I’m planning to major in something related to biology or chemistry with minors that can compliment that. However, I like music and I’m currently taking AP music theory at my high school. My questions can you take other classes that are not related to your major just for fun or to complete the credits that you need ?
In general, yes. Plenty of room for electives. But if the music department is a conservatory, there may be few elective options for non majors. Ask lots of specific questions about what you want to do at each school.
Depends on the volume of course work for your major. For biology or chemistry, the volume of course work for the major is probably about half of the total course work for the bachelor’s degree. The college may have general education requirements as well. typically up to about a quarter of the total course work; music courses may fulfill some of them at some colleges. Unless the major and/or general education requirements are more voluminous than typical, you should also have space for free electives.
From what I heard of many medical schools are taking students with music majors however Im interested in two classes or three maybe not like a whole major or minor since I want to go to medschool after my 4 years.
Medical schools appear indifferent to undergraduate major, as long as the pre-med courses are taken.
About half of applicants and matriculants to medical schools are biology majors, but that means that the rest are in some other major.
It will depend a great deal on the school. Some college’s have a big core curriculum (which can limit the number of electives there is time to take) while other colleges have flexible (or no) distribution requirements. In addition the number of classes needed for a major and minor can vary from college to college. You can look at the requirements of each college you plan to apply to.
Also as noted above you can apply to med school with any major and there is no need for a minor. If you decide to skip a minor then it should give you more free electives.
@happy1 @ucbalumnus let’s say that I end up with a business related major for example… even though I am business major I can still apply to medschool?
But I have to take the pre med classes right ?
Yes you can apply to Medical school as a Business major and yes you need to take the pre-req courses to apply for Medical school while pursuing your Business degree.
Technically you can but it would likely be extremely difficult to fit everything in. Undergrad b-schools have a large core curriculum that would need to be completed in addition to the college’s liberal arts core/distribution requirements. Also I have no idea how med schools would view a business major. Once again the best thing to do is to spend time looking at the requirements for each college and each major you are considering. Spend time thinking about what direction you want to go in.
@emeleoooh - I mostly took electives at Williams! I took the minimum number of required classes in my major, found electives that interested me within each distribution requirement, and had plenty of room left over for more electives. Every semester I looked through the catalog and thought, “What sounds interesting?”
Today’s distribution requirements are nearly identical to the ones that existed then.
I was an English major. My boyfriend at the time was a chemistry major who was pre-med. He not only took those science courses, but plenty of English and history and other courses that interested him, including art history (he graduated magna cum laude and went on to be valedictorian of his medical school).
My husband, a psychology major, took plenty of electives at Vassar, as did all his friends.
Looking at requirements at the colleges that interest my son, it seems he will be able to take lots of electives as well, at every single college he is considering.
Answer your question by looking at “distribution requirements” or “general education requirements” or “core courses” in the catalogs of colleges that interest you.