B.A. or B.S.?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>I hope there are not a million answers to this question already, if so, I hope you all will not kill me... </p>

<p>How important is a B.S. degree in med school admissions? If a student has the choice of B.A. or B.S. (BS having a thesis and research committment) in the same Bio. major, would doing the BA be a huge mistake?</p>

<p>The student has already had extensive research lab experience. The BA option would just allow time for a couple of the kinds of humanities courses that would round out an education, (just the opinion of this Dad).</p>

2

<p>No impact. Thesis and research itself will matter. The fact that it leads to a BS does not.</p>

3

<p>Many colleges only award BA's. Therefore students can take identical course loads throughout college and get a BA one place or a BS at another. No one keeps track of which colleges award which degrees, since no one cares about the degree at all.</p>

<p>If the student has impressive research, then this is a major plus. If the greater flexibility of the BA program permitted some more interesting activities, academic or otherwise, then this is also a plus.</p>

<p>Degree itself-no one knows the difference in any particular case, or cares.</p>

4

<p>so if you are doing research anyways, is there any advantage to getting a BS over a BA?</p>

5

<p>Look, med schools don't care about the letters. They care about what the letters stand for. If BS=research, more upper level science courses, they might like that. If BA=more humanities, they'll like that too. I can invent a degree called the BSADIENFKDHFEI#<em>$%</em>%#)IFDH and if it includes research, more science courses, and more humanties courses, med schools will like that the best.</p>

6

<p>^ 45</p>

7

<p>I was always disappointed that grading posts with MCAT scores never caught on more.</p>

8

<p>It's pretty much the only way I can get a 45.</p>

9

<p>I'm going to hop on this new MCAT-grading bandwagon.</p>