I’d like to go to med school and become neurosurgeon. That said, I was considering many major minor combinations. Which would be best?
For undergrad, it really doesn’t matter. Plenty of people do bio/biochem/chem/neuro or other majors. What matters is your GPA (especially for the premed classes), MCAT, and relevant extracurriculars. Having a minor is something super related to your major or whatever isn’t going to matter at all.
You won’t become a surgeon (of any kind) unless you are a doctor. You have to study medicine and then specialise to become a surgeon. That being said biochemistry is a “normal” college major, and neuroscience is “fluffy” (sounds colourful but has limited prospects afterwards). Psychology courses always turn out well as filler classes.
As most premeds change their minds along the way and never apply, and of those that actually apply 60% fail to start at any med school, you should consider which major and/or minor combo could best be a Plan B or C for you. To be a neurosurgeon you’re looking at 4 years med school, followed by 7 years training after med school. Anything you learn in whatever combo of above you choose will be long forgotten. Med schools don’t care what your major in. They will care in part about your GPAs, so pick the one that you can earn a high GPA.
Major in biology and have a minor in neuroscience.
Start down a path…let us say Biochemistry. See how it goes. You have to fit in all your major requirements and distribution requirements. And you have to get good grades…at that point see if you can fit in the other classes.
Neuroscience isn’t any more “fluffy” than biochemistry. For someone who wants to go to med school, the prospects are exactly the same - but post college the prospects in biochem aren’t really much better or worse objectively speaking than neuroscience.
Ah, alright then. But isn’t it… more specialised? Doesn’t it narrow down the perspectives afterwars? Like… physics versus materials science. A physicist can become a materials scientist, but not vice versa. This is what I mean.
@RebeccaJay Neuroscience is still pretty broad at the undergrad level and similar in specialization to biochem (basically bio+ psychology, while biochem
is bio+chem). Even if one would consider it more specialized, that doesn’t say anything about job prospects. Consider computer science vs. cyber security- the latter is more specialized but isn’t any less employable. People that major in cyber security can still get positions that typically go to computer scientists.
Ok.
Do they offer biochem at your middle school? That must be fun. I wouldn’t worry about what major to choose for college yet. Explore a variety of things and see where your interests take you.