<p>Hello all. I know that there have been a million posts about pre-med and major choice. However, I still would like to get an opinion from someone who is somewhat knowledgable in the medical school admission process. Anyway, I recently lost 70 pounds through the help of a bariatric physician (no surgery, but he put me on a strict eating regime, which was successful). Through my weight loss journey, I have become extremely passionate about nutrition, health, and fitness. I have even helped and encouraged some of my friends and my parents to get healthy and lose weight as well. Because of my newfound passion, I decided to change my major from psychology to nutrition. I was always told that for pre-med it is important to major in what you like. I loved my first nutrition class 10x more than any psychology class that I have taken. I also know that nutrition is extremely chemistry heavy, which I actually like. Also, many of the chemistry classes that are required for the nutrition major (biochemistry, gen chem, orgo) are also required or recommended for medical school so two birds, one stone. Nutrition is truly my interest an passion and I think I can do well in it (in terms of grades). I just don't want to hurt my chances at med school because that is my passion as well. Advice? Thank for reading the entire thing. I know it was a long post!</p>
<p>bump…</p>
<p>it would be better for you to major in something else and just take lots of nutrition oriented classes. The fact is, “nutrition” sounds like a vocational major, not an academic one like “biology” or “chemistry” or “biochemistry”</p>
<p>Oh I understand. Is this kind of the same way they don’t like nursing majors to apply? That’s kind of a bummer, to be honest. Thanks for your input.</p>
<p>Major in whatever you wish. Adcoms don’t care about your major, as long as you take the pre requisite courses. Major in something you are passionate about, and you can have a great story to tell in your PS and your interview.</p>
<p>^adcoms don’t care which academic major you pursue so yeah, feel free to study music or engineering or international relations or physics instead of biology, but those types of majors are in a different realm from nursing, nutrition, accounting, etc.</p>
<p>Just have a minor in nutrition. Most pre-meds at D’s UG had combo of major(s)/minor(s) in un-related areas. It has nothing to do with Med. School application, just to pursue the personal interests while you could and have a meanningful break from your main focus. It has helped my D. tremendously to have couple of minors.</p>
<p>@firered786 Your response is actually what thought too.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the input. A minor sounds like a great idea, but I’d still prefer the major. Why is engineering looked at as an academic major and nutrition is not? Isn’t engineering sort of a “trade major” (I hate that term) as well? This is a genuine question so please no hate. I have the utmost respect for engineering majors because I know it is intense! My father is an electrical engineer and my brother is an engineering major. However I cannot figure out why engineering is different from nursing, nutrition, or accounting.</p>
<p>Back to the topic at hand… if I end up deciding not to change my major back to psychology, do you think it will hurt me badly in the admission process? I am getting mixed responses. Should I choose a major that I have much less interest in simply for the sake of getting into med school? I want to be a doctor, not a dietician, but I would still like to use my undergrad years to study what I like, which happens to be nutrition. However, that is not important enough to me to end up missing out on being accepted to med school.</p>
<p>Some (many?) schools do consider engineering a “vocational” major and it can put engineers at a disadvantage when it comes to admissions. But they are disadvantged in a different way than nursing and nutrition. (Engineers like accountants have to overcome the perception that they’re not ‘interested’ or ‘dedicated’ to medicine, while nursing and nutrition are perceived as “science lite” and “non-academic” fields which lack training in critical thinking processes.)</p>
<p>And please consider–every individual case is different. How your major is received will depend, at least in part, on who reads your application. Adcoms are not monolithic entities; they’re made up of individuals each with his own set of preconceptions and prejudices.</p>
<p>For the most part, nutrition is not as well respected by academics as say a more conventional major like psychology or biology might be (or even engineering since if asked most docs, they will tell you engineering is “hard,” although engineering is still faulted for a lack of critical thinking skills). </p>
<p>Statistics show that health sciences majors (that includes nutrition) as a group do not fare as well in admissions as other majors, with the lowest overall percentage accepted of all majors, including social sciences or humanities. Health science majors as group also have the lowest average MCAT score of any group.</p>
<p>Does this mean you’ll score lower because you’re a nutrition major and not psych major? Of course not. We don’t know and can’t guess how you’ll perform. We can only show you what the stats say.</p>
<p>A nutrition major with superb MCAT and GPA may well have a good chance of gaining acceptance to med school. But if you end up with average MCAT scores and GPA (which is far more likely than being a 4.0/40 MCAT applicant), you could well have put yourself at a disadavantage.</p>
<p>Does the supposed disadvantage of preprofessional majors have to do with the implication that the applicant is splitting his/her interest between medicine and the other profession?</p>
<p>@WayOutWestMom What a wonderful and thoughtful response. Thank you so much. Your information made sense and gave me a lot to consider.</p>
<p>That also leads me to the next question. Why is nutrition considered “science lite”? It is extremely chemistry heavy. In fact, it is mostly all chemistry mixed with some biology and physiology. I can’t understand why nutrition is looked down upon in the science world. Also, even if nutrition were science lite, so what? If there are people going to medical school with English/Humanities majors, which are completely science void, what makes a “science lite” major worse? </p>
<p>Regardless, what I’ve gathered from this so far is that there may be certain majors that are better or worse for medical school, but MCAT, GPA and ECs/volunteering/research are some of the most important aspects. Thus, If I am able to keep my numbers up, then my major won’t matter as much. Correct me if I’m wrong please? Also I understand what you’re saying about adcoms having their own individual ideas of what a med student should be so it is difficult to gauge what exactly the “perfect plan” for getting an acceptance is. Still, I’d like to try :)</p>
<p>I don’t see why nutrition would be looked down upon. There are plenty of studies that show that good nutrition coupled with sanitary living conditions are more of the cause of longer lives than having medical services available. In fact, you’d be surprised how much of medicine is just fixing people who treated their body poorly. </p>
