<p>Hey guys. I'm headed to college in the fall and I just had a few questions to help with planning. I'm very interested in a career in medicine, but i also like business. Ultimately I want to be a doctor, but the competition of getting into medical school is scary. Also, while I do well in biology and chemistry, science isn't my first choice for a major. I'm wondering, how difficult would it be as a business major to fulfill all the reqs for med school? I'm willing to change my major if it makes things easier, as I'm passionate about medicine. I'm confident about my chances to get into some schools but the uncertainty is definitely scary. Please help!</p>
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<p>im asking specifically about business. I'm not familiar with anyone that has been a business major that was pre-med as well.</p>
<p>You can major in anything and still go to med school, you shouldn't have trouble fulfilling any pre-reqs. It's the same for every major, except maybe some engineering programs, which tend to have very stringent requirements.</p>
<p>Thanks, GoldShadow. This is what I thought, but whenever I tell someone I'm pre-med as a finance major they question me and claim this cannot be true. Seems like everyone thinks biology or chem are the only majors getting into med school!</p>
<p>With that said, I would caution that finance is a vocational major -- a rigorous one, admittedly, but vocational nonetheless -- that graduate programs like medical school probably won't think very highly of.</p>
<p>Among academic disciplines, the numbers demonstrate that major doesn't matter. But finance -- like marketing or communications -- isn't an academic discipline.</p>
<p>true - this was one of my concerns. I was considering switching my major to economics. With this, I could get more of a liberal arts background with it being a humanities major, while still being able to get a job in the business world if necessary. Would this be a better idea?</p>
<p>Yup, sounds like a good balance.</p>
<p>Remember that medicine is an incredibly diverse field...it involves science, research, but also (especially now) politics and economics. I think medical schools are looking for a diverse range of interests and a diverse set of skills to tackle many different problem areas in medicine. There are MD/MBA programs just for this reason. As well as MD/JD, MD/Public Health, MD/PhD, etc. The fact that these programs exist only exemplifies the fact that doctors have a wide variety of specialties and roles in medicine, so many different backgrounds will contribute to the many different challenges in the medical field.</p>
<p>I graduated with a degree in International Business, and now I am taking the classes required for medical school. I am happy with the route I took, I think I stand out from every other biology major applying....I did a focus in marketing and finance, and I don't regret it...it's good knowledge to have and when I was finishing my degree it made me realize exactly what I wanted to do...go to med school.
Study what you are interested in in business...econ can be tougher than finance for some people.
hope this helps</p>
<p>what’s the matter, economy got you down?</p>
<p>bluedevil, premed, and reece - thanks for your input. I’m still trying to decide exactly what path I want to take.</p>
<p>MolySci - More like the competition of med schools has got me down! I’m confident, but I always try to have a “Plan B”</p>
<p>If it doesn’t matter what your major is for medical school admissions, then why would a vocational major like finance hurt you?</p>
<p>In short, because vocational majors train you to do something whereas (we’ll call them academic) majors train you how to think and solve problems. So a finance major will teach you how to analyze financial information, use various financial instruments, understand markets, and understand various financial and economic policy. Obviously some gen eds would be sprinkled in to “round out” your education. Overall, should be great prep to enter the world of finance.</p>
<p>Other types of bachelor’s degrees (including BS and BA) are more focused on teaching you how to think like an academic and how to approach and solve a variety of problems–ranging from scientific to philosophical to sociological to historical and anything in between. Whether you focus on science or philosophy is somewhat immaterial, because the purpose is the same–teaching you how to think like an academic. Great prep for grad or professional (eg medical) schools, and probably pretty good for directly entering your field (in terms of content prep). Overall, more versatile.</p>
<p>Med schools are, for the most part, looking for students who have demonstrated that they are exceptionally good thinkers and could handle the rigor of the curriculum at their school. As far as the numbers of students admitted goes, it seems that medical schools prefer students who went on academic (rather than vocational) tracts. (And that difference is in the percent of applicants accepted, not in the total number of applicants.)</p>
<p>If a student had a great MCAT score, had a great GPA, was deeply involved in extracurricular activities, and did well in all other parts of the application, would the med school admissions committee reject a person who majored in a vocational major?</p>
<p>I highly doubt that a student’s choice of major has any impact on his/her admission to medical school. As we all know, statistics and percentages never tell the whole story. So if 40% of Biology majors got into med school while 50% of economics majors got in, that doesn’t mean med schools prefer economics majors. It has a lot more to do with applicants’ MCAT, GPA, etc. We know that Biology majors have a lower average score on the MCAT (no offense to Bio majors). Why is this? There are plenty of reasons, but the 40% on the data table doesn’t explain any of them. </p>
<p>Some medical schools might give slight preference to certain majors like humanities, but generally they don’t give any preference to major. We all know that the most important parts of an application are MCAT, GPA, ECs, etc. Selection of major along with name of undergrad institution are more toward the bottom of this list. </p>
<p>I think we’re overestimating the student’s major. Med schools look at the applicant’s MCAT and GPA first before even considering giving an interview. If a student is genuinely interested in a major in Finance, he/she can explain the reasons to the med school interviewer. Major in what you like and enjoy. And yes, many people choose to major in something because they like to learn about it (not just because it would give them good jobs).</p>
<p>Also, you said that med schools are “looking for students who have demonstrated that they are exceptionally good thinkers and could handle the rigor of the curriculum at their school”. </p>
<p>Okay, answer this: since this is the case, what do you think med schools would really look at? MCAT/GPA or selection of major? </p>
<p>Great MCAT/GPA is proof that a student is a good thinker and can handle med school curriculum. How superficial would med schools have to be to think that a student’s major determines how good of a physician he/she would be? </p>
<p>This is ridiculous. You’re reading too much into the importance of major. You can give me these statistics, but you can’t tell me that a student with good MCAT, GPA, etc. would get rejected by med schools because of choice of major.</p>
<p>Can you please produce these stats of which you speak? I’ve never seen them.</p>
<p>I was under the impression the vocational major is also bad because it implies that you are not committed to medicine since you are spending your college career prepping for a specific career that is not medicine. Biology and Econ are disciplines and provide a basic framework of thought. Nursing and business are jobs with a distinct set of skills.</p>