My husband, daughter and I are beginning to select colleges to put on our radar. We feel strongly about making informational-type of visits to a handful of colleges during D1’s freshman and sophomore years. By informational visist, I mean taking tours of schools that are of initial interest but without formal interviews. During a visit, we may learn that she likes schools of particular size and/or location.
From this forum, I have read over and over about the possibility of majoring in an unrelated-to-medicine field with the intention of taking undergraduate courses suggested for the MCAT and in preparation for medical school admission. Our dentist says that if he were to “do it over again” he would have earned his BA in history prior to going to dental school.
I have seen on the websites of several LACs that they encourage students to consider other courses of study while simoutaneously taking medical school required courses.
My question is this: what pros and cons can you think of and share about taking intro psychology and/or intro sociology as a dual-enroll option while still a high school student? In my mind, this would free up time for required biology, chemistry, physics and courses for the declared major during the four years as an undergraduate.
Luckily, as a HS freshman, we still have time to plan HS coursework so that she would have time for this option. Also, if in the end she chooses to not pursue medicine, we have lost nothing… I think.
I eagerly await your thoughts.
My opinion only. My kid was an engineering major undergrad. She actually found it very pleasurable to have something on her schedule that was NOT hard sciences or math during her first couple of years of college.
Your kiddo should have ample electives in their major to be able to take the pre med required courses.
@WayOutWestMom what do you think?
I think you’re getting way, way ahead of yourself if your child is only a freshman in high school.
You cannot possibly know with 100% certainty that 8 years from now, your child will still have the same career goals or that med school admission requirements will be the same as they are today. In fact, admission requirements are unlikely to be the same since med schools are currently in the process of transitioning away from requiring specific courses for admission to expecting applicants to demonstrate the mastery of core competencies for admission. See: [15 Core Competencies for Entering Medical Students](https://www.aamc.org/initiatives/admissionsinitiative/competencies/)
The core competencies have been developed to allow student to have multiple pathways and multiple options in demonstrating mastery. Remember that adcomms are looking for evidence of current mastery–not some course they took 6 years ago.
Another thing to remember is that any coursework taken as dual enrollment will be included in AMCAS and AACOMAS GPA calculations when you child applies to med school.
As for fitting in all pre med requirements:
Both my daughters were double physical science majors that had a large number of required classes. (D2’s neuroscience major required more specific courses for graduation than an engineering major.) Both still had room in their schedules to take things like philosophy, anthropology, French, economics, etc.
Likewise they have friends/med school classmates/co-residents with a variety of undergrad majors ranging from agriculture to business to English Lit to international relations to music performance to theology to women’s studies. All of them presumably had plenty of space in their schedules to take the requisite math & science classes since they all ended up in med school.
And what thumper mentioned about her daughter holds for my girls. Both found it a nice change of pace to have something that * wasn’t* science or math each semester.
RE: dual enrollment. If this is something your child wants to pursue, fine. If this is something you think will help her gain admission to med school, don’t bother. It won’t help.
One more thought— if there will be a large gap between the time your D take her psych/soc classes and the time she sits for the MCAT–what’s the likelihood she’ll even remember the material?
Slow down! and that includes visiting universities frosh and soph years. Your DD will feel out of place visiting and won’t likely know what she likes and dislikes in a college at age 14/15. And she may feel weird being much younger than the other visitors.
The parents would likely do most/all of the asking of questions. Your DD would probably be counting the minutes until she can get back in the car.
If your DD asks and WANTS to visit colleges, then ok, but please wait until it’s on her radar. If junior year rolls around and she’s still shows no interest, then you can be more diplomatically