Business and Psych Double Major

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>I admit, I tried googling this for a while but was unable to find exactly what I wanted, so posting here! Sorry if this has already been asked.</p>

<p>So I really really really want to take up medicine, so I will definitely be fulfilling pre-med reqs. However, I don't want to major in a lab science. My plan currently is to major in Psychology and fulfill pre-med reqs if I get accepted to a liberal arts school, or to major in Business and complete pre-med reqs.
Now, I'm the first in my family going to college and I'm not at all familiar with how this process works. As I understand it, "pre-med" itself is not a major in most schools, correct? So it would be fine to major in something totally different and go to med school? Is it feasible, then, to double major in Business and Psychology while still fulfilling pre-med requirements? Or would it make more sense to choose one over the other? I really want to take classes in both Business and Psychology, along with the requirements for pre-med.
The schools that I'm applying to are: UT Austin (McCombs), Texas A&M (Mays), Rice (Liberal Arts- Psych), University of Washington (Psych/ Foster), University of Chicago (Liberal Arts- Psych), Emory University (Goizueta), Boston University (Psych/ SMG), and University of Michigan (Ross).
For the schools with prominent business programs (ex. Emory) or ones that offer only a liberal arts education (ex. UChicago), what would be the best way of incorporating both Business and Psych?
Can someone also explain what a minor is and how that works?
And for places like UChicago/ Rice, if I decide later that I want an MBA, would it be better to take Econ along with Psych?</p>

<p>Thank you!! And sorry this turned out so long :D</p>

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<p>1) You’re correct that you can major in anything** and still apply to med school. My D has classmates in her med school class who majored in engineering, music performance, agricultural science, English literature, and Spanish, among other things.</p>

<p>**Medical schools demonstrate a strong preference for liberal arts and sciences in admissions and tend to discourage students who major in ‘vocational’ majors. Business is usually considered a vocational major. (Nursing, education and sometimes engineering are also considered vocational majors.)</p>

<p>The other issue is that starting in 2015, the MCAT is changing formats and medical school admissions requirements already have or will be changing to better match the new MCAT content. The new MCAT will include more science and math than the current version. (In addition to current requirements, new requirements will likely include: statistics, genetics, biochemistry, cellular & molecular biology and possibly calculus-based physics instead of algebra-based physics.) You will need to stay in frequent contact with the pre-health advisors at whatever college you attend to keep abreast of these changes.</p>

<p>Additionally, the MCAT will have a new section on human behavior (psych, soc, ethics and possibly some anthro and philosophy).</p>

<p>I think, given the new additional science requirements, it will quite difficult to double major in psych and business, complete med school pre-reqs AND graduate in 4 years.</p>

<p>2) You will also need to check, if you decide to major in business, if the College of Business will allow you take coursework outside that division. I think I remember a student at UT who was a business major (and pre med hopeful) who was told that she would not be allowed to enroll in her science coursework and still remain in good standing with the business school. </p>

<p>3) FYI, MBA programs generally will not accept students straight out of undergrad. The good ones require the individual to have 3-5 years of significant work experience before applying. (Which will give you time to make up any deficiencies in your undergrad coursework.)</p>

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<p>Double majoring in two different, unrelated disciplines AND completing the premed requirements could be problematic. Business has a core set of courses that you must take. Psych has a cores set of courses that you must take (10+). With the exception of Calc, none of those courses will overlap. Then add in the premed science courses --no overlap with either major (except Calc) – and you run out of schedule room to graduate in four years. (Don’t forget any General Electives/Distributives that the college requires.)</p>

<p>If you attend a college with no business school, you can do the Econ route, which is what most pre-biz types take.</p>

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<p>

And I heard the experience had better be a “good” one, and the reason is that the MBA programs want to make sure that most if not all of their graduates can find a job (and hopefully a “good” one.) If an incoming student has proven that he or she had a good job and advanced his/her career nicely in the past 2-3 years, it is more likely he or she can land a job after finishing the MBA program (To put it biuntly, they prefer to admit the “winners” in the job market or those who have very marketable job skills and can find a job, independent of whether or not he joins the MBA program.) The stellar job experience is more important than just the academic metrics like UG GPAs.</p>

<p>A potential issue is the lack of time: These days, in order to land on a “good” job, you need to devote a lot of your time to intern in the industry, especially during most summer breaks. Being a successful premed is also all about finding time to build up ECs outside of academics while still keeping your academic record “good enough” (no need to be extremely excellent like being a future academic star.) How can you find so much time on both fronts? Also, having an EC which is too business career oriented may not be very valued by medical school adcoms, IMHO.</p>

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<p>^ On the other hand, it is rumored that it is relatively easier to get good grades in many business programs with the exception of the very top ones. Also, many students may regard psychology as a “better” major for a premed for whatever reason it may be (just a wild guess here: It may be easier for a student in such a major to allocate more time for the all important ECs as compared to most natural science or engineering majors?)</p>