I’m a rising junior; I’ve been trying to decide on a major so I can really craft a good narrative when writing applications (college, programs etc.). I love genetics and anthropology but my passion lies in being a physician or working for WHO in some capacity (physician or pathologist). Nevertheless, I want to leave academia with some sort of medical degree. Is a Bio major and an anthro/genetics minor a good path to med school? Lucrative for applications?
Don’t be a Biology major because you want to go to medical school. Major in something that you like as if you have no intention of med school. Med school requires prerequisites, grades, and test scores. Even though you think you are different, the vast majority of high school juniors that say they are going to med school don’t start. I don’t know the percentage, but it wouldn’t be surprised if it is the single digits.
Anthropology is a great way to go, especially biological anthropology with a minor in biostatistics or bio-data analysis (there are different names for this).
Look at Beloit for instance.
Biology is one of the majors with the lowest ROI. Avoid it. If you’re meant for med school, you can handle the pre-med pre-reqs AND your major.
And yes something like 75% kids who want to be premed never make it through the process. Of those who make it through, only about half make it into med school. So you need a solid plan B. Fortunately, most majors (beside biology, because there’s such an oversupply of unemployed biology majors right now) find good employment after college as long as they have internships and/or research experience.
I have a doctor friend who majored in Medical Anthropology at CWRU.
You can major in Anthro and just take the other pre-med prereqs in addition.