I am currently a rising junior in high school and am passionate about both business and medicine. I started investing in the stock market when I was 14 and my passion for business started. However, I have broken bones and whenever I go to the hospital or watch doctor TV shows (real ones) I picture myself being a doctor. I am very intelligent and I think I want to major in economics and take pre med requirements. For this reason, Penn, specifically Wharton, appeals to me because 40% of your classes are taken outside of Wharton which would allow me to take the pre med requirements. However, Wharton prides itself as being a pre-professional business school. I feel that if I was to go to Wharton, I would be wasting my time because I would be focused on Medicine in a Business School. My philosophy is that since I am not dead set on going to Med School, I could take pre med requirements while getting a business degree and then as college progresses, I would figure out my real passion. I get that Wharton is not a pre med school and few go from Wharton to Medical School but is it logical?
@USPanther not necessarily. In fact most LSM kids start out as pre-med. of course many end up being more interested in business so they end up working at investment banks , consulting, pharma, biotech. However a good percentage ends up going to med school. LSM is a very prestigious program and along with M&T it has the smartest, most legit students at Penn. If you do relatively well in LSM med schools will welcome you with open arms. That said any course of study at Penn will enable you to prepare well for med school because penn has no core reqs so you can easily fit in your pre med requirements. I dint see why you couldn’t do wharton and pre med. if anything you will have a relatively unusual background which could help differentiate you from other applicants. Also the heathcare management concentration might be of interest to you. Or you could study econ in the college and do a dual degree with with wharton or some other major. The possibilities are endless really. The great thing about Penn is that it not only has so many great majors but also gives you the flexibility to explore and change your mind about your plans. Whatever you end up studying, make sure you get involved in research with Penn med early on. This is something that ugrads interested in medicine are very encouraged and welcome to do.
@USPanther, I don’t understand this. Could you elaborate?
Your background sounds much more finance than medicine. Based on the limited info so far, I’d apply to Wharton if I were you. You can start taking prem courses, and if you end up going that route a Wharton degree will be impressive. If your “real passion” takes you away from business then you can easily switch to CAS.
@renaissancedad Yeah I meant I had broken some bones before and whenever I go to the hospital I love interacting with the doctors and looking at x-Rays. In addition I like TV shows like NY Med and Boston trauma and I can picture myself as a doctor doing something like that.
Not the most realistic views of medicine. You might consider some volunteer work between now and next fall.
I wouldn’t sell the farm of the premed route if I were you. It’s much easier to go Wharton -> CAS than the other way around, and your finance background is much stronger than you biomedical background. I don’t think you have enough of the latter for LSM.