Hi, Im an incoming freshman and I’m an international student. I know its a bit late to start searching/asking, but how exactly do majors work?
I’m not exactly sure what I want to pursue in the future, so I chose political sciences as my declared major and applied to colleges, but I kind of want to go to the medical field too. (I was wavering between these two since like junior high.)
Does this mean I am going to take one subject related to political science and also other subjects like bio, math, english as well? How much focus would I put on political science?
I also heard that everyone takes the same classes in the first two years but is that true?
I heard that in American universities, it is fairly easy to change majors unless the seats are all taken. Do you think I can change to some medical related major - such as biology or biomed - at some point? Is it possible to declare majors in two after I enter university and drop one that I dont like?
My ignorance is making me embarrassed, but it will help me a lot if someone could answer some of my questions! Thank you in advance.
If you’re planning on going to medical school in the future to become a doctor, you can choose any major you want. The pre-medicine or “pre-med” track requires that you take certain courses like Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Organic Chemistry, and Biochemistry along with some social science classes (such as Psychology or Sociology). You can take those courses along with your Political Science courses. But you don’t need a medicine-related major to be able to apply to medical school; you can be a Political Science major and still apply.
Whether or not you take the same courses as everybody else in the first two years depends on what college you’re attending. Many colleges have “general education requirements” that everyone has to take to graduate. Many also have fairly set course requirements for the first few semesters (two years sounds kind of long, though). At my school, though, there are no classes that students have to take.
As for how easy it is to change majors, that also depends on the school you’re going to. I’m pretty sure that most schools make it fairly easy considering that many students in their first two years don’t know what they want to study yet. At some schools like mine, you aren’t even allowed to officially pick a major until after the first year of college, even though I “declared” a major on my college application.
Like OnMyWay2013 said, there’s something called general education requirements which usually means you need 1 writing, 1 math, 1 science, 1 history, 1 arts, maybe some others, classes. You can choose what you take, so it doesn’t need to be “Intro to Writing,” it could be a class on Shakespeare or children’s literature or anything that interests you in the English department. Some people spend their first 2 years getting the general education requirements out of the way, especially if they’re not sure what they want to major in. But they’re not the same classes, because people will be taking different things to fulfill that gen ed requirement (ex. you might take Astronomy to fulfill the science requirement, someone else might take Chemistry.)
Every major has a certain # of classes you need to achieve that major. I majored in English, for example, which meant I had to take ten English classes. That fulfilled the major. It’s usually pretty easy to switch within the same department. It’s harder to switch from, say, History to Engineering because engineering might have its own admissions requirements. But in order to formally declare a major you usually just need to fill out a form. It’s not committing you to anything - if you fill out a form for Biology and Political Science, but don’t finish Biology, you’d still just graduate with Poli sci.
120 credits total (usually, depends on particular school)
About 60 credits (at 3 credits per class) for “general education requirements” - broad range of subjects from literature to maths
About 35-40 credits in “major” field of study
Optional: about 15-20 credits in “minor” field of study
Other credits in “electives” - whatever you find interesting (more if you don’t do a minor)
For medical school, all you need to do is complete the prerequisite classes (usually Biology and Chemistry, although some schools offer a “pre-med” concentration which has a set of classes), take the MCAT exam, and finish a degree in whatever field. Plenty of people end up in med school with a degree in something else
OP, you state you are an International student. Please be aware that your chances of attending of US Medical school are very small.
I suggest you do some further research about applying for a US Medical school: https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-medical-school/article/applying-international-applicant/
Oh wow… Even if I study in an American University, theres still little chance?
http://premedusa.blogspot.jp/2014/06/US-Medical-Schools-for-Internationals-Updated.html
I see most of the schools have less than 1% of international students…
But why dont US schools want international students?
Why?
Universities that receive public funding are often instructed to use that funding for producing doctors who will go on to work in that state. In fact, some public universities don’t even accept anyone from a different state, even if they are an American citizen.
U.S. medical schools offer very little scholarship money to anyone. U.S. citizens finance a large chunk of their medical education through federal loans, which international students cannot get. An international student wanting to study in America should be, he said, “extremely wealthy” and “extremely committed.”
Last but not least, is that there are more qualified US applicants than Medical school spots, so priority is given to US students.
So does this mean I should look for a different career path?
Will your parents be able to afford around $250,000 dollars or more for you to attend Medical school if you happen to get in? If you are not a US citizen and your are accepted to Medical school, you would have to show proof you could afford to pay.
You could always attend a US college for undergrad and return home for Medical school if that is your ambition.
Money is not an issue for our family, so that wouldn’t be a problem.
But, I cannot go back to my country to do so because in my country, major specific classes start from the first year of university.
You can continue on the Medical school path but make sure have an acceptable alternative option if you are not accepted into Medical school in which you would be equally happy.
In the US one completes an undergraduate degree, then applies to and attends medical school. The two are completely separate. In a lot of other countries (possibly your’s) it’s more of high school straight to medical school.