HSC Frequently Asked Questions
Questions
- "What is a health science center, anyway? I thought that was like a hospital or clinic..."
- "What partnerships does the Texas A&M Health Science Center have with other institutions and organizations?"
- "The HSC name includes the word 'System.' What's the difference between being a part of Texas A&M University and being part of the A&M System?"
- How does the College of Medicine operate?
- "What's the difference between public health and medicine, anyway? Is the School of Rural Public Health a department in the College of Medicine?"
- Why does the Texas A&M Health Science Center have a dental school with the Baylor name?
- "What kind of degrees can you get through the Texas A&M Health Science Center?"
- "Is the Texas A&M Health Science Center an accredited university?"
- I'm in high school and want to attend a component of the Texas A&M Health Science Center. How do I get in?
- Where can I find contact information about people at the Texas A&M Health Science Center (faculty, staff and students)?
- How can I find statistics about the Texas A&M Health Science Center or one of its components?
Answers
Q. "What is a health science center, anyway? I thought that was like a hospital or clinic..."
A. Most of the health science centers in Texas are indeed based in one location that generally includes a teaching hospital or clinical facility. The University of Texas System health science centers in San Antonio, Galveston and Houston, for example, follow this single-location model. The Texas A&M Health Science Center, on the other hand, offers many of the same degree programs and training facilities as those other institutions do, but on a "distributed" (geographically dispersed) model. The Texas A&M Health Science Center has six components in various locations in Texas – Baylor College of Dentistry, the College of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Institute of Biosciences and Technology, the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy and the School of Rural Public Health – and two centers, the Coastal Bend Health Education Center and the South Texas Center.
Q. "What partnerships does the Texas A&M Health Science Center have with other institutions and organizations?"
A. The Texas A&M Health Science Center maintains important partnerships with many clinical and teaching institutions in Texas. The College of Medicine, for example, partners with Scott & White and the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System in Temple and Waco in its clinical education programs. In addition, the College has active clinical partnerships with Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood and Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi. Houston's Texas Medical Center has been a key partner of the Institute of Biosciences and Technology since the Institute's opening. The Texas A&M Health Science Center also has partnerships with six other Texas A&M University System institutions in conjunction with those schools' nursing programs, and numerous affiliations with other clinical and educational facilities in all of its components' home cities and towns.
Q. "The HSC name includes the word 'System.' What's the difference between being a part of Texas A&M University and being part of the A&M System?"
A. The Texas A&M University System is an administrative body governing nine public universities, one health science center and eight agencies. As the flagship institution, Texas A&M University is a member of the A&M System, as is the Health Science Center. The Health Science Center is not a branch or department of Texas A&M University.
Q. How does the College of Medicine operate?
A. The College of Medicine’s first class matriculated in 1977, and members of the charter class of 32 students received their doctor of medicine (M.D.) degree through Texas A&M University in 1981. In 1999, the College became a component of the Texas A&M Health Science Center and is one of eight medical schools in Texas.
First- and second-year medical students complete their pre-clinical experiences in Bryan-College Station and then relocate to Temple for their third- and fourth-year clinical education at Scott & White Memorial Hospital and Clinic and the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System. The College of Medicine also has clinical affiliations with Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood in Killeen and Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi.
Q. "What's the difference between public health and medicine, anyway? Is the School of Rural Public Health a department in the College of Medicine?"
A. Public health and medicine are in fact two very different professions, though both involve human health. The School of Rural Public Health is a separate component of the Texas A&M Health Science Center – a peer of the College of Medicine, not a part of it.
The profession of medicine – as taught at the College of Medicine and other medical schools – involves treating specific patients for health problems (disease and injury), or research directly involving the treatment of patients. College of Medicine graduates earn a practice-oriented doctor of medicine degree (M.D.) and focus on care of individual patients in their careers.
Public health, on the other hand, involves study of underlying environmental and other conditions that have an impact on the overall health of human populations and formulation of preventive strategies to be used against specific health problems. As the School of Rural Public Health states on its Web site, the school "engages in activities that target major health issues, develops effective strategies for prevention and intervention, provides analytical efforts to show that specific strategies can improve quality of life, and yields policy to improve health care systems."
