<p>I'm a mom posting a question for my S. This subject came up in our conversation the other day. Son plans to discuss this with a friend's dad who is a physician and researcher at Baylor but he also asked me to post the question here so that he could hopefully get some other opinions.</p>
<p>Son is currently buried under SATs, college applications, advanced calculus and physics classes.....all the normal things for a senior who is thinking about pre-med. He does not want a combined degree program at this point but is looking at a traditional BA/BS with a pre-med concentration to cover the required entry classes. He was also thinking about his college major. He is interested in bio, but has a strong background and interest in history and the social sciences. There are a few schools where he is looking at History of Science/Medicine (Chicago, Pitt). He's also considering places like GW, Tufts, or Cornell where you can do some kind of IR or global public health major, since he's interested in epidemiology/world health issues. And then there are unis such as Rochester or Brown where it's comparatively easy to double major. He is thinking of these alternative majors mainly because he likes these subjects very much plus the fact that he though he'd do very well in them at college. (Presently has near 800's on two history SAT II's plus a 5 in AP US history.)</p>
<p>Son is very aware that you can have undergrad majors for med school admission other than science ones and that some non-science majors actually have "better" admission rates....presumably because such students stand out or their grade point is higher? </p>
<p>The question is this. If you think you might want a combined MD/Phd from med school and eventually do biomedical research, do you really need an undergrad bio major to prepare for that, or can you still look at majors in areas like history or IR as long as you have the normal pre-med stuff with perhaps some other Bio thrown into the mix?</p>
<p>I'm just thinking that normally a person would get a BS in Chemistry before working on a PhD in Chemistry (or a sub-field within chemistry) because the courses for the PhD require the basics that one would learn in the undergrad. </p>
<p>This is something I found on BU's website.
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. For the PhD degree, the student must have fulfilled all the requirements for admission to the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences and have been enrolled in the Division for the equivalent of at least two full academic years.
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<p>So maybe try looking to see what the prerequisites are for the graduate program your son is interested in. I'm guessing that he can major in anything he wants as long as he completes the prerequisites for pre-med and the graduate program, but I guess the question is how many prerequisites there are, and whether it would be practical to complete a different major.</p>
<p>Sorry, I know that doesn't really answer your question.</p>
<p>I considered an MD/PhD (or MSTP) program when I was still interested in microbiology/virology. The program heavily emphasizes research, so undergrad research in the field is probably a pre-req no matter what. </p>
<p>The MD/PhD programs (many of which are conveniently paid for by fellowships, btw) require you to meet both the med school and grad school's admissions requirements (which can be extensive), so I'm willing to bet an undergrad degree in a related field is desirable. That said, there's no reason he can't have multiple majors or minors.</p>
<p>Just a plug for Duke- Duke is heavily emphasizing global health, and its certificate program in Global Health is in the process of being approved, as well as already having a Health Policy certificate program. Emory would be another good choice.</p>
<p>
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If you think you might want a combined MD/Phd from med school and eventually do biomedical research, do you really need an undergrad bio major to prepare for that, or can you still look at majors in areas like history or IR as long as you have the normal
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<p>I'll put it to you this way. I see that at Johns Hopkins, a history major could complete a MD/PhD, with the PhD being in the History of Medicine</p>
<p>Harvard now runs MD/PhD programs that allow people to get PhD's in the social sciences like economics, sociology, psychology, and government, etc.</p>
<p>The point is that certain MSTP programs allow students to get doctorates in things that are quite far removed from biology. Hence, I don't think there is any real requirement that you have to be a bio or bio-related major in order to get admitted. Obviously somebody who got into the PhD program in Government as part of the MD/PhD program at Harvard was probably not a biology major in undergrad.</p>
<p>Northwestern has a really good global health program as a minor, it is a difficult school though. For md/phd you will want to do undergraduate research and its best to go somewhere where your son can do that. It's easy at a school like unc since they let their undergrads help out, but if you're assertive you can get involved with research anywhere.</p>