<p>I want to major in dance but I am a pre med student. Is this a bad idea? What will Med Schools think about this? Also, will being a dance major make it harder to take pre med classes? Thanks!</p>
<p>Yeah that could be a bit of a problem - generally you can major in anything you want, but there are some exceptions that are not good for med school applications. Nursing, for example, which leads only to one specific career. I imagine you’ll have issues with performing arts type majors, like Dancing, because their focus isn’t purely academic (i.e. sitting in a classroom doing didactic learning).</p>
<p>So med schools would look down upon dance majors because they are not learning academically? So it would be better to major in something more academic??</p>
<p>I think the biggest difficulty with majoring in an art is fitting the needed science classes in. While dance is a performance art, it is not really the same thing as the medical-vocational majors like nursing that can cause troubles. As long as you can demonstrate competency and interest in medicine, your major will be a nice talking point but not a detriment.</p>
<p>^ You really have a soft spot for dance. LOL. – It is not that I disagree with you.</p>
<p>OP, I knew a film major who was also a premed. He said if he is very busy, it is most likely due to his film major rather than premed. Some people could manage it but some could not.</p>
<p>Can you minor in dance? Can you have combo of major(s)/minor(s)? Many pre-meds do.</p>
<p>Yeah I can minor in Dance. Would that be easier?</p>
<p>As a dancer and musician both, I think the biggest problem would be, like said, the time. When you major in an arts, a LOT of our time is spent practicing/rehearsing/performing and in your case, choreographing and the likes. That will take a lot out of the time you spend studying and doing more premed stuff.
Think about it like this. When you major in an art, you spend a lot of extra time doing non-academic non-science stuff. If you major in an academic, non-science class, say History, then yes, you still spend time doing non-science stuff, but at least it’s academic. Your brain is still working in that mindset and will therefore help when you do the science stuff. I’m not saying arts are not intellectually stimulating, because by God, they are! But they’re not stimulating in the same way academic coursework would be. </p>
<p>I strongly considered being a music major. But it just takes SO much time out of your schedule that you can’t get back. And it’s not stuff you can just opt out of either.</p>
<p>If you can manage your time, then go for it. As the others have said though, fitting in the required classes and then time into those classes for your major will be the biggest problem. The science classes are also something to consider. Med schools want you to have a STRONG foundation in the sciences.</p>
<p>If you can somehow pull that off with AMAZING time management skills, then you will have a very long interesting conversation during interviews (if you were to pick any up) which could lead to the interview being quite successful! The risk to get here is huge, though.</p>
<p>babygirl,
Many pre-meds have unreletated minors. You have to assess time. Nobody knows about specfics, you have to investigate. My D. did. She decided that Music performance minor would be too much for her (but others were still doing it), she also decided that participating in sport was also way too much (while other pre-meds were still doing this). It depends on many factors. My D. has very wide range of interests and was planning to pursue most of them and still be open to other opportunities that she was not planning to participate before college (one of them was sorority - very time consuming if you are on board…etc., but D. did this one and it was very rewarding in many aspects). Again, Med. Schools are adding to their requirements, so you have to stay open to the fact that you might need to drop minor later (D. dropped on of her minors being only 2 classes short of completion). Well, D. ended up graduating with Music Composition minor. While it was additional time, she cherished every minute of it, enjoyed it immensely and had great time and opportunities (like recording her own music in real recording studio) that were beyond expected. It worked great for her, it was her time away from very challenging major and medically related EC’s.
I would say that her strategy of 1. assess 2. plunge 3. stay open/flexible 4. re-evaluate when needed, this strategy has worked. Nothing is cut in stone when you enter college. Try reasonable number of academic / non-academic engagements, see how it works out, re-arrange if it does not (D. declined nomination for sorority president as an example). While doing that, keep in mind that very high college GPA (3.6+) is a must if you want to apply to Med. School. Also keep in mind that most original pre-meds fall out of pre-med track. You just have to try and see what these all mean to you personally. Best wishes!</p>
<p>OP, here is a somewhat related thread you might want to read over (if you haven’t already)</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1307677-should-do-minor-pre-med.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1307677-should-do-minor-pre-med.html</a></p>