Duke, 46% declare pre-medicine?

<p>Hey guys,</p>

<p>Duke has some impressive statistic that 46% of incoming freshman declare "pre-med" When does this declaring process occur- when they apply or when they enroll in the college? When applying to this university, on the app, it only give 4 blanks to what majors you are interested in taking part but it has no specific major to declare once and then. The only "thing" you do have to state is what college you want to apply to - Arts and Sciences or Engineering. My goal, however, is to do pre-med but major in Classics. Does it hurt my chances if I put pre-medicine?</p>

<p>First of all pre-med is not a major so basically the 46% that declare it don't realize that it is not a major.</p>

<p>Pre-med actually consists of
1 year gen chem
1 year bio
1 year physics
1 year organic chemistry</p>

<p>as far a major is concerned you can major in anything you want.
1 year calc</p>

<p>Yeah I know what pre-med is. It is not a major, but rather a track. Based on the 46% statistic, when is it declared -when you apply or when you get accepted and enroll?</p>

<p>pre-med and pre-law are not even a 'track' -- it just means that kids are planning on applying to grad school when they apply to Duke. But, the vast majority of kids wash out during Chem and/or Physics -- so it is highly unlikely that half the Duke Juniors are still planning on applying to med school. </p>

<p>btw: I think I read somewhere, the major with highest placement rate into med school is philosophy. Most schools require you to declare a major at end of Soph yr.</p>

<p>Before freshmen can register on ACES, they have to fill out several questions about possible majors, long term goals, which languages they want to take, etc. One question asks if you are interested in health professions. 46% of the incoming freshmen answered yes, which is a drastic increase from last year's ~28%. </p>

<p>Thus, they aren't "declared" pre-meds, and the 46% interested in pre-health also includes pre-vet, pre-dentistry, etc., so the number of pre-meds isn't quite that high.</p>