Health Sciences & Human Performance

You'll take courses in the natural sciences, such as anatomy and physiology, that teach you to think analytically and that familiarize you with the structure and functions of the human body. You'll be exposed to cutting-edge technologies in the lab and in the classroom. Courses in the social and behavioral sciences, such as psychology, help you understand people's thought processes and motivations. And courses in public and community health issues, such as nutrition and disease prevention, give you the knowledge you'll need to address the current challenges to health and wellness.

You will focus your studies in either premedical or planned clinical. The philosophy and methodology you'll learn will give you the tools you'll need in advanced study. With further professional training or graduate study, you could be a medical doctor, registered dietitian, physician assistant, nurse, or clinical researcher. Or you may choose an alternative path, studying to become a homeopathic clinician, practitioner of Eastern medicine, or chiropractor.

Whether you plan to go directly to graduate school or work in an exercise-related field upon graduation, our exercise science degree will provide you with the strong science foundation necessary for future success. Our flexible, broad-based program combines major courses with a large number of electives. You will be able to customize your degree to your interests, by selecting one of three concentrations (medical sciences, sport sciences, or strength and conditioning). You have the option to also focus on a minor. Aligned with Ithaca College's liberal arts tradition, you will also take classes in other disciplines: creative arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences.

Our exercise science courses emphasize current research as well as its practical application. Practical application occurs in several on campus clinics and labs as well as opportunities for off campus fieldwork or internships. Our professors often collaborate with their students in meaningful research projects; in fact, students frequently present their findings at professional conferences sponsored by such organizations as the American College of Sports Medicine.

Ithaca’s physical therapy program is one of the oldest and most prestigious in the country. To meet the growing responsibilities and demands of this profession, we offer a six-year doctorate program. This curriculum results in a bachelor’s degree in clinical health studies and a professional doctorate in physical therapy. By the end of our program, you’ll be well prepared for the clinical, managerial, and educational roles of a physical therapy practitioner.

Admission to the D.P.T. program is highly competitive. (For transfer application guidelines, please visit the Department of Physical Therapy site.) The first three years are grounded in liberal arts to enhance your intellectual flexibility and provide the creative thinking skills you’ll need to meet the challenge of independent physical therapy practice. Besides taking core coursework in the sciences, you’ll explore other disciplines through a required minor and the fulfillment of general education requirements. This curriculum also affords the opportunity to study abroad.

After your junior year, you’ll move into the professional phase of the program, immersing yourself in vital physical therapy and dissection-based anatomy coursework in the summer between the junior and senior year, followed by hands-on practice in examination and intervention techniques via integrated clinical experiences in Ithaca and diverse clinical rotations in professional settings throughout the country–acute care, pediatrics, and outpatient orthopedics, for example. Coursework in Ithaca is complemented by instruction at our over 800 affiliated health care facilities nationwide. The curriculum requires study during some summers: 8 weeks of coursework after your fifth year; 10 weeks of clinical education during the spring semester of your fifth year, and 12 weeks of clinical education during the summer after your sixth year.

Ithaca’s professional facilities and emphasis on interprofessional education, movement science, and research foster a wonderful sense of camaraderie among physical therapy students and their fellow students in our other health-related programs. And our low student-faculty ratio ensures that our top-notch faculty will have plenty of time to focus on your training. You’ll reap the rewards of Ithaca’s national reputation and strong alumni network long after graduation as well.

Learn how to prevent, care for, evaluate, manage, and rehabilitate injury and illness in athletic and physically active populations in our nationally recognized athletic training program. Accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE), our program prepares and enables you to take the national Board of Certification Exam (BOC), which certifies an athletic trainer (ATC) to practice in many professional settings.

We offer an accelerated, dual degree, 5-year program that leverages the fourth year as both the final year of the BS component in order earn a BS, Exercise Science with a concentration in Pre-Athletic Training, and the first year of the MS in AT, simultaneously. Students intending on becoming a certified athletic trainer (ATC) via the Ithaca College professional program in AT will enter IC as Exercise Science Pre-Athletic Training majors, and complete a 4 year BS, in Exercise Science with a concentration in Pre-Athletic Training as the sole entry point into the MS, Athletic Training degree program.

Our unique, medically based and integrated curriculum incorporates progressive and integrated academic coursework with supervised and deliberate clinical experiences. Our professional athletic training curriculum intentionally emphasizes and encapsulates the requisite human and biological sciences with the medical and clinical sciences as the program’s foundation. 

But content and knowledge are not enough to become an expert healthcare clinician, so our program deliberately focuses on the explicit development of the clinical reasoning skills and adaptive expertise you will need to become clinically capable as an athletic trainer.  It ensures you are capable for clinical practice and entry into professional and postgraduate programs of study in related health care fields.