<p>I think that my daughter fits in to the group of students that were a bit “different” in their background when they applied to medical school. One thing that I have noticed among her friends who seem to fit into the same category is that this was not something that was planned or marketed as a tool to get them into medical school. It was an interest that developed over time. They are very accomplished in the area that makes them different. For my daughter at least, the interest developed and progressed in an organic way and over the course of many years.</p>
<p>From day one DD has been blown away by her classmates. Even the science jocks, whom one might think would be science-centric, bring accomplishments in different areas…athletic, artistic - you name it.</p>
<p>Echoing the above post, IMO, it would be a horrible mistake for a “science jock” (love the term) to package themselves as an English lit major for the sake of med school admissions. </p>
Medical school is expensive. Avoid debt. There are few scholarships so you will have to come up with $160-$300k over the 4 years of med school through your own savings and personal loans.
Much depends on what state you are a resident of, because your in-state med school is generally your best option in terms of cost and likelihood of admission. If you are from California, it’s tough because they are a ‘net exporter’ of medical school applicants (way more applicants than seats available). If you are from, say, New Mexico or Mississippi your state schools only admit state residents for the most part and the acceptance rates are much, much higher. Figure out early in the game if you come from a ‘good’ state - if so, protect your residency status carefully. You want to vote, pay taxes, register your car, etc…in that state.</p>
<p>^Loans are more typical. Grants and scholarships are often merit-based (and keep in mind, the other kids in your med school class have plenty of merit to win those awards!)</p>
<p>Public medical schools generally only have loans to offer for need based aid.</p>
<p>Some well-endowed private medical schools may offer need based aid, but only after a family contribution (based upon parental & student income and assets) and the student takes out a certain base level of loans.</p>
<p>As kristin say, most “free” money is merit-based and often hard to come by.</p>
<p>I think the base level if around 20k a year at Harvard, which is one of the more generous schools. I’m guessing other schools with the same policy are around there as well?</p>
<p>Haven’t checked it in a while but yeah. Around there. Poor as a church mouse? You still have $80 to $100 K in loans coming out of the most generous schools.</p>
<p>What do you mean by “base level” of around 20k a year?</p>
<p>If it is the total out-of-pocket expense for parents and the child including room and boards and other misc expenses (like quite a many generous UG schools would do when they try to recruit some students for whatever the reason it may be), it is then really generous. But I suspect this base level does not include “parents’ contribution.”</p>
This is about right to my understanding. Assuming the kiddo does not have any income and assets in these 4 base years, the key is: how much will these “generous” med schools ask the parents to pay in 4 years? $50K? $60K? $80K? 100K and beyond, assuming the parents’ income are, say, $60K, $80K, $100K, $120k, $140k, respectively, without much assets?</p>
<p>For UG, parents and students have better ideas about how it works because the school will advertise it. But not at the med school level. So it appears that how it works is more mysterious.</p>
<p>Returning to the original discussion… Is Economics a good major for pre-meds? Are Econ courses rigorous enough to make exceling in pre-med courses difficult? People with some experience please comment.</p>
<p>As stated on many threads, including this one, any academic major is fine. Whether or not someone will find it easy or difficult to excel in both econ (or any other major) and premed courses is totally dependent on the individual, their strengths/weaknesses, academic background, interest, etc.</p>
<p>A frequent CCer (which has a sticky thread) in the past was an economic major, and he was successful.</p>
<p>Econ is an academic major, unlike a finance or accounting major. In this sense, it is not bad.</p>
<p>I heard Econ majors mostly take courses heavy in math after the first one or two courses. This is very different from medical school education once you get into a med school. But it is no harm at all to enjoy some math with some applications in the real world before med school if this is what you like.</p>
<p>One BME major from Rice who was at UT-SW commented that, after many months in med school, he finally saw one equation that requires some bare minimum of understanding at the level of high school AP Calculus AB or BC.</p>
<p>But do you think medical schools or the profession in general value students with the economics perspective (if there is such thing)? I have to ask since med schools I hear begin to focus more on the non-academics, character, experience, etc.</p>
<p>I do not think med school would care about their applicant’s major, as long as it is a “serous” academic major without overly vocationally oriented. I think they just take the best students from each of these majors, as long as these students also did well enough on the prereqs.</p>
<p>DS, who is an MS2 now, once mentioned he regretted he did not continue to take Spanish in college every year, like what he did in high school and a part of middle school. He also mentioned some business background could be useful but he did not elaborate.</p>
<p>No. Medical schools want future doctors, end of story. Even if they are valuing “non-academics” more, it’s still through the lens of proving you will be a good doctor. A strong knowledge of economics, i would imagine, neither demonstrates nor detracts from your ability to be a good doctor. The ability to perform well academically at a high intellectual level (which may be demonstrated by excelling at economics or most any other major provided at any school) does contribute towards demonstrating the ability to be a good doctor. Thus, as has been said multiple times: major in any academic discipline that appeals to you as the one that appeals to you is the one you are most likely to do well in.</p>
<p>Thanks. Do you think the idea that med schools treat GPAs in all majors the same is a myth. I mean no rational adcom would think a 4.0 GPA in engineering is the same as a 4.0 GPA in (insert an “easy” major).</p>
<p>What constitutes an “easy” major is all in the eye of the beholder.</p>
<p>A person with strong math abilities and a discomfort with fuzzy answers may find engineering “easy” and psychology or philosophy “hard”.</p>
<p>And I can confidently say (based upon my observations of multiple students’ application experiences) that engineering (or math or physics or however you define “hard”) majors do not get any special GPA consideration during the admissions process–especially during the first round screening which is often done by a computer program.</p>
<p>So in theory the obsessive focus on numbers is what caused grade inflation. Since med schools only want above 3.9 GPAs, they are encouraging students to do whatever necessary to get those marks and schools to make curves more lenient. That is not a great way to select future doctors let alone help the society.</p>