Best major for a future cancer researcher?

My son is very interested in being a cancer researcher and solving other problems in biology. What major would you say is the best major for him? He is very interested in biology at the cellular level so would the best major be Biology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, or maybe even biomedical engineering?

Note that some schools have broad majors like “biology”, while others have narrow majors like “biochemistry”, “genetics”, etc. that would be subareas of the major at the broad major school. So, when investigating colleges, consider that a school that only offers “biology” may have the desired offerings as subareas. However, you would have to check whether that is actually the case by looking in faculty rosters and course catalogs.

Is he in college yet? If not, he doesn’t need to worry too much about subfields at this point. Look for schools with good and large biology programs that offer a wide range of classes in the field. He’ll likely want to take cell biology (along with all of the courses that are typically part of a biology program–biochemistry, molecular biology, etc), and some schools will have classes specifically on cancer. He’ll figure out on his own which subfield of biology he is most interested after taking classes in biology. It shouldn’t be too difficult to switch to a different major within a biology department if he finds out that he really wants to major in molecular biology rather than general biology or something.

The more important part is going to be getting involved in research. Look for programs that support and encourage students to get actively involved in research and schools that have plenty of opportunities for undergraduates. He’s likely looking at a PhD if he decides that research is really what he wants to do, but many students think cancer research sounds really cool until they actually do it. Getting some hands of experience will be good for him.

The other thing is, biology tends to be a very popular major. While that tends to mean that many schools have large biology departments with lots of offerings, it also means that many biology courses (and other courses taken by biology majors, like general and organic chemistry) are huge relative to others at the same school. It also means that the biology-specific job markets are not very favorable to the job seeker who is not recognized as one of the elite in the field. So it is best if he is generally frugal and does not need a high pay level to support his lifestyle.

Given the high cost of medical school (do you really want to have $300,000 in debt?), the economic pressures on a new MD need to be considered carefully before aiming for that path.

True but at least the OP will be guaranteed employable as opposed to getting a life-science PhD where there is huge overproduction of PhD’s leading to graduates stuck in post-doc limbo which in many cases is a career dead-end.

MD + PhD is a good combo. You can be self-sufficient, have a much easier time getting grants and then focus on the research that interests you

Immunology