HESP 147 wait list?" as a sophomore is a silly request. And now that you know that, it's not a folly you'll commit. You do NOT need to take HESP 147 and HESP 177 in any particular order; the only pre-req for both is HESP 129. CHEM 025 is a pre-req for BIOL 180. CHEM 023 can be used as a pre-req (maybe), but it's a hassle that requires signatures and makes people frustrated... and frustrating people is something you should do very sparingly. CHEM courses (023, 025, 027) are not open for general registration until right before classes begin (if there are any spaces left). CHEM 023 is for students whose placement test indicated a need for a more comprehensive chemistry background before entering CHEM 025. Students must complete the Chemistry placement to opt into CHEM 025; otherwise, they have to begin with 023. Take the placement test early; if you wait until it's time to register, you'll have missed the deadline. CHEM 025 is offered in both fall and spring semesters and at least one summer session each year. CHEM 027 is only offered in the spring and one summer session. CHEM 023 is offered in the fall; to check spring and summer offerings, contact the administrative assistant. For Chemistry questions, contact the administrative assistant, Susan McCann: smccann@pacific.edu You may need to take MATH 041 prior to PHYS 023. Use the "Placement/Transfer Articulation Evaluation" tab in DegreeWorks to see. Physics 023 and 025 are both offered every fall and spring. For Physics questions, contact the administrative assistant, Kathy Giottonini: kgiottonini@pacific.edu Ignore GEs 3A and 3C. Your required science classes will automatically fulfill those. For Biology questions, contact the administrative assistant, Claudia De La Cruz: cdelacruz@pacific.edu For GE 3B, take either MATH 035 (Elementary Statistical Inference; useful for grad school) or MATH 041 (Pre-calculus; if you need it as a physics prereq). For your GE 1A, take either PSYC 017 or PSYC 031. For PT school you need to take PSYCH 017 and another PSYC class ("psych of sport" or "exercise psych" will NOT count). For PA school you need to take microbiology and an introductory sociology class ("sociology of sport" or some other sporty sports science version will NOT count). If you're a freshman or sophomore, your upperclassman(and woman) peers are often better resources than your professors. They know how to navigate the system very well because they're the ones who are actively navigating it. It's wise to ask them before you ask your professors. If a class that you want to take fills up before you can register, immediately go to that department, speak with the administrative assistant (in HESP, that's Miguel Medrano: mmedrano@pacific.edu) and get on the wait list. Then email the professor of that class and (very professionally) say that you are on the wait list. If you wan't. It's pointless, but it demonstrates interest. But if you ask the professor a question, it demonstrates annoyance. So don't do that. Answering questions involves work and every professor is already incredibly overworked, usually receiving more emails than they're capable of even reading, let alone responding. So don't ask for a response. Just politely, professionally, and briefly inform them that you're on the waitlist, are hopeful, and looking forward to the opportunity. (No questions.) Then show up on the first day of class, regardless of whether you're officially enrolled. That's how you maximize your chances of getting in. Doing something different reveals that you haven't read the information on PacificLectures.com (this information), and if you haven't read this, you're unlikely to read the course material, and if you don't read the course material, you'll be difficult to cope with in the classroom. Make sense? |
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