Letter to Students

Dear prospective student,

Welcome to the website of the Division of Natural Science and Mathematics. We appreciate your interest in our programs of study and hope that you will consider Oklahoma Baptist University for your undergraduate education. The science programs at OBU will help you construct a solid foundation for your scientific future.

Our curriculum is rigorous and comprehensive, designed to challenge you to pursue excellence in all scientific disciplines. You will study among the best of peers, with the best of instruction, and in the best of settings. You can be confident that your friends don't come here to party but to prepare for an exciting and challenging future. We are well known of campus for preparing a superior student. Our graduates are sought after for technician positions, allied health programs, graduate school, medical school, and other professional programs.

We offer several Bachelor of Science degrees. I encourage you to compare our science degrees to see which degree best fits your future plans. We offer two different types of degrees:

A Bachelor of Science degree focuses on a specific scientific discipline, such as Chemistry or Physics, and then completes a minor of his or her choice.
A Bachelor of Science: Area of Concentration degree is a broader focus, in which students concentrate on the major courses like Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, and Natural Science of a specific discipline but take coursework in other divisional disciplines.
The Science Education program features a rigorous grounding in natural science plus opportunities for practical experience in the OBU Planetarium.

We are excited about our curriculum's benefits and your future possibilities once you have completed your studies.

Although many of our graduates attend medical school, we do not offer a special pre-med major. This approach is a distinct advantage to students contemplating careers in the health sciences, for many reasons.

In reality, the probability of an entering freshman completing an undergraduate pre-med major and securing an acceptance to medical school is low. This is due not only to the highly competitive nature of medical school admissions, but also to innumerable contingencies that arise in the course of any human project, including the widening of a student's vocational horizons and changing student interests in a changing world. Rather than preparing you with a narrow focus, we preserve your options for change.
Our curriculum provides all of our students with a comprehensive grounding in scientific knowledge and techniques that will serve them well regardless of whether they continue on to medical school or decide on other allied health and graduate programs in the sciences.
In our experience, we have found that pre-medical students become more proficient through integrated coursework in which they are challenged by their peers in traditional natural science, biology, chemistry, and physics programs. This diversified experience provides a rigorous and comprehensive foundation in the sciences and makes our graduates more attractive to medical schools.

Most of our student desiring to pursue medicine as a career major in Biochemistry, Biology or Natural Science. Specifically, if a student is considering pursuing a M.D./Ph.D., the Biochemistry degree provides a broad, but through preparation in both Biology and Chemistry which provides a solid preparation for both the medical and graduate portions of a M.D./Ph.D. program.

Most student interested in a career in Allied Health, Physical Therapy, Optometry, Occupational Therapy, Medical Technology, and Nutrition major in Natural Science choosing their coursework according to the prerequisites of their respective program.

To fully appreciate our programs, students, faculty and equipment, you must visit our campus (map) and attend a class and/or a laboratory session. To arrange a visit, contact the Office of Admissions at 800-654-3285 (878-2033 in the Oklahoma City Area). Or simply email the professor of your choice (see faculty email on many of the program's webpages).

We look forward to a bright future for the science programs at Oklahoma Baptist University because of students like you who join our shared pursuit of excellence.

Sincerely yours,

Mark Hemric

for the entire Natural Sciences and Mathematics Faculty

Our web pages are never finished, but always under construction! The formatting of our web pages may be unintelligible if you are not using Netscape 2.0+. If you find a link that does not work, please tell us which link does not work--and which page you are on. Contact us by Email with general inquiries or suggestions. Thank you.