So as my high school year is coming to its halfway point I’ve been looking more and more at what I want to do after college. As of right now my undergraduate major of choice is biochemisty. My plans as of right now are to pursue my undergraduate major while on a premed track. I have a couple back up plans if the premed track doesn’t go the right way but I have a passion for medicine and it’s something I would enjoy as I already do. Anyways, I am just wondering how good Biochem is for preparing me for medical school and if medical school doesn’t work out, how well would it prepare me for a career after college? I know that if I don’t go to med school I would definitely get my masters degree. Just trying to see what to do with my life!
“I have a couple back up plans if the premed track doesn’t go the right way”
That’s great as most who start premed change their minds and of those who actually apply 60% will fail to get even one acceptance at any med school. All premeds should have Plan Bs.
I don’t need an answer but as a 15-16 year old I’m not sure how you have a passion for medicine. I just point out that as a premed hopeful you’re looking at 4 years of college, 4 years of med school, 3-5 years of residency training, more if you go on for fellowship training. So as it’s a long slog, are you prepared to say bye bye to your 20s, part of your 30s? Again I don’t need an answer, just something for you to consider.
“ I am just wondering how good Biochem is for preparing me for medical school…”
I’ve read the academics med students face as being akin to having a fire hose hooked up to one’s mouth and then turned on full blast. As a parent of an MD who graduated from med school a few years ago, I would agree with that assessment based on talking to him while in school. Understand what premed courses are: they are for most part lower division courses open to anyone with an interest or who needs to take them to complete say their major. Although one semester of biochem is I think required for all med schools and is heavily covered on MCAT, the subject matter of other premed reqs provides only background material for MCAT, they are not targeted to preparing students for med school. At larger universities there’s a good chance your prof won’t know or even care if you are premed (unless you go to his/her office hours).
As to biochem: understand med schools don’t care what your major in, only that you do well and complete premed reqs… You can be a history, math, Spanish major, etc, etc… med schools don’t care. But if biochem is your cup of tea, okay… but you may want to be more flexible in the next few years as your interests may change. Most premeds choose some flavor of bio, perhaps out of interest, but also because of course overlap (you can complete premed and major reqs at same time), whereas if you’re say a geography major, you have to fit premed courses into your schedule
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My suggestion to you is enjoy the rest of your time in hs. Take the hardest courses you can and that you can do well in, in order to develop more wider reaching skills that will help you no matter what pathway you go down (reading comprehension, analytic thinking, writing, communication skills etc), Good luck.
@Jugulator20
Thank you very much for the thorough response. I am a senior in a rigorous high school and I have been taking the hardest classes provided to me. I’ll graduate with 8 APs and 9 Honors classes and 1 college calc class. I have over a 3.8 unweighted and over 4.1 weighted. I have had the opportunity to be in the operating room more than a couple times and have talked with a few surgeons and doctors myself to get a good idea of what I will be expecting/seeing if this is a career worth working towards. I have also spent the last 2 1/2 years volunteering at my local hospital to see if it’s something that would interest me (nursing, PA, ect.). I do agree that you don’t have to be a science major to be premed, although science has been something that I love and have been good at, so naturally, it’s what I want to major in. However, things could change and so I am trying to be more open when I go on campus wherever I end up next year.
Again, thank you for taking the time to get back to my post, I am very grateful for it. I still got some thinking to do!
Slightly different but thought I would give my $0.02.
I was a pre-vet that majored in biochemistry. I went to a large university but the major was very small (only ~30 out of 28k undergrads) and most in my class were pre-med. After graduation, when I did not receive a vet school acceptance, I was able to find work quickly. I ended up working within a clinical diagnostic lab at a med school for several years. There I ran countless PCRs for detection of different cancer point mutations.
I attribute my success at work (and now in vet school) in part to my biochem education. The major laid a good foundation for which I can build on. As an aside, one of my regrets in undergrad was not taking a dedicated anatomy course. That would have been SO helpful. Best of luck pursuing you goal!
Also @jugulator20
The drinking from a fire hose is also used commonly to describe vet school. I wonder if it’s commonly used to describe any professional program??
Biochemistry has a large amount of course overlap with pre-med courses, so it may be “convenient”. However, it may not be all that great with major-specific job prospects with a bachelor’s degree if you do not get into any medical school (most pre-meds do not get into any medical school).