<p>Hey everyone.. I just wanted to know about the difficulty of the sciences at UNC. From many people, I've heard that chemistry and biology are rigorous and require much studying than other majors. I REALLY want to go into the medical field, but I'm really worried if UNC is for me. I want to do well BUT I want to have a social life as well! I really do like chemistry, but I'm not a natural at it. Taking AP Chem, I've had to study about 6-7 hrs/week just to prepare for quizzes and tests. In the end, I got a 5 but that's mainly because my teacher was brillant and very helpful. </p>
<p>Any thoughts? Thanks for any input. I do apprecriate it!</p>
<p>A pre med track is not going to be easy anywhere and chem and bio will require more study than many other majors regardless of the school. You’ll need to put in more than 6-7 hours a week for college science classes anywhere and even more for classes like organic and p chem. </p>
<p>On the plus side, UNC has very strong Bio and Chem departments that are well regarded nationality and will prepare you well for med school.</p>
<p>You can have a social life…my son had a very active social life and played lead guitar in two different bands over his four years…including one very well regarded band in Chapel Hill during his junior and senior years. He’s now finishing his third year at a top 20 Med school.</p>
<p>My friends who did really well in science classes at UNC (i.e. ended up with As) and had social lives were, for lack of better words, pretty brilliant. You start getting a sense of who these kids are after you’ve taken a few science classes with them… Some people are just naturally that way. (I’m pretty sure eadad’s son falls into this category, ha ha - read his past posts). </p>
<p>I agree that a pre-med track is going to be challenging anywhere, but it is undoubtedly easier to do better in science classes at other schools (like State, etc - not trying to offend anyone, so don’t jump down my throat!). Keep in mind that you don’t have to major in a science to be pre-med/pre-health at UNC… You can always get a Chemistry minor and major in the humanities or something to get a bit of balance!</p>
<p>Fact is you can major in ANYTHING as long as you fulfill med school admission requirements. My S majored in Linguistics and Religious Studies with a Chem minor.</p>
<p>It’s actually better to major in something you really like and can be passionate about so that you can excel in it rather than majoring in something you “think” will make you look better to med school adcoms. What matters most is GPA (both overall and science) and MCAT scores along with the requisite pre med ECs.</p>
<p>If you look up historical MCAT data, non science majors actually score as well as science majors in the science portions of the MCAT and better than science majors in the Verbal section.</p>
<p>Go to the Pre Med Forum here on CC for more info and links to the data subsets.</p>
<p>My son plans to double major in History and Biology. He is pretty balanced across the board academically. He like history and has several transferable history credits so it makes sense for him to attempt that major. I agree with eadad, you should major in something you enjoy. I hope the history major will help him with the MCAT as well as the biology major.</p>
<p>The average Bio/Chem grade is about a C+. Considering almost everyone at UNC was in the top 10% of their high school class, that gives you an indication of what to expect. Brilliant people can get A’s. Pretty smart people can still get C’s.</p>