Major affect Admissions?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Hello. I'm a junior in high school and I'd like to go to med school someday. I'm a writer and was thinking about majoring in english or creative writing (I think I could do well). However, I'm not interested in pursuing a career that typically follows a humanities degree--I have wanted to be doctor or medical research scientist for the longest time and most of my high school life have been geared towards science (But i've always done exceptionally better/been more passionate about in English and writing). So my question here is pretty simple: Should I major in a biological science in college or can I still do something else? I'd like to be relatively competitive for med school admission and do well on the MCAT, but can I do that with interests in things besides just science? What are your thoughts on a double major? (with eng and something like genetics)</p>

<p>And while I'm on the subject, what role does the college you go to (big/small, state, liberal arts, ivy league) play on the medical admission process? Should it be a high ranking school or do your college GPA/scores mostly matter in the end? ANy universities you would recommend (I live in Indiana)?</p>

<p>educated answers only please ;)</p>

2

<p>If you want ‘educated’ answers about premed questions, post on the Premed Topics forum.</p>

<p>Moving this there now.</p>

<p>Please start by going to the Resources sticky thread and read the threads about selecting an UG college.</p>

<p>D1 was a premed English major, CW concentration. She applied during the current cycle and will be attending medical school in the fall :).</p>

3

<p>The following seems to be the beaten path to medical schools:

[ul]
[<em>] Major in which ever field interests you. There is no evidence to indicate that medical schools prefer some majors over the others. Maintain a good GPA (>3.5).
[</em>] Do all the pre-requisite courses and maintain a high GPA (>3.5) in those courses.
[<em>] Explore research opportunists, once you get acclimatized in college. Especially during summers. If you can, publish some papers while you are at it.
[</em>] Do volunteering, including some in clinical settings.
[<em>] Do some shadowing.
[</em>] Interact with your professors and get 4-5 of them write you good recommendations.
[<em>] Prepare well, take MCAT and score >32.
[</em>] Apply when you are ready. Do interviews and receive acceptances.
[/ul]</p>

<p>Regarding your question about majoring in Engineering:</p>

<p>[ul]
[<em>] Yes you can. My son’s primary major is Computer Science.
[</em>] Keep in mind that, it is a harder path because:

[ol]
[<em>] Grading in engineering schools tend to be harsher.
[</em>] Engineering grades don’t count towards your science (BCPM) GPA
[li] You may face some scheduling issues across engineering and arts and science colleges.[/li][/ul]
[/ol]</p>

<p>Regarding your question on double major:</p>

<p>[ul]
[<em>] Yes you can. My son is a CS and Biology major, with a minor in Linguistics.
[</em>] My son declared Biology major at the end of his Sophomore year, once he realized that he wasn’t that far away from the requirements.
[li] Keep in mind, with every thing from the first list, that you need to get done, doing multiple majors is not easy.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

4

<p>^</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>From the rest of the OPs post, I think when they wrote ‘eng’, they were referring to English, not Engineering.</p>

5

<p>Oops! 10 char.</p>

6

<p>If you want a medical research career, this typically requires a MD/PhD or a PhD. For this you will need to have at least one major which is a science/bioscience. Otherwise you won’t have the necessary research experience/credentials for the PhD part.</p>

<p>If you want to be physician, an English degree is fine if you can successfully fit in all the required pre-med classes. (gen chem, Ochem, biochem, physics, bio, “college level” math, stats, psych and sociology)</p>

<p>As a former English major, I want to sound one bit of caution. If you major in creative writing, do NOT underestimate how much time it takes to produce a creative work. Sometimes the muse simply will not cooperate. Writing well takes time, LOTS of practice and a good deal of thought. (Not to mention research.) </p>

<p>BTW, while D1 wasn’t a English major (she wasn’t a bio major either…), she does have classmates who majored in everything from English to music composition theory to agriculture.</p>

7

<p>haha engineering is not for me, kal123 :wink:
So do you guys think I would be better off with a double major in CW and some biological science or should I go for a major and minor combination? I want to keep my career options open. Is there anyone that has taken English/creative writing before med school that can tell me how it fared out for them?
and also, don’t you have to go to med school in order to pursue a career in medical research–say cancer research, for instance.</p>

8

<p>Maybe entomom will chime in. Her D was a creative writing major in college and will be heading off to med school in the fall.</p>

<p>You do not have to pursue med school to have a successful career in medical research. I work for an organization that does biomedical research. While some of our researchers are MDs, most have MD/PhD or PhD. Or in a few cases a DVM or a DVM/PhD.</p>

9

<p>OP, If you have specific questions, fire away.</p>

10

<p>What is like to have a CW major and pursue medicine (mCAT harder, easier?), will I still get research opportunities? Is the major time-consuming or manageable if I choose to pursue a double major with, say, biology? DId your D like it? :)</p>

