<p>I am going to be an incoming freshman at University of Irvine, California and my major is currently Chemistry. I'm planning to double major in Chemistry and Biology because I feel passionate about both subjects. I took both AP Chemistry and AP Biology during my sophmore year of High School. I did well on both exams and I want to turn those AP exams to good use by having a double major in Chemistry and Biology. I was wondering if this will be beneficial for me in Medical school and the MCAT. I am willing to take on the extra work but I want to know if that "extra" will be beneficial in the long run. I have a feeling it will be but I want to know the "how." </p>
<p>Moreover, I am also confused between a double major in Chemistry and biology vs Biochemistry major. People have said that Biochemistry is equivalent to a double major of Chemistry and Biology. I am quite skeptical about this and I wonder if this is true or not.</p>
<p>Just some fun facts. The reason a lot of the med school kids do something that goes above the regular requirements( 1 yr bio, 1 yr chem, 1 yr o chem, 1 yr calc, 1 yr physics) is because any surrounding knowledge will help a lot maybe help you have a better understanding of the ground level stuff. Chem and bio would be awesome to do together but you might die at UCI. It’s a lot of work I have a couple friends there just doing bio major ( I live right by UCI). Also they might make you sign this BS form saying if you don’t complete your work in an given amount of time you get the boot. I’m not sure if they are still doing it.
I know I’m doing microbio or biochem because it sets me a little bit apart from all of the bio majors. A double major would definitely do that. So I would say go for it an have fun with it.</p>
<p>Also biochem and biology and chem double are not the same. Biochem is its own trade it has mix of both but it has its own foundation after you get to know all of biology and chem basics. APPARENTLY. That’s what I’ve been told.</p>
<p>Medical schools generally don’t care about your major or courses other than the pre-med list (though different medical schools have their own variations) and your GPA and MCAT scores. You may want to ask on the pre-med forum what courses beyond the minimum pre-med requirements are most relevant to the MCAT.</p>
<p>In terms of the majors, go to your school’s web site and compare course lists for each major.</p>
<p>Note that if you do not get into medical school (most pre-meds do not get into medical school), biology and chemistry have poor job and career prospects at the bachelor’s degree level.</p>
<p>Anything at bachelors degree level has poor job prospects. But I’m sorry, are you serious? Poor job prospects? It’s a lot better than getting a degree in art or business? Bachelors degrees don’t even really mean anything.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I would put biology in a category with physics or the humanities majors. Here is my two sense about this. We are ushering in a biomed era (seeing how Craig Venter created the first synthetic cell and sociologists agree), anything science related would be amazing as well as engineering and physics. You don’t have to go straight to med school right after you get your bachelors, some get an MS then go to med school and find it a lot easier.</p>
<p>Also I feel that those survey’s had way different outcomes at each school. One had physics and biology in the same pay range.</p>
<p>Obviously its just my opinion, I’m not arguing that biology is the best because its not. But it isn’t on the low end. Environmental science would be an area of biology that probably wouldn’t be good to get into.</p>
<p>Ucbalumnus brings up a great point though. Don’t stop your education at a bachelors if you don’t get into medical school.</p>
<p>Like it was previously stated, schools look mostly at your prereqs and not so much at your majors. Any extra knowledge in the field is useful and helpful, however. I just did a biochemistry major that was two classes away from double majors in bio and chem. It’s a ton of work, no matter which route you take. I would recommend that you pick one major, stick with it, and just do whatever extra prereqs you need. You can take extra classes in the other major if your course load allows you to. Instead of committing the time to double majoring, you would be better off committing more time to extracurriculars, volunteering, leadership, shadowing, and getting any experience in the medical field that you can. They want you to be well-rounded and compassionate about people. At least this has been my experience and is my view on how med schools look at applicants.</p>
<p>Your best bet is to call a few med school admissions offices and talk with one of their counselors (or schedule an in-person appointment). They can answer your questions better than anyone else, as that is what they are paid to do.</p>
<p>Quite honestly your majors won’t help you at all, if you go to the pre-med forum you can hear this many different times as this question is asked a few times a week.
[Pre-Med</a> Topics - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/]Pre-Med”>Pre-Med Topics - College Confidential Forums)
go to the stickies up top and read them.
What matters most is GPA, MCATs, ECs, research/ publishings, and shadowing.
Your major will only affect your GPA and your MCAT slightly. If you enjoy it then it will be easier to get a higher GPA. It might affect your MCAT score some too, but not in the way you think, check this link out.
[MCAT</a> Scores by Major ~ Degree Paths](<a href=“黄山茨恃汽车用品有限公司”>黄山茨恃汽车用品有限公司)
The average MCAT score of a biological science major was lower than the average MCAT score. My guess is this is due to pre-meds who aren’t interested in Biology majoring in it, getting bored with the information, and then when it comes to MCAT material not caring about it as much.</p>
<p>I recall recently seeing statistics that said somewhere between 40-50% of med school applicants are not science majors. Its not required - you just need to fulfill the pre-med requirements (usually 1 year each of bio, organic chem, inorganic chem, math, physics and english). Of course, if you are interested in attending one of the major research med schools and want to do academic medicine or research than you will probably need a bio or chem major or biochem major- but if doctoring is your goal, then it’s not necessary.</p>