Is there some reason why your daughter wants to major in biology? Really, she can major in anything as long as she takes the required courses for medical school applicants. I’m not sure biology provides good options for a Plan B in case medical school doesn’t work out.
I’m hoping @WayOutWestMom will chime in. She can fill in the blanks.
Thank you. Yes, I agree with the Biology major suggestion. What other majors work out if she wants to go to med school?
@GreenD525 she can major in ANYTHING in college that she loves…as long as she takes the required courses for medical school applicants as well. Some majors have a lot of those courses in them. Others would be as electives.
Does she prefer science related/ biology adjacent majors?
Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Neurobiology and Physiology, Molecular and Cell Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology are some options.
My son’s roommate majored in Enology and was accepted into a couple of Medical schools.
I agree with @thumper1 that she should choose a major that interests her along with the possibility of a backup plan.
I also know a girl who majored in Italian and enology and got accepted to several med schools! She graduated from UCDavis.
While biology has the greatest overlap with med school pre-reqs, one can major in anything and still go to med school. D1 and D2 had med schools classmates with majors in forestry (MD/PhD specializing in hepatology/liver disease), sports communications (FM rural practice), Italian and enology (pulmonology/critical care currently doing a PhD in public health), physics (EM), biomedical engineering (ENT), theology/religion (oncology), English (surgeon), music theory (IM), electrical engineering (urology), math (OB/GYN), human geography (FM), Spanish (pediatrics).
Your child should pick a major she enjoys (happier student =better grades) and one that provides a decent back up plan in case med school doesn’t happen.
Biolog isn’t a total bust for post graduation jobs, but bio students need to work at making themselves attractive candidates to potential employers by learning some coding/programming skills (MATlab, SQL, etc), maybe taking an extra biostats class or a probability class or both, and seeking out summer internship in industry. Agribusiness/food safety/biotech/clinical research programs all hire bio majors. So do city, state and federal government agencies.
Teaching, and pharmaceutical or medical device sales are also commonly held bio major jobs. (Pharm and device sales pay extremely well.)
My son and his roommate were also UC Davis graduates. The roommate was a Enology major with a German minor.
Thank you so much. She definitely prefers science related majors. May be she can apply Bio Chem/Neurobiology/Physiology. Since we finished our education abroad, we dont know how majors/uni system works here. Also, does she has to mention major when she applies to UC? What are the cons if she doesn’t specify?
@WayOutWestMom wow. lots of good info. Thank you so much
@Gumbymom she applied for different top tier summer internships and couldn’t get into any. She is disappointed and worried about her college admissions. She is planning to take CC classes during the summer. But all this information is really helpful.
I’m going to give you some very free and unsolicited advice. Your daughter does NOT have to take community college courses this summer to get into her four year college when she applies.
If she goes to medical school, this summer and the summer after her senior year in high school could very well be the last summers in a very LONG time when she can do some things that are fun with her friends, and have a job.
Please realize, the vast majority of college applicants have not taken one community college course. Not one.
Another thing she could do this summer is get EMT certification (if she is old enough to do so in CA).
ETA…With her current GPA (assuming that holds) and ACT score, she has guaranteed acceptances at the colleges I listed above that offer guaranteed merit aid (Arizona, University of New Mexico, University of Alabama (@Tsbna44 can tell you the name of the program for premed majors), Miami (Ohio).
I agree that she doesn’t need to take CC classes this summer. It sounds like you have a lot of learning to do about the college application process. She needs to start building a college list, working on essays, figuring out how the common app and UC application work. Maybe visit some schools that aren’t too far away to see what type of campuses she likes. Applying to college is a lot of work and the summer is a great time to get started. Some applications open as early as late July/early August.
McCullough Medical Scholars is the pre med program at Alabama
McCollough Scholars – Pre-Medical Studies at the University of Alabama.
@GreenD525 you mentioned that you completed your educations abroad. I’m assuming your daughter is a U.S. citizen. Is that true?
She can apply undecided but some of the Science/Biology related majors can be competitive and she may not be able to switch into them later. I suggest she list a major for each UC on the application.
@thumper1 yes she is US Citizen. Great advise by the way.
What are her chances to get into BS MD programs?
As an example of just how far and wide the options are, my radiation oncologist (with an MD from Harvard Medical School) did her BA in English Literature 
@worriedmomucb ha you never know 
@Gumbymom Is doing summer research (paid) is better than CC college courses? When we calculated, my D got 4.24 UC Capped GPA. Interestingly if she adds more courses then her GPA dropped
The UC’s look at all the GPA’s: Unweighted, Capped Weighted and Fully weighted so as the # of a-g courses are taken, the Capped weighted GPA will drop. I wouldn’t worry about the GPA since showing HS course rigor is far more important.
Regarding summer research. If she is interested in the research, it would make a good EC/Job to list on the UC activities application section along with an interesting topic for one of the 8 personal insight essays.
One is not better than the other as long as she is interested in the CC classes or research.