11

<p>Here’s her story, which is tempered by her interests more than any innate limitations in being a non-science premed:</p>

<p>She liked the ying and the yang of taking English and science classes as she both enjoyed and tired of certain aspects of both disciplines. One thing to remember is that at most colleges, to concentrate in CW, you need to be an English major and apply to for CW, usually at the end of soph year. D1 went to a school with a thesis requirement and with a CW concentration she instead had to submit a portfolio of writing, which she preferred. Also, schools vary in whether being an English major is a requirement or preference for admission into small writing seminar classes. At her school it wasn’t, every interested student submitted a writing sample and anyone in the college could participate, regardless of major. So, if CW, and not all of the other courses that an English major entails (close readings ad nauseam ;)) appeals to you, attending a school like this and majoring in something else might be a consideration.</p>

<p>D1 is not particularly interested in the research aspect of medicine, so she did not pursue research opportunities via her WS during the school year. She did however apply for and receive two summer opportunities. One was a REU (research experience for undergraduates) and the other was a grant through her college that covered her costs to conduct a research project abroad that she had developed in one of her public health courses. For med school application purposes, her research experience is minimal, but that was because it was her choice to pursue other aspects of medicine, your course will likely be different.</p>

<p>She took a summer to study for the MCAT and do other activities. Easier or harder, I have no comparison and think that that is going to depend both on your personal abilities and how much time/effort you dedicate to study, I don’t think the limited number of science courses is necessarily a problem if you know what to study; others may have different takes on this, mine is only speculation. Here are the stats:</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/321496/data/2012factstable18.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/321496/data/2012factstable18.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I have heard others here say that where the additional science courses do help is during the first couple of years of med school.</p>

<p>Scheduling can be a problem, for D1 it wasn’t that she couldn’t fit in the premed coursework or her English requirements, but rather that due to scheduling (and particularly labs), she wasn’t always able to take the classes that she preferred to take, and instead had to substitute others that fit. She attended a large public for her fr year (and only decided to take premed courses second sem) and then transferred to a mid sized private (ca. 5k). She found it much easier to do both English and premed courses at the public because due to it’s size, they offered courses more often (eg. each sem rather than once a year) and had more lab times to select from, so size of school can affect scheduling.</p>

<p>I can’t speak to a double major, except to say IMO it’s not necessary and generally overrated, but that’s my overall bias :).</p>

<p>Hard to say if it was more or less time consuming than a straight science major, which would have included more labs. Like WOWMom said, sometimes writing can be grueling when the creative juices aren’t flowing. She did have time for ECs, both typical medical ones (shadowing, volunteering at a low income clinic), as well as ones that combined writing and medicine (writing living histories of patients, writer/editor for her school’s public health journal).</p>

<p>Yes, she enjoyed UG and I don’t think she’d change her decision to study English. Although she did mention the other day that if she’d gone into Engineering (as her mother often advised), she’d be all done and not looking forward to X number of years of med school, residency, loan repayment, etc. :rolleyes:</p>

<p>Finally, she took 2 years of glide after graduating to take a break before the long haul of med school. Again, a personal choice that may differ from what you choose to do.</p>

<p>Hope this helps. I commend you thinking ahead, but do remember that you are very young still, these decisions are years away and your course will become more clear as you progress.</p>

12

<p>Thank you for the detailed reply, entomom. It answered many of my questions. I think I will put my thoughts on college on the backseat until I actual get there haha.</p>

13

<p>Being a good writer is always a plus. My D. has always been a good writer and it has helped her even when doing Lab. Reports. She is not only good, she is also very fast.<br>
After saying that, please, pursue ANY combo of major(s)/minor(s) that might be interesting for you personally and make sure to take all pre-reqs for Med. School.<br>
Very high college GPA / decent MCAT / Medical ECs - that is waht you need to apply to Med. School. they do not care about your major. Most of D’s friends graduated with combo of major(s)/mionr(s) and my D. graduated with minor in Music, she did not care about college English classes, writing is very easy for her,…but not reading all those novels, no she did not enjoy a single book that she read in her one semester of Honors English at college, the only English that she took in UG and according to her has learned absolutey nothing, having very easy time writing and struggling finding time for reading all those boring novels. Music was a great R&R though, she fully enjoyed them. You see, whatever it takes to feel happy, your personal choice.</p>

14

<p>I am a physician and majored in French in college. I’ve been practicing cardiology for the last 13 years. I never had any interest in unless it was related to the heart (I thoroughly disliked medical school because the subject matter bored me). My general philosophy is that you should study whatever it is that you want to study. Your major makes no difference in getting into medical school.</p>