Q. Why does the Texas A&M Health Science Center have a dental school with the Baylor name?
A. Baylor College of Dentistry began as the State Dental College, a proprietary dental school. The United States' entrance into World War I in 1917 meant dramatic changes for the State Dental College. Since the school was still an unrecognized professional school with no university connection, its students were prime targets for the draft. To avoid mass induction, the stockholders of the college at the time sold the school to Baylor University for $3,000. The college's resulting affiliation with Baylor University strengthened its educational program.
In the late 1960s, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board recommended that the college expand its facilities to accommodate 50 additional Texas residents in the entering class. The dental college was eager to meet the challenge, but needed more money to be successful. The most viable alternative was state funding, but that meant the college had to sever its ties with Baylor University, a church school. The college officially separated in July 1971 and became Baylor College of Dentistry, a private, nonprofit, non-sectarian corporation. In 1996, the college entered an entirely new era as a member of The Texas A&M University System, and soon after became a component of the Texas A&M Health Science Center, as the latter was launched in January 1999.
Q. "What kind of degrees can you get through the Texas A&M Health Science Center?"
A. Those interested in pursuing a career in dentistry can earn a doctor of dental surgery (D.D.S.) degree at Baylor College of Dentistry. BCD also offers a bachelor's degree (B.S.) in dental hygiene, master's degrees (M.S.) in oral biology, biomaterials science, biomedical science, dental hygiene and health professions education, a doctor of medicine (M.D.) degree (via a joint program in oral surgery with Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center) and combined D.D.S./Ph.D. and specialty doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees.
Persons pursuing a career of practicing in the medical profession are awarded a doctor of medicine (M.D.) degree on completion of their studies at the College of Medicine. Those pursuing public health as a career can choose from School of Rural Public Health degree programs for a master of public health (M.P.H.), master of science in public health (M.S.P.H.), master of health administration (M.H.A.), doctor of public health (Dr.P.H.) or doctor of philosophy in health services research (Ph.D.)
The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences offers various master's (M.S., M.S.P.H.) degrees, doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) and joint M.D./Ph.D. and D.D.S./Ph.D. degrees in a wide variety of research-oriented concentrations in the biomedical and public health sciences. These programs involve the other Texas A&M Health Science Center components – Baylor College of Dentistry, the College of Medicine, the Institute of Biosciences and Technology and the School of Rural Public Health.
Students matriculate into the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy after meeting pre-pharmacy requirements in the basic physical and biological sciences and humanities. The programmatic curriculum of the College leads to granting the Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree.
Q. "Is the Texas A&M Health Science Center an accredited university?"
A. Yes. The Texas A&M Health Science Center has been fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
Q. I'm in high school and want to attend a component of the Texas A&M Health Science Center. How do I get in?
A. If you are a high school student, the first thing you need to do is be sure you are taking courses that will prepare you for an undergraduate program in the biological sciences at a good college or university. Attaining an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree in the biological sciences is a requirement for admission to most of the Texas A&M Health Science Center's professional and research-oriented advanced degree programs.
For specific admission requirements of each component and suggestions for preparatory high school studies, see the Texas A&M Health Science Center catalog (available from component admissions offices or online) or the Admissions page.
If you live in a rural or medically underserved part of Texas, you may be able to pursue admission to the College of Medicine through an A&M System Health Science Center initiative called Partnership for Primary Care. For more information on this program, contact the College of Medicine's Office of Student Affairs and Admissions at (979) 845-7743, or see the College of Medicine Web site.
Q. Where can I find contact information about people at the Texas A&M Health Science Center (faculty, staff and students)?
A. The Texas A&M Health Science Center Web site has a searchable Faculty an Staff Directory that can help you get in touch with people connected with the health science center. For general addresses and phone numbers or information on specific departments, see Contact Us.
Q. How can I find statistics about the Texas A&M Health Science Center or one of its components?
A. The Texas A&M Health Science Center has an Office for Institutional Research that collects, organizes, maintains and analyzes institutional data that supports the management, operations, decision-making and planning functions of the health science center. The office also offers systematic information processing of institution-wide data. You can reach the office's executive director, Dr. Eric Solomon, at (214) 828-8408 or the Assistant Vice President for Planning and Assessment, Ms. Kaye Olsson, at (979) 458-7222.
