Indecisive for Pre-PA/Pre-Med Major

College Majors Science Majors
1

My sister and I are high school seniors and are planning to go into the medical field. She is aiming to be a PA, while I’m aiming to go to med school (PA is my second option, dental school is my third option).

However, my sister is in a situation where she cannot decide her major. She really wanted to go into a major that she could excel in (initially, Art), but my mother is advising her to not do that because it has no correlation with the medical field, even though she can take the required pre-PA courses alongside her major. Now she is thinking of majoring in Psychology and taking the pre-PA courses with that major. She’s not particularly fond of the sciences (which is why she doesn’t want to major in Biology), but she is determined enough to do well in her pre-PA courses on to become a PA. I believe she has a 3.0 GPA, but I have no clue if that is her weighted or unweighted (she won’t tell me).

For me, my situation is that I have the ability to take a Biology major, but I am really unsure if I should take that route. I like Biology, but I heard that a Biology major is rather difficult than other majors and I really don’t want to risk having a low GPA because of it. I was thinking that maybe it would be better for me to major in Psychology or Philosophy, as I’m just as interested in those majors as I am with Biology, and just take the pre-med courses with it. I currently have a 4.0 weighted GPA and a 3.79 unweighted GPA.

2

Other people can answer PA issue better than myself.

As to med school, any major is fine (eg bio, psych, art history, music, etc) as long as you take premed reqs. Most people choose bio/chem, perhaps out of interest, but also because you can satisfy major/most premed reqs at same time (ie course overlap). You should choose any major you are interested in as if you actually like material you’ll tend to do better GPA wise which is something med schools are, in part, very interested in. Also consider a major with a plan B in mind as most students who start as premed drop out along the way, and of those that actually apply to med school, 60% fail to start anywhere. Unless you plan on pursuing graduate training, bio tends to be a somewhat poor choice as a major. Good luck.

3

I don’t know much about PA school, but assuming its like med school, I think your mother was wrong advising your sister not to major in art. Your major does not have to have any correlation with medicine, as long as you take the prerequisite courses. In fact, your chances of getting into med school are slightly higher if you major in something unrelated. Music majors have one of the highest acceptance rates to med school for example.