<p>Hi.
When I go to college, I'd like to major in something like Neuroscience or Human Physiology. However, I'm also interested in Economics - not so much that'd I'd major, but the subject still interests me. As a pre-med, would my courseload be too time-consuming and challenging that minoring in a subject hard like economics be a bad idea? Because I definitely want to have a high GPA. </p>
<p>Also, can someone tell me what an Economics minor would be like?</p>
<p>Thanks, guys.</p>
<p>A minor is usually 5-6 courses-- intro (pre-req to take micro and macro), macro, micro plus 3 upper level econ electives.</p>
<p>Intro usually requires co-enrollment in Calc 1.</p>
<p>D2 (rising senior) is neuroscience and math double major. She’s maintained a 3.78 and will likely graduate with a GPA close to that. While the math has probably hurt her GPA, her math skills have also helped get some internships she otherwise probably wouldn’t have gotten. Fair trade-off. (Also the math gives her a wider range of options post graduation if she doesn’t get accepted or decides not to pursue med school.)</p>
<p>Any minor is fine for med school. (And so is no minor.) Just be aware that Neuro is one of those majors that typically has a lot of requirements. At one college that I’m aware, Neuro requires 19+ courses for completion (including the prereqs). Thus, the opportunities to minor and complete core distribution requirements takes careful scheduling. But if you like the subject, go for it.</p>
<p>btw: AP credits can come in handy for meeting distribution requirements at some colleges.</p>
<p>Would a minor really be worth the work? Because I’ve read numerous places that med schools don’t care about minors and although it’d be interesting, I don’t want to waste my time.</p>
<p>you dont need a minor for medical schools</p>
<p>Minor only if it’s valuable to YOU. Med schools don’t care.</p>
<p>Could it benefit me as a doctor in anyway?</p>
<p>^^ No I doubt your patients would care if did a minor. </p>
<p>Take classes that you are interested in. Stop trying to gauge what classes will help you out in life. You don’t have to ONLY take classes in college that will help you get into medical school or help you out as a doctor. There are other reasons for taking classes in college. College is not a stepping stone to medical school. Lets say you treat it as such, and you still don’t get into medical school, then what was the point of college?</p>
<p>Econ could help if you ever go into health care management, such as hospital admin, or Chief Medical Officer of a community/city/state public health office.</p>
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<p>Sounds like a perfectly valid reason to minor in something. Like someone else said, depending on how many credits you’re coming in with, you’ll probably have some wiggle room in your schedule. So you could probably fit it.</p>
<p>I’d start with an intro class that’s useful for your minor but could also satisfy other, general requirements if necessary. If you like that one, take another one. Repeat until you no longer like econ. Have a minor? Great. Don’t have a minor? Who cares.</p>
<p>The point is, take classes you like because you like them–you’ll probably do better in them than you would in classes you don’t like anyway!</p>
<p>Worth a shot. (For what it’s worth, my time-consuming minor fit with my major just fine)</p>
<p>^thanks. That was helpful advice. I might as well try it and see how i like it.</p>
<p>Sure thing. You might like it. You might hate it. But you won’t know for sure unless you give it a shot. An intro econ class would probably transfer as something useful regardless (as far as filling depth/breadth requirements, math proficiency requirements, or general elective credits).</p>
<p>I was a biology major and a leadership and public service minor (which was quite time consuming after taking into account the amount of projects, internships, conferences, and service-learning classes it required). Does that combo make sense? Probably not. Did it give me an edge in med school admissions? I doubt it. Will it make me more marketable in the future? Doubt it. But it was a set of classes that seemed interesting, so I took them. And I’m really glad I did!</p>
<p>If you have some time, I’d recommend checking out the New Yorker article “Debating the Value of College in America,” ([Debating</a> the Value of College in America : The New Yorker](<a href=“Live And Learn | The New Yorker”>Live And Learn | The New Yorker)) which is about two theories of what college is: meritocratic (that is, a means to and end–a job) and democratic (that is, learning for the sake of learning, to become an educated citizenry). The value of “unnecessary” things like econ minors changes depending on what you want to get out of college.</p>
<p>And that, of course, is up to you :)</p>
<p>I read somewhere that if you go into medicine, majoring in a science and taking a BUNCH of science courses might be overkill. I could see myself as an Econ major, actually. Would it hurt my chances at med schools if I major in Econ and minor in a science? I’m afraid that they’d think I haven’t spent enough time on science or aren’t interested enough in it, which I definitely am. However’ I don’t want to use my entire college experiene soley and mainly on science since I’ll be doing it the rest of my life. Hard to explain…</p>
<p>Right now it’s fine to be an econ major and a pre med. Pre med requires 8 science & math classes. </p>
<p>However, things will be changing in 2015 when the new MCAT goes into effect. The revised MCAT will include additional content, both science and non-science, than does the current version. Medical schools will most likely be changing their admission requirements to better match up with the new content.</p>
<p>Just one thing to keep in mind–med schools can and do change their admissions requirements. It will be important to keep in touch with your pre med advisor in college.</p>
<p>Wait, can you tell me more about the new MCAT? How will it include more non-science stuff?</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/newsroom/newsreleases/2011/182652/110331.html[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/newsroom/newsreleases/2011/182652/110331.html</a></p>
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<p>The revised science section will include: cellular/molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry, research methods and statistics–in addition to general and organic chem, general biology and general physics.</p>
<p>Basically, the new test will have 4 sections: biological sciences; physical sciences; social sciences and verbal. The writing section is being eliminated.</p>
<p>Wow. You gotta be extremely well-rounded then haha thanks for the article.</p>