<p>There are still accidents and diseases that would occur anyway, but if everyone had great nutrition and exercised regularly so many medical problems would diminish. I personally think knowing nutrition would be great for a doctor but I’m not a premed adviser so take my advice with that in mind. </p>
<p>All I know is I eat healthy and exercise and I haven’t needed anything done medically since I had my tonsils out when I was a kid and I never get sick.</p>
<p>Your choice of major doesn’t matter. I’ve met plenty of non-science majors on my interview trail.</p>
<p>There are, however, subtle impacts that may lead to differences in admission rates amongst different majors. For example, bioengineering majors have to take both upper div biology and engineering classes which may give them an edge on the MCAT over literature majors who only take the bare minimum pre-reqs.</p>
<p>Not sure why nutrition is considered science-lite, but it sounds like the nutrition major at your school is rigorous, which should prepare you well for the MCAT. As long as you rock your GPA and MCAT, nobody cares what major you are.</p>
<p>Is it possible to comapre/contrast the courses for the nutrition major vs. microbiology, biochem, genetics… I only ask because one of son’s undergrad degrees had other degrees encompassed within by only taking 2 other classes. So for example the classes you need for a nutrition major might be just a few different than another “hard” science.</p>
<p>Since at your school nutrition is heavy on chem, maybe a dual major in chem and nutrition. Or as others have said a chem major with a minor in nutrition. Many times it can be just the difference in a few classes. Son’s first undergrad only allows 1 major. No exceptions, however he was able to complete enough classes to have another major but unable to graduate with 2. His second undergrad was easily able to transfer all his previous units and within 2 semesters 3 more degrees. But this was only possible because embedded within the courses for 1 major are 90% of another similar major. Different departments however.</p>
<p>So take a minute and take a good look at your course catalog.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>maverick–your reasoning comes under the heading of “public health” issues. Proper sanitation along with clean drinking water has saved more lives than doctors have, but public health ≠ medical studies.</p>
<p>And improved public health alone will not cure heart disease or cancer. (See recent archeological evidence that mummies from a variety of cultures, ethnic backgrounds, diets and lifestyles all suffer from arterial plaques. So it may be heart disease has more to do with the aging process in humans than diet or exercise. There’s also evidence that epigenetics plays a significant role also in the development of obesity and heart disease. An individual has very little control over their epigenetics which are ‘switched on’ during the pre-natal period and some activations can be traced back as far as 3 prior generations.)</p>
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<p>I think that’s essentially correct. But the onus will be on you to prove your fitness for med school.</p>
<p>Of course, that’s the same issue everyone faces.</p>
<p>Just one reminder–make sure that the science coursework required for a nutrition major are the same exact science courses required for ‘pure’ science majors. At many schools, nursing and other allied health sciences major take a less rigorous version of the same-name science courses.</p>
<p>This probably why nutrition is considered “science lite”.</p>
<p>As a field I think nutrition lacks academic respect because alot of the studies published are not well controlled, not replicable and based on statistical analysis rather than basic bench research. (As Mark Twain said, “There are lies, damned lies and statisitcs.”)</p>
<p>OP, it seems to me that you’re asking two separate questions.</p>
<p>First, you’re asking whether medical school admissions committees do in fact discriminate against specialized health sciences such as nutrition. The answer is clearly that they do, as demonstrated by the fact that every other set of majors has relatively consistent admissions rates but the specialized health sciences do not. It won’t be a total bar, so it can be overcome, but it will put you at a disadvantage.</p>
<p>The second question, and this is what most of your responses argue, is whether or not admissions committees SHOULD discriminate against specialized health sciences such as nutrition. This is the question you’re trying to answer when you discuss how difficult it is, or how rigorous or how scientific it is. I don’t have a good answer to this.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. I appreciate all input and responses (even if it wasn’t exactly what I WANTED to hear, it was what I NEEDED to hear). Because the particular nutrition program at my university is so chemistry heavy (real chemistry, no watered down nutrition-version) I am considering just doing a chemistry major with a nutrition minor. I will, however, need to think it over more and speak to my advisor before making any final decisions. Thanks again</p>
<p>“However I cannot figure out why engineering is different from nursing, nutrition, or accounting.”
-yes, it is VERY different because it is absolutely the hardest one. No comparison to any others on the list above. The reason that I know, because I have switched from engineering to IT after I had 11 years of job experience. There is NO comparison between these 2 either, IT / Computer Science is way easier.</p>
<p>^^ I knew someone would take offense to that statement. Look, I understand that engineering is insanely difficult. I wasn’t comparing engineering to nursing in terms of level of difficulty, obviously. I was comparing it in terms of it being a “job-ready” or “vocational major” that medical schools seem to despise. Ie: One goes to nursing school to become a nurse the same way one goes to engineering school to become an engineer. It should fit into that category as opposed to fitting into the category of being an “academic” major like pure science or humanities. Believe me, my father actually made it through engineering school and has been working as an engineer for most of his life. He let me know how difficult it was. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Anyway, that is not the point of this discussion. Moving on…</p>
<p>^There is NO offense whatsoever. The reason that I switched avter working in engineering for 11 years was because I hated it with all my heart. I am very happy that I have switched in my 30s, it was a great decision. BTW, making thru engineering school was never a problem for me and I was going there while working full time.<br>
In regard, to nursing, I heard that it is not a good idea if Med. School is in plan, I do not know why. However, engineering is not good major either for Med. School because of great potential of lower GPA than in other majors.<br>
But as somebody have suggested, major is not important for Med. School. I know people that went to Med. School after graduating from Conservatory of Music.<br>
You got to have very high GPA, decent MCAT, great ECs. somewhat social personality and you should be all set.</p>