<p>I knew biology and chemistry (as well as biochemistry) majors were abundant in the pre-health crowd, but how many go in those three fields with a pre-health (pre-med, pre-dental, pre-pharm, pre-vet, and so on, so forth) intent?</p>
<p>Because if a large proportion of the failed pre-meds are biology, chemistry or biochemistry majors, that might account for part of the glut in these fields.</p>
<p>How are we expected to answer this question? 75% at my undergrad - does that count as an answer?</p>
<p>Most of those majors have the med-school Pre-reqs built in to the curriculum. So a lot of the students are Pre-med, at least to start.</p>
<p>A lot of students pick those I feel because of the curriculum being so similar. Less classes for them, so a better chance at a higher GPA perhaps. Also the interest correlates too, it makes sense.</p>
<p>I would say at least the majority of those majors are pre-med/vet/health etc.</p>
<p>I knew that many pre-health guys were biology, chemistry or biochemistry majors. In fact these three majors supply over half of the pre-health guys (per AAMC, although AAMC supplies information for pre-meds only) and I could understand why: the overlap between major content and pre-health requirements.</p>
<p>However, I did not rule out that only a minority of the students in these three majors were, in fact, pre-health. I must acknowledge that my undergrad is perhaps a bit oddball in this respect because the pre-health context is different where I live, since one is not required to go through undergrad in order to get into med, pharm, vet or dental school.</p>
<p>thoughts on pa school?</p>
<p>At my university, Biology definitely has the most premeds. Biochemistry and Chemistry don’t have as many, I think it’s because these majors are very research focused at my school and also known as two of the most difficult majors in Arts and Sciences (along with physics and math). A large portion of Chem and biochem majors seem to go for PhDs or MD-PhDs.</p>
<p>But, at UPenn, while biology has the most premeds, are there more premeds than non-premeds in biology? One undergrad where 75% of the sears in biology, chemistry or biochemistry are held by pre-meds doesn’t mean another undergrad will have that many pre-meds in biology alone…</p>
<p>At my undergraduate school, biology has four streams: cell/molecular (called biomol by the locals), microbiology, ecology and physiology; premeds were to be found primarily in cell/molecular and microbiology, within biology. Of course, chemistry had more pre-pharms than pre-meds, with biochemistry having some of both, but in both cases premeds were in the minority.</p>
<p>End result: at my undergraduate school, attrition in these three majors happened both at the top and at the bottom of the skill ladder, since many of the best in these fields bolt for med, pharm, dental or vet school after a year. And, of course, the rigor level is comparable to that of Ivies so there are people who can’t handle the coursework.</p>