If you’re about to graduate from high school, you might already be thinking about where the best jobs are. If you’re in high school, it’s not too early to think about how to prepare for the career you want. One path to consider is the continually expanding healthcare sector. Two lessons here: (1) a specific focus on a health science degree is a great option, and (2) where you earn your health science degree matters more than you might think.
The most obvious reason to think “health science” degree vs. other degrees that might interest you is the enormity of options it presents.
Projections from the U.S. Bureau of Labor show that employment in healthcare and healthcare support occupations will grow 16% from 2020 to 2030. That’s more than twice as fast as the average for all occupations.
Best of all, there are healthcare jobs that only require two years of “applied” college coursework. For example, occupational therapy assistants (OTAs) and radiologic technologists (rad techs) enter their workforces by earning an Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.) degree in their respective fields. (See what OTAs do here and what rad techs do here.)
Another way to think about a health science degree is to consider it a stepping stone to more prominent healthcare roles. Examples of those roles possible with a health science-focused education:
So, you may be asking yourself, “Which health science degree makes sense if I’m not sure which healthcare/health science career would be best for my talents and abilities?”
Someone like you interested in the health sciences arena might consider what’s called a pre-professional program in healthcare. A traditional centerpiece for embarking on a healthcare career is a bachelor’s degree in biology, which makes sense.
However, a more focused biology degree – a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Human Biology – deserves major consideration. Here’s why. A general survey of “biology” classes explores processes, functions, and systems for all types of living organisms. That’s good. In contrast, a singular focus on “human biology” signals a deep focus on how the human body and its systems work. That’s better.
It’s staggering to think how complex the human body is, how much there is to know, and how fast knowledge is accumulating. Did you realize the total volume of human knowledge is doubling every 12 hours?
The goal of investigating human biology in-depth is to better understand human health, how to stay healthy, and learn safe and effective ways to treat diseases and injuries.
Typically, a university’s human biology degree explores a multitude of related areas, including
Jake J., a biology graduate, entered the workforce as a clinical specialist with a medical company and now is a territory manager in Austin, Texas. “Studying biology shows you can learn complicated processes and exposes you to so much of our natural world,” he says. “There are way more applications for biology than one might think, including supply chain, business, and medical fields.”
Cleveland University-Kansas City (CUKC) is a nonprofit, private, chiropractic and health sciences degree university in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City. CUKC was founded in 1922.
Today, CUKC offers a two-year Associate of Arts in Biological Sciences that can then be applied toward earning our Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Human Biology degree.
Some students at CUKC simultaneously earn a human biology degree and a Doctor of Chiropractic degree. This option works well for focused students who want to maximize the overall value of their education by earning two degrees at once.
Click here to be in contact with an admissions advisor; you can get our free eBook: Your Complete Guide to the Chiropractic Profession.
