Medical laboratory science programs prepare people to conduct medical tests on body fluids, tissues, and cells. Students learn biology, chemistry, and clinical sciences. They also learn how to manage medical laboratories.

Although you don't often see them in person, medical laboratory scientists are as dedicated to your health and well-being as doctors and nurses. They act as your personal private investigators, using instruments much spiffier than a magnifying glass to do their work.

As a detective of health care, you can find out many different things about a person's health from a sample of blood, for example, or cells. And that sample is often impossible to see with the human eye alone. Using a wide variety of lab equipment and procedures, you could detect the presence of a parasite in a blood sample. Or you might notice an unusually large build-up of a chemical in a urine sample and conclude that the kidney is not working properly.

In this program, you study basic sciences such as biochemistry and immunology. These give you the background to learn clinical sciences such as microbiology, which is the study of micro-organisms that cause diseases. You also learn safe and sterile ways to operate lab equipment and handle different lab materials.

There are many schools that offer programs in medical laboratory science (sometimes known as clinical laboratory science). You can earn a bachelor's degree, a post-baccalaureate certificate, or in a few cases, a master's degree in this program. A bachelor's degree typically takes about four years of full-time study after high school. In addition to the time spent earning a bachelor's degree, a post-baccalaureate certificate usually takes one to two years. And a master's degree generally takes no less than two years.