The College of Professional Studies (CPS) at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) was created in the early 1970s to house many of the campus's pre-professional programs. With majors in CPS as diverse as business administration, economics, education, dietetics, communication sciences and disorders, health sciences, health promotion and wellness, athletic training or clinical lab science
s, you may wonder what is the common thread. Preparation for a profession is the answer. Pre-professional programs typically require a lot of supervised and graded practicum experiences/labs, where for instance, athletic training students actually tape ankles or education students tutor 6th graders. Practicums and labs help students to affirm their interest in the major (it is one thing to think you want to be in interior design and another to produce complicated designs for a nursing home). These hands-on experiences also help the faculty to see if the students can actually DO the job well, not just talk about it. Pre-professional majors require students to work a semester or longer actually on the job in an apprentice role, where they are graded by both University faculty and the practitioners under whom they work. This culminating experience is called different things by different majors: student teaching, internship, externship, or clinical experiences. CPS students achieve acceptance into prestigious internships at a rate higher than the national average. Pre-professional programs are normally nationally accredited, an assurance that the curriculum, faculty, and student experiences are at a high standard. Often students in pre-professional programs must pass national tests. Test scores for CPS majors are considerably higher than the national average
CPS has always had a deep interest in teaching and in the last decade declared a "Focus on Teaching," which has led to very high scores on the National Survey of Student Engagement, to renovated classrooms and labs throughout the College, and a nationally recognized Teaching Partners' Program. The College is also active in promoting diversity, global understanding, sustainability (especially with local farmers), personal/family/community wellness and mutually beneficial partnerships. The College enrolls about 2,350 undergraduates and 1,200 graduate and continuing education students. Job placement or advanced graduate study in professional fields for all majors is above 94 percent.
