All, Can you please share advice on majors that closely tie up meeting the requirements for Pre-med and MCAT without having to take extra credits and keep up the good GPA. I see quite a trend in majoring in Public health , Are we able to fit in the premed requirements during the undergrad Public health without taking a gap year ?
Please advice, In a nutshell looking for major to keep up GPA by taking classes that closely align with Pre-med/MCAT
Thanks
D
There’s a couple posts on here from @WayOutWestMom that might be helpful even though the question isn’t identical.
In general, most on CC say keep costs down, get great grades, shadow and other opportunities and study what you want. The required classes can be fit in.
On the second chain see post 7
Biology typically has the most overlap with pre-med courses, which is likely why about half of medical school applicants had it as their primary undergraduate major. However, those who do not get into medical or other professional school face a job market with a lot of supply relative to the number of major-related jobs (see College Scorecard and career surveys of college that break down the results by major).
However, many other majors are not so voluminous with requirements, so that, even if they do not overlap much with pre-med courses, they can be completed alongside pre-med courses without needing extra semesters. Medical school applicants and matriculants include many with undergraduate majors in humanities, social sciences, math and statistics, and non-biology sciences.
Thank you very much for the pointers
Thank you
Really, you can major in anything you want to major in. Just about every major has sufficient elective courses to be able to take the required courses for medical school admissions.
Major in something you like…with potential for future jobs in case you don’t get accepted to medical school.
Medical Schools look for certain prerequisites.
These are typically 2 semesters each of chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, and math (calc + stat). Then there are social sciences – 1 semester of psych and 1 semester of sociology.
The big chunk will be biology – beyond general biology 1 and 2, one should consider microbio, genetics, biochem, physiology and anatomy. I have also seen folks take developmental biology and special topics like molecular biology, neurobiology etc. So, one is looking at ~1 year’s worth of courses in biology.
I think most STEM majors will take a lot of these courses anyway and then try to minor in biology or similar to make up the difference.
One can go to a less rigorous school to keep up GPA but the MCAT is a beast and unlike the SAT/ACT, most applicants take a one and done approach. So, a certain level of rigor and understanding are must haves. Good luck!
Public health doesn’t require all the science & math courses that are needed for med school admission so the overlap with required pre-med courses is less than with some other majors. Also most public health jobs require a MPH for entry level jobs.
Biology (or a subfield of biology like biochem, neuroscience or microbiology. NOT ecology) has the most overlap with pre-med coursework. Chemistry has next most, but chemistry is more math intensive than a bio major and requires more math classes. But the post-graduation job prospects for chem majors are better than those for bio majors.
RE: Gap year. The majority of successful med school applicants take 1-2 gap years before med schools. Why? Two reasons:
the application process for med school takes more than 12 months. In order to matriculate straight through from undergrad, you’ll need to apply to med school in May of your junior year. That means you’ll have needs to finish all pre-reqs, take the MCAT, gather LORs and complete all expected pre-med ECs. That’s a lot to get done in 3 years.
ECs are quite time consuming and most pre-meds use the extra year to engage in ECs–like working full time in a clinical or research position in order to strengthen their applications.
Pre-meds need to have engaged in all the expected pre-med EC if they want to have a competitive application. Without these ECs on your app, your GPA and MCAT don’t really matter because your app will get disqualified for not having them
Expected pre-med ECs–
physician shadowing in a variety of specialties, but some needs to be w/ primary care providers (internist, pediatrician, geriatrician, family medicine). This is to learn about what a “day in the life” of a physician is like
clinical exposure in a paid or volunteer position where you are “close enough to smell the patient,” are able to interact with patients and closely observe the therapeutic relationship between physicians and their patients. This is to see if you are temperamentally, emotionally and intellectually able to deal with the sick, the seriously injured, the developmentally delayed, the physically disabled, the chronically ill, the elderly demented, and the dying AND their families on daily basis. Not everyone is cut out to be a physician.
community service with disadvantaged populations. Long term service with a single organization or cause is preferred over multiple short term activities. This activity demonstrates compassion and altruism–both traits that doctors are expected to have.
lab bench or clinical research A summer full time or part time over a couple of semesters at a minimum. This exposes you to the research process, its shortcoming and promises, and allows to see first hand how it works
leadership roles in your activities. Medicine is a now a team activity and physician are its default team leaders. You need to demonstrate that you can work well with others and step up to being leader when called upon
Thank you very much for all the details, This very helpful to understand the holistic view of the efforts and timelines, Appreciate the thorough details.
Thank you
Thank you for sharing the details