<p>My daughter is a Junior and she does well in school (SAT 2300), near top of class, a few extra-curricular activities. Problem is, she has not been able to identify her area of interest. Choices change between medicine, economics, business and marketing. We think this makes it difficult to focus on schools to apply. </p>
<p>How did your children fare in coming up with their areas of interest? Any suggestions how we can help? Any ideas as to the types of schools that will provide strong basic education so that she can choose her area of interest after couple of years in college?</p>
<p>The obvious major here is economics. It usually does not require a massive number of courses and therefore would leave plenty of room in the student’s schedule to complete pre-med requirements (some of which would also fulfill general education requirements) and to take business courses as electives. </p>
<p>It’s just a matter of choosing a university that has a business program and allows non-majors to take business courses. (Finding a university that will let an economics major take pre-med courses is not a problem. They all allow that.)</p>
<p>It is totally unnecessary for pre-meds to major in science (although if your daughter wants to keep that option open, she can take courses as a freshman in college that would prepare her to major in biology or chemistry – the courses that lead into those majors also fulfill pre-med requirements). But pre-meds can major in anything they want to, including economics. And a business career does not require an undergraduate business major. An undergraduate major in something else, followed by a few years of work experience, followed by an MBA program, is just as good a route to a business career – some would say a better route.</p>
<p>Your daughter might also want to test out her interests in medicine and various areas of business through summer jobs, internships, or volunteer work. This is partly for self-discovery, but it will also help her qualify for medical school or for full-time jobs in business, whichever path she ultimately chooses.</p>
<p>Most entering college freshmen will either have no major or change the one they declare on their application. Any college can work for premedical intentions although a more highly ranked school, eg one comparable to or better than your state flagship public U, will give her the rigor to need to study. Premed is an intention, not a major, and most students will change their mind or not get accepted to any medical school. All those with premed intentions should plan on a major they actively like, not one they think will be good for getting into medical school.</p>
<p>She needs to consider schools that have reasonable departments in all of her likely majors. The school with the best dept in one major but poor options in other fields of potential interest isn’t a good choice if she changes her mind to one of those. Looking at grad school rankings can offer insights into undergrad major opportunities, especially those where she may end up taking grad level courses as an undergrad.</p>
<p>People can do some Business School masters after work experience and a different undergrad major. It is not necessary to major in business as an undergrad for many MBA programs. She can also start in a college and then choose a business school major.</p>
<p>I favor large schools such as the public flagships as a default place to start looking at what colleges offer. Be sure any school you would pay more money for is at least as good as what you can get at your best public U. Large research U’s, including flagships, tend to have more to offer than small LACs, especially in the sciences and will have an academic peer group with similar interests. Of course, your state U may not be as good as some others or your D may not like it compared to some small LACs. It is important to find the best fit, not the most prestigious school. Fit involves academics and social factors. Size, location (region, closeness to home…), urban/rural and other factors are also included.</p>
<p>She should have her public flagship U as one choice, some schools she fits into the midrange of students and some dream schools in her list to consider applying to. At this point she may be all over the map geographically and other factors wise. She may see a trend and eliminate schools upon second thought are impractical for her. It may be schools on the opposite coast, for example.</p>
<p>These dont seem across the board (like say a student interested in psych, chemistry and law).</p>
<p>Econ, marketing, business are all (or certainly can be), closely related (if not under the same umbrella in a business school). Looks like she leans that way and for whatever reason, wants a more practical major tied to job prospects. Given that is the common element here, and she has no currently clear strong intellectual interests, she might just want to wait until well into her degree to find the one with the best practical benefits to her. </p>
<p>Just have her select a school that has a biz school and an Econ dept (and sometimes that exists also within the bus school as well). One that doesn’t require one to narrow too quickly or makes transfers easy.</p>
<p>Other than that, id say its too esrly to worry about being more precise than this. Shell learn much more about their pros and cons while in university than she can now.</p>
<p>If your daughter applies to colleges as a prospective business major, she should check very carefully to see whether it is possible for her to fulfill the premedical requirements at the same time.</p>
<p>It’s quite easy to complete the premedical requirements while majoring in biology or chemistry because there’s a good deal of overlap between the courses required for the major and those required to qualify for medical school. It’s also fairly easy to complete the premedical requirements while majoring in other fields in the liberal arts college (often called College of Arts and Sciences) within a university because liberal arts majors usually require only a limited number of courses (sometimes as few as 10), and some of those courses also fulfill general education requirements, thus leaving plenty of time in the student’s schedule for premedical courses.</p>
<p>It can be more difficult to find room in a student’s schedule for the courses required to qualify for medical school while completing a professional major, such as business or engineering. Professional majors tend to require more courses than liberal arts majors do, and they overlap less with general education requirements. Fitting it all in could require some very careful planning.</p>
<p>Most colleges have a premedical advising office. If your daughter decides to apply to colleges as a prospective business major but also wants to complete the courses required for admission to medical school, she may want to contact that office early – perhaps even before submitting her application – to see whether this would be possible at that particular university.</p>
<p>As a physician I do not see a problem for her in wanting both business as her primary focus and medical school thoughts while still in HS. The two are opposites so that she will eliminate one or the other quickly and being able to do both will not be an issue. Many HS students lack knowledge of the many other fields that will satisfy their wish to help people. Skip the premed aspect of college now- almost every college will work for that. Economics is related to business. It would be good for her to explore how different colleges handle the two. She should not be concerned about schools that are competitive for admission to the business school after starting college- if she is a good student that won’t be a concern. She should look at all of the different majors in business and what schools offer- courses and other offcampus opportunities. She may decide to explore the liberal arts economics major instead. Now is a good time for her to explore many options.</p>