I’ve always wanted to become a doctor, but I also have areas of interest in the social science department. I’ve heard that it’s possible to major in social science topic and still take med school prerequisites. Would the workload be easier with an easy major like humanities rather than a bio major?
“Easier workload” is subjective. For some, reading a lot of material and then writing papers would be harder than a bio major. Study what interests you. Plenty medical students didn’t major in science. A young doctor-to-be told me how at one of her med school interviews she mostly talked about Shakespeare – she was an English major and so was the doctor on the admissions committee! Remember, what counts for med schools is GPA, MCAT scores and some relevant med-related ECs/internships/research. If you can also offer an additional background (which actually sounds like it would fit really well with medicine) – more power to you.
You must complete the same pre-med courses no matter what your major; this is what’s hard. Choosing an “easier” major could end up lowering your MCAT score and diminish your chances of acceptance to med school. But otherwise you can choose from among many majors.
An easier major won’t lessen your chance to do well on MCAT. Premed reqs provide background material for MCAT. They don’t prepare you for test; they do not target one to prepare for MCAT. When it comes time to prepare, no matter what your major, you’ll either have to get study materials and study on your own (or maybe same group), or take formal review course (eg Kaplan).
It doesn’t matter what you major in. You should have completed premed reqs before taking MCAT. Most premeds choose bio, maybe out of interest, or because of course overlap (you satisfy premed and major res at same time). You should pick a major that interest you because if you like material you’ll tend to do better. You should also consider a major with Plan B in mind as most who start as premed change their minds. As bio majors are a dime a dozen, post college opportunities can be quite limited. You should understand that when med school GPAs get calculated, a separate science GPA (sGPA) is calculated for each year and cumulatively for all bio, chem, math and physics courses. A down side of being a social science major is if you do poorly (eg some Cs) in science course as a social science major, you may find it difficult (not impossible) to schedule some additional science courses to raise your sGPA up whereas a bio major needing UD courses to earn a degree would find it easier to take additional science courses. As a note a couple of Cs are not fatal to one’s chances at med school.
An “easier” major may raise your overall GPA and give you a better chance to focus on getting great grades and a good understanding of key MCAT prereqs. Which can only help your application. My main concern would be that a student who takes that route be prepared for the very real demands of a science-heavy med school curriculum once they get into a program. It may also be a little more challenging to create a narrative for med school apps that convinces an admissions committee of commitment to the medical field. But it can be done. An applied social science major (such as public health) is not uncommon for pre-meds at D’s school, for instance.
New MCAT requires the following subjects:
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
Verbal Reasoning
Biochemistry
Psychology
Sociology
They have split it to have equal value between sciences and english plus social studies.