<p>I am enrolling in NYU this fall. I am a well rounded student, with history as my greatest interest. I perform equally well in all subject areas. As a pre-med student, I plan to stay away from science majors and fulfill my interest in history while I still can. In addition, I would be more than content with a philosophy major.</p>
<p>I will be commuting to school, which would take about two hours out of my day. While the pre-med requirements are already intense, history or philosophy, on top of that, would be even more intense.</p>
<p>Philosophy, with its focus on ethics, would be more relevant to medicine. History would just be pure "fun" for me. </p>
<p>My biggest question is: is it possible to handle the workload that I am calling for? With two hours lost per day, can I handle science courses, along with history or philosophy courses? Can I do science research without a science major, or would I be limited to history research? </p>
<p>Finally, which is the better choice as a pre-med in my situation: history or philosophy? My backup career would be law. </p>
<p>Thank you! I greatly appreciate any replies!</p>
<p>Well in regards to your pre-med situation and career back up of law: I think philosophy will be an excellent choice.</p>
<p>The reason being if you look at the MCATS/LSATS results, philosophy majors often tend to be the top scorers (more-so for LSAT). Philosophy really forces you to enhance your analyzing, argument, critical thinking skills (perfect for a lawyer).</p>
<p>As for the workload, from the philosophy majors and history majors I have talked to, I hear for the most part they are similar in terms of workload. Since you say you are well-rounded, you may be able to handle it. Although at least for UCLA and Cal, philosophy tends to be one of , if not the hardest humanties major.</p>
<p>How they differ is that history majors are usually assigned a LOT more reading and they tend to have to memorize most of what they read. While with philosophy majors, they are assigned less reading but the reading is usually very difficult to understand so you have to keep reading it multiple times to finally understand what the philosopher is trying to say. Both will improve your reading/writing abilities nonetheless.</p>
<p>Just for you to note: I am a philosophy major so I might seem to come out as biased, but I have researched what you are now looking into before. I can assure you that most of what I said is accurate for the most part.</p>
<p>Many, many premeds major in a non-science subject. Some med schools even claim to prefer such applicants. The number of premed classes you need to take is not that onerous–you just need to make sure you do very well in them. In your freshman year, take chemistry and calculus. In your sophomore year, organic chemistry and biology. In your junior year, physics. If you major in either history or philosophy, you will more than fulfill the premed humanities requirement. This is pretty much it for premed–as you can see, you have plenty of time to pursue other interests. As for history vs. philosophy, pick whichever you prefer. Right now that sounds like history, from your description, but take a couple of introductory courses in each department and see how you fare. NYU has one of the finest philosophy departments in the world, and there are plenty of interesting faculty in History as well.</p>
<p>I cannot put into words how much your posts have helped me. At this time, I think I am leaning more towards to a philosophy major (the amount of reading for History, and philosophy’s relevancy to medicine is what is pulling me away from History). Thank you!</p>