IMPORTANT Question on B.S. degree

Pre-Med & Medical School Multiple Degree Programs
1

<p>If you know you want to be a doctor then why get a B.S. degree. It seems like a waste of time, energy and money. People say to major in your interests, but what if you know you dont' want to waste time on things like that and just go to the M.D. degree. </p>

<p>I kinda like Business so if I was to major in Business in my undergraduate studies what would be the point after I become a doctor. It seems like a waste of time and money. </p>

<p>Does anyone know of any TOP NOTCH schools which don't require the B.S. degree for your MD degree? Thanks</p>

2

<p>I don't know of a single school that exists that doesn't require the BS degree that is top notch, unless you want to go to the Aga Khan University in Pakistan. (look @ foreign med. edu. forum). Some may say they don't require a BS degree, but looking @ the stats from their incoming class you'll see: "Percent w/ Bachelors degree: 94%." You'd have to do something really incredible to get accepted (ie MCAT: 45). And even those people have gone to college for 2-3 years.</p>

<p>The admissions boards don't want you to waste the college experience. College is supposed to be more than just training for grad. school. It's supposed to be fun.</p>

3

<p>Yes, there are schools that will consider you without a bachelor's degree. Yes, you will be at a (very big) disadvantage.</p>

<p>May I ask why you've posted this exact question several times over the last month?</p>

4

<p>Thanks for your replies. </p>

<p>I'm sorry to keep on putting this question over and over, but I wanted more information than what other people have said. One person was really helpful, but I wanted to see if other people knew any more answers. Sorry</p>

5

<p>
[quote]
I don't know of a single school that exists that doesn't require the BS degree that is top notch, unless you want to go to the Aga Khan University in Pakistan.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I requote what I said on a previous post:</p>

<p>"It is true that some med-schools do require a bachelor's degree. However, others do not.</p>

<p>Nor are the ones that do not necessarily no-name med-schools. UCSF, for example, is arguably the best med-school on the West Coast. Here's what they have to say about it:</p>

<p>"We strongly recommend that premedical students pursue a four-year undergraduate curriculum and obtain a baccalaureate degree before entering medical school.</p>

<p>However, we only require completion of three years (135 quarter units or 90 semester units) of acceptable transfer college credit from an accredited institution, including the required college-level courses listed below. Only 105 acceptable quarter units can be transferred from a junior or community college.</p>

<p>Students who enter the School of Medicine without a bachelor's degree may receive a bachelor of science degree in medical sciences after satisfactorily completing the first three terms of the curriculum leading to the doctor of medicine degree. "</p>

<p><a href="http://www.medschool.ucsf.edu/admis...#started_review%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.medschool.ucsf.edu/admis...#started_review&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Here's UCLA Med's policy:</p>

<p>"Ordinarily a bachelor's degree is required for admission, but in certain instances students who have completed three full academic years at an accredited college or university might be accepted. "</p>

<p><a href="http://www.medstudent.ucla.edu/pros.../?pgID=3#prereq%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.medstudent.ucla.edu/pros.../?pgID=3#prereq&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine:</p>

<p>"Applicants must have completed 90 credit hours (using the AMCAS methodology) prior to matriculation from an accredited four-year degree-granting U.S. or Canadian college or university. A baccalaureate degree is not required but is strongly preferred by the Admissions Committee. "</p>

<p><a href="http://pritzker.bsd.uchicago.edu/st...rospective.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://pritzker.bsd.uchicago.edu/st...rospective.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Northwestern University (Feinberg School of Medicine).</p>

<p>"While a bachelor’s degree is not required, it is preferred. "</p>

<p><a href="http://www.medschool.northwestern.e...s/applying.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.medschool.northwestern.e...s/applying.html&lt;/a> "</p>

6

<p>Getting a BS degree is a waste of time (no pun intended) if your planning on entering medical school. In most other countries you do a 5 year medical school program where the first year is introductory courses like bio, chem, organic chem etc and then you start med school from the second year. Unfortunately we live in a country where earning money from tuition means more than wasting a person's time. All the B.S. degree accomplishes is putting more of your money in the college administrators pocket.</p>

7

<p>Well, I wouldn't say it's a COMPLETE waste of time. Let's keep in mind that over half of all applicants to US med-schools don't get in anywhere they apply to. That's right - they get rejected from every single med-school they apply to. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2004/2004mcatgpa.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2004/2004mcatgpa.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Of course even that shocking statistic doesn't capture the full extent of the reality of the situation. Plenty of other people who want to go to med-school don't even bother to apply because of bad grades or bad MCAT scores, or both. Let's face it. If you have a 2.0 GPA and you score a 15 (total) on your MCAT, you're probably not going to spend the time and money filling out applications, because you know you're not going to get in anywhere. </p>

<p>The point is, plenty of people who plan to go to med-school never actually will. The bachelor's degree at least gives them something to fall back on. It may not be much, but, hey, it's better than nothing. </p>

<p>Nevertheless, I agree with your general principle that forcing everybody to not necessarily complete a bachelor's degree (for as stated above, you don't actually need a bachelor's degree to get into med-school), but to "almost-complete" a bachelor's degree by completing lots of college credits, is highly inefficient. You can blame the AAMC for that - economists would say that they are imposing monopoly rents on society by enacting stronger-than-optimal barriers to entry to reduce the number of people entering medicine, hence boosting their salaries, while imposing external costs on society in the form of less available and more expensive doctors.</p>

8

<p>I agree that the entire contents of the B.S. degree are not a waste of time. Of course, the basic courses such as bio and chem are absolutely necessary. But lets face it, does a potential med school student really need to know calculus and humanities (except for english). This is what I am talking about when I refer to unnecessary courses. I may have been a little too extreme in completely degrading the B.S. degree but there is no doubt that many parts of it are a waste of time.</p>