Recently admitted to CLA (first choice was CBS). Are biology degrees from CLA just as good as from CBS for someone who wants to go to med school? Is it possible to transfer from CLA to CBS after freshman year?
@swissmiss76 You get a B.S in biology if you’re in CBS and a B.A if you’re in CLA. I would prefer a B.S in biology because it will fulfill many of the required pre-med courses for medical school. With a BA in Biology, you might have to add a few more courses to fulfill those med school requirements. You can still get into med school by being in CLA and getting a B.A but generally more students choose the B.S route. You can transfer if you keep your grades up. Hope that helps!
You don’t even need to get a science degree to go to med school as long as you fulfill the med school prerequisites. So yes, the CLA degree is just as good as the CSE degree.
I’m actual going the dental route which is very similar to the medical route with a finance degree from Carlson. Dental and Med schools could care less about what major you choose as long as it has some rigor and in fact people with psychology, humanities, english, philosophy degrees get into med schools at higher rates than people with science degrees. As long as you have all the prerequisites and some shadowing experience, admission officers will not care and in many scenarios a non-traditional major might actually help you stand out. In my case, since almost all dentists end up opening private practices and need to work well as a team, a business degree helps me argue that I have that experience that other dental applicants lack and in addition I can mix business classes up with science courses so I can keep my sanity. Most people still choose science degrees for med or dental because that’s what they expect admissions officers want to see and since their major requirements are similar to their prerequisite requirements, they knock off two birds with one stone. The downside is that a science major is largely useless unless you go onto a professional degree unlike a business degree which also serves as a backup in case I change my mind and I can go right into the workforce and a science degree can force you to take higher upper level division courses that aren’t required prerequisites for med/dental schools. A science or nonscience pre-med/pre-dental both have its benefits and drawbacks.
I’m in the same boat as you. I am majoring in Biology and plan to follow a pre-med track. I have talked to admissions counselors and students at the U of M, and they say that Medical schools do not prefer either one. Some websites/students say that a CLA degree is better in Biology because it makes a student well rounded, which medical schools look for. Others say that a CBS degree is better because you learn about biology in every class. I have heard that because a CBS degree so extensively focuses on the sciences, it “drains” out many students. It also is very hard to keep a strong GPA because of the rigor of the classes.
I might end up staying in CLA for the four years because of this. Most medical schools care a lot about your GPA, and I think it would be worth it to get a high GPA at CLA rather than a low GPA at CBS. I’ll talk a lot counselors and a lot of other people to check what I should do, but if you want to transfer to CBS, it’s easy to do so in your first year. Just make sure to keep your GPA up in CLA. My sister goes to CLA, and she said that she knows no one has tried to transfer and was rejected.
If you learn anything more please message me because I’m in the same situation as you!
Med schools look at GPA and MCAT scores to even get to the interview stage. After that it is research and other experience in health field. Degree/major are small consideration as long as required classes are taken.
Better to stay in CLA if you think your GPA will be better. BS is probably best if you plan on MS in Biology and want to do research as a career.