Best Major for Pre-Med

<p>Yup. My heavy science major kid (one course away from a Bio and Chem double major) had time for a Religious Studies Minor and took random courses in Peruvian Women Authors, Chinese Literature…</p>

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I was going to add something to this effect, but its already been said.</p>

<p>I’d also suggest the OP step back from getting advice a paragraph at a time here, and get a book about med school admissions to understand the whole process in depth. There also is an excellent online guide at [Amherst</a> College Guide for Premedical Students](<a href=“http://www3.amherst.edu/~sageorge/guide2.html]Amherst”>Amherst College Guide for Premedical Students)</p>

<p>WayOutwestMom.
Your arguments only lead to your conclusion with a strong qualication.
The facts that students of majors other than bio belong to a small, highly motivated and self-selected group means that you have to be highly motivated and strong in pre-med
background to be successful.</p>

<p>Major does not matter ONLY if you are strong in the pre-med areas just like the Bio major.</p>

<p>But you were only talking about the AMCAS data about the correlation between major and MCAT scores/rates of matriculation into med school. I was saying not to read too much into the data since it’s skewed.</p>

<p>I never said that one didn’t need to have a strong science background to be a successful applicant. That is given in any discussion of who gets into med school since medical schools use sGPA as a screening tool for applicants.</p>

<p>However, med schools only currently require only 9 or 10 BCMP courses out of 120 or so a students will take during their undergrad program. If one can do well in these 10 courses, then major truly doesn’t matter.</p>

<p>The science on the MCAT is at a fairly basic level and one need not have studied upper level biology or chem to be able to score well on it. In fact, some people will argue that critical reading and test-taking skills are more important than raw science knowledge for doing well on the MCAT.</p>

<p>A good book to read is this one.</p>

<p>Med-School Confidential by Robert Miller</p>

<p>I bought it for my son and it is very detailed on the process. If you don’t want to buy it check with your local library as they may carry it.</p>

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I think you are interchanging courses and credits. I don’t know how anyone could take 120 courses in four years. :o</p>

<p>Also, you have at least 12 courses not including any Math (QR) or writing classes (Gen Bio + lab, Gen Chem + lab, Orgo + lab and Physics + lab). I count the core classes as two since you need two terms.</p>

<p>I did interchange courses and credits–my bad.</p>

<p>1 or 2 math, 4 chem, 2 bio, 2 physics = still only 9 or 10 courses. (I don’t count labs as separate courses since not all schools count labs as separate courses or give separate credits/grades for lab. For any class which has a required lab, lab + lecture = 1 class )</p>

<p>Not every med school requires 2 semesters of writing. Not every med school requires 2 semesters of college math. (Recommendations are another thing entirely…)</p>

<p>** For example, D2’s undergrad only gives 1 grade/semester for gen chem–which includes both the lecture and lab portions of the class. You literally cannot enroll in the lecture without concurrently enrolling in the lab. The registration system won’t allow it. Subsequent failure to complete the lab portion results in an I on the transcript. Ditto for other lab-requiring science classes.</p>

<p>Wow, I thought only getting .5 credit for lab was bad enough but not getting credit at all is crazy. I’ve never heard of a school that forces you to take a lab for a class so I guess you learn something new everyday. ;)</p>

<p>The bottom line is an average major and the distribution requirements of most schools equate to about 75% of the courses/credits so there is not a lot of wiggle room for non-science majors.</p>

<p>At Brown certain classes have labs and the labs do not count for credit nor do the courses have higher credits. All courses at Brown are 1 credit each regardless of how many hours are spent in a lab portion.</p>

<p>All you need is to have a major that is different than biology/chemistry(which almost 70% of med school applicants apply with) and also take the most difficult of the med school requirements.</p>

<p>You should be careful about selecting your major if you do not want a gap year. This is especially true for current sophomores because of the new MCAT.</p>

<p>Don’t know what bearlolx is talking about; bio and/or chemistry majors are perfectly acceptable for you to choose. You’re not going to get any “points” for choosing a unique major, nor will you get leeway for choosing a difficult one, nor will anyone really care about your major in the end anyway. The important thing is to choose something you like and are interested in, and to make sure that your cumulative and science GPAs are as high as possible.</p>

<p>im personally going to major in business(finance) while taking pre med courses.</p>

<p>Majoring in economics would be better since its more academic/less vocational.</p>

<p>The truth is that medical school is boring as h3ll. It’s only hard in that it requires a LOT of tedious grunt work. Any truly bright or gifted person would find more satisfaction getting a Ph.D and becoming a scientist…not learning to become a (body) mechanic. Believe me, medicine is repetitive, boring, and you spend so much time rehashing diagnostic protocols a thousand times a day. If you’re the type of person who liked memorizing word lists in high school over and over again, I suppose you’ll love medical school. But if you’re the kind that is special in intelligence, and truly want to change the world, get as far away from the monotony we call medicine. Or else your brain will rot.</p>

<p>^ From what I heard, for some reasons, unless you are an extremely good scientist, this society does not reward/compensate scientists well. I am not talking about big financial rewards here, just enough income for a decent living comparable to the years of their education. You could find lots of postdocs/researchers who are depressed about their prospect of their future careers in many research labs around this country. (Arguably, especially for those on the right, this country may not need so many academic-track PhD. G.I. Bill and cold war days have been over for a long time.) Hopefully, their satisfaction due to the challenging nature of their work could help make up for the lack of other rewards. (There may be a reason why the majority of faculty/researchers donate much more money to the Democrat party than the Rebuplican party during election. Are they a part of the “victims” as perceived by someone who think somebody with $250,000 anual income is a middle class?!)</p>

<p>There is a reason why the top colleges tend to be big factories for producing students attending professional schools, not continuing on the academic track (if they further their education after college at all.) One CCer (who is a parent now) who used to be at a graduate school at a top college when he was young once posted that a lot of graduate students in his class, including one of his intructors, jumped tracks to the professional one after some years (before or even after being graduated with a PhD.) He called this phenomenon: “the loss of innocence.”</p>

<p>I do not claim everything on the medicine track is all rosy. But the grass is always greener on the other side. Each side has their share of pros and cons for most of the “average” ones in their field.</p>

<p>Brown is a very avant-garde school.</p>

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<p>If you mean biologists and chemists when you write “scientists”, that is generally confirmed by <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys.html&lt;/a&gt; . Also see [Education:</a> The PhD factory : Nature News](<a href=“http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110420/full/472276a.html]Education:”>Education: The PhD factory | Nature) . Biology in particular is a hugely popular major; anyone who has taken any economics course can figure out what happens when the job market for biology jobs is flooded by biology graduates.</p>

<p>Math, statistics, and sometimes physics majors do seem to be sometimes attractive to the finance and computer industries, which gives them better job prospects (though not necessarily doing basic research in those subjects) than other science majors.</p>

<p>Hello. My opinion is work hard, treat every A like a friend and every B like an enemy. Read a lot here and also on sdn. Do things that involve being nice to other people. Take the major that you find most interesting. Know the average mcat and average gpa,s gpa and related applicant pool percentages for MD medical schools. Go to a couple of medical school admit web sites and compare requirements. Have some hobbies that keep you relaxed for the long haul. Consider current satisfaction as well as future satisfaction. </p>

<p>ps it is Opposite Day :slight_smile: Oy</p>

<p>I asked this question to the admissions staff and they told me they actually like to see something different, as long as you love it and you’re good at it, because every case (medical) is different and you might just have one that has particular details you’ll know how to answer because of your out of the box (not the tipical bio/chem) major.</p>