<p>Okay so i have wanted to be a doctor since i was like three. Its what i have always wanted to do. As a child i operated on dolls and played operation. I never thought about anything else until now. I find myself leaning toward another major in the social science but am not sure what i would do with it. I am really into social justice and humanitarian works. I dont want to be a lawyer or a social worker or anything. I just dont know if i should focus on that and just continue to take my prereqs just in case. I am a freshman in college. Its not like i am failing my prereqs or anything i am actually doing very good and well above my class averages and endured the first round of weed out classes. I just dont enjoy the sciences but want to be a doctor- i think 80% sure. </p>
<p>So what i am asking is how do i know if social justice is just another interest/hobby and medicine is right?</p>
<p>Yes i know that. I mean i dont know if i should pursue a career in that or medicine. And i want to make a decision by the end of next semester. If i am sticking with medicine i will try to start research and continue volunteering at the hospital. If i want to do the other major ill try to get an internship that relates to that. </p>
<p>Anyone have personal experiences with this?</p>
<p>No need to decide now, see where next semester takes you. Dabble in each of them–join clubs/societies, get to know profs and other students, start exploring job options for social science, volunteer in other fields too. </p>
<p>If at the end of next semester you’re leaning toward switching, switch. If you’re a little unsure, switch but maintain your premed prereqs. If you find you hated all the social science stuff, revert to whatever hard science you were majoring in. </p>
<p>You don’t have to decide on your career freshman year if you don’t want to. That’s the point of college! You’ll figure it out when the time is right, and until then I hope you try not to stress out too much (it’s supposed to be fun after all!) and just see where the crazy college journey takes you. Good luck!</p>
<p>OP, I know how you feel as DS also could not make up his mind on staying on the premed track or not for quite a long time at the beginning of his college. What he did was to continue to take premed classes on the side but did not think too much about it. He only wanted to finish all of his premed classes before graduation.</p>
<p>But this may not be optimal if your goal is not just to get into ANY medical school like DS (Unlike DS, some premeds at DS’s school really try to shoot for the brightest star.) As curm wrote on another CC thread: His GPA, MCAT, and UG saved him. But hey, he really has had very good 4 years and still got into several medical schools.</p>
<p>So, just keep the option open by keeping up grades, etc. and doing some premed-centric stuff on the side. You never know whether you will go back to it or not.</p>
<p>^^^^^ thanks. I’m actually in the process of transferring now b/c my current school does not have any clubs with my interests or a degree in the social science that I want. It’s a small Christian school. I think I will try and suck it up through the science classes and finish my prereqs by the end of junior year to take my mcats and apply just in case I want to. But I will go on to switch my major from bio to sociology. I just hope it works out. Btw just wondering if my feelings of doubt are typical?</p>
<p>Your feelings of doubt are very typical, if DS’s case is not an outlier. He changed his mind 180 degrees (well…maybe not that extreme) several times in college. A few months before he took MCAT, after he had completed his MCAT prep class, he started to talk about LSAT and set aside his books about MCAT. Hmmm…,maybe his prep for LSAT helped his verbal on MCAT. Who knows!</p>