<p>Can anyone comment on the difficulty of Econ with a pre med track at Penn?
I'm an entering first year student at the college. My goal is to work for healthcare finance firm in the future.
Thanks all</p>
<p>Bump, any opinions?</p>
<p>That sounds like a very difficult combination and with a heavy workload you might face challenges. I’m not talking about stress (hopefully you have considered that already) but what I’m thinking is that it would be very hard to manage ECs and jobs on the side if you’re doing that. Although having two degrees is impressive, it might not be worth sacrificing an internship (which you might not have time for if your doing both econ and pre-med). Just some thoughts. You know your situation better than I do :)</p>
<p>Why exactly do you have such a narrow goal in mind already?</p>
<p>Thanks for the response guys. Feuxfollets, I really enjoy medicine and business… but I don’t know if I want to practice “clinical medicine.” I feel that the best way to combine the two is by working for a finance group that’s based on healthcare. Also, another reason why I’m considering this combination is because its very versatile. If I don’t end up liking finance for whatever reason, I could always go to med school. </p>
<p>ReesesPieces, yeah thats what I was thinking. The course load might be a bit too heavy, possibly might even lower my GPA. But I don’t think I’ll have to sacrifice my summers to do the pre med track with econ though.</p>
<p>I think Econ and premed should be perfectly doable if you plan your schedule wisely and know how to study properly.
ReesesPieces, Premed is not a major, it is a set of courses required for medical school so doing the Econ major and completing the premed requirements is not the same as getting a dual degree or even a double major necessarily.</p>
<p>I was wondering this exact thing, if it was possible to balance an econ/premed workload without sacrificing your GPA for premed. But in the end, econ/premed seems the most practical, as if you aren’t accepted to a med school you still have an economics degree to fall back on</p>
<p>I think that balancing econ and pre-med is perfectly possible as long as you plan accordingly and put in effort. Many people struggle with econ because they do not have the math background so I would definitely recommend that if you are going to pursue this path, then you should make sure you have a fairly strong math background. I know that any people might be worried about the lack of overlapping classes. I don’t think this should be a huge issue. Premed requires 2 sem of bio + lab (3 cu), 2 sem physics + lab (3 cu), 2 sem general chem + lab (3 cu), 2 sem orgo (2 cu) and orgo lab (1 cu). If you do about 1.5 cu (one science course + lab) worth of pre-med requirements each semester, then you should be fine:)</p>
<p>FWIW, I know an Econ major going to NYU Med this fall. And there are quite a few prospective non-science (Math/Econ/IR/History) majors in the 2015 class in the College who are also fulfilling pre-med coursework.</p>
<p>OP, you should consider LSM or the Health Care Management program if you’re interested in medicine and business.</p>