<p>I'm likely transferring to Vanderbilt this fall, and I was wondering if it's possible to be successful as a double major in Medicine, Health, and Society and Molecular & Cellular Biology. My ultimate goal is to either become a physician or work in public health. What is the workload like for each of these majors? Will I have time to hold a part-time job/do research?</p>
<p>I have exactly the same goal/major plans so I would love to hear about this too!
Thanks</p>
<p>Anyone have some input?</p>
<p>I think it is do able. The only difficulty is that MCB has a required research component. (you can get around this requirment with seminars, but it’s not worth it.) I am not 100% sure if MHS has a similar research requirement. if it does, it will be difficult to fulfill both. One important thing is it will be near impossible to do double honors in these majors.</p>
<p>MHS is far from demanding. I wouldn’t worry about the courseload. However MCB can be difficult. You should have plenty of time to do research. Having a part time job on top of research and the double major will be over the top IMO.</p>
<p>Check out the undergraduate course catalog and compare the requirements. [Vanderbilt</a> University Undergraduate Catalog](<a href=“http://www.vanderbilt.edu/catalogs/undergrad/artscience.html]Vanderbilt”>http://www.vanderbilt.edu/catalogs/undergrad/artscience.html)</p>
<p>Alright, I can answer this with some authority because I specifically asked the student panel this during the admitted student day.</p>
<p>All four of them were like, “Oh, yeah, double majoring at Vanderbilt is the easiest thing ever. I think you’re kind of supposed to.”</p>
<p>One girl even said that she hadn’t meant to double major but she finished most of her credits for major #1 by the middle of junior year and she decided to just go for it. She was like, “It really wasn’t hard. Even my workload didn’t go up.”</p>
<p>Hope that helps :)</p>
<p>Major requirements can be found here.
<a href=“http://www.vanderbilt.edu/catalogs/undergrad/A&S.pdf#courses[/url]”>http://www.vanderbilt.edu/catalogs/undergrad/A&S.pdf#courses</a></p>
<p>After looking through the course catalog, MHS requirements are pretty relaxed. You could definitely double with these. Remember only 6 hours will count for both. My suggestion would be to find classes that count for AXLE as well as your MHS major. The major is very wide spread.</p>
<p>I sat in on the Admitted Student Day premed hour…and Dr. Baum stated that five members of Vandy class of 09 got into med school with MHS majors. It was difficult to hear in the meeting so he may have said that five of the students admitted to medical school at Vandy Med itself had this major. My own son loves ethics and philosophy and has looked into this major. Dr. Baum stated without being disrespectful in any way that MHS is a legitimate path to med school but he stated that many top med schools, including Vandy, are looking for students with a track record in hard research more typical in a physical science…at least one full summer or a full year of assisting in serious research is more typical of admission success, often more. I appreciated him dealing directly with this issue. Often we have been told when visiting colleges that you can “major in anything” for premed, but make sure you are not avoiding serious lab skill training when you have the opportunities available at Vandy.</p>
<p>Sorry to hijack the OP’s thread, but I have a question: what about a double major in English and Philosophy?</p>
<p>I also feel that double majoring is highly encouraged based on every time I’ve talked to someone in admissions about this. The major I applied to for Blair is the one they specifically suggest for students who want to double major in one of the other schools. Part of the reason I went ED to Vandy was because of this opportunity to have a strong music program and also participate in other academics.<br>
In fact, the Dean of Admissions was at my Vanderbilt and You meeting and I talked to him about this very topic, he thought it was a great idea.
I assume double majoring between most subjects is made just as easy. Given there will be work, but it overall doesn’t seem that difficult to organize.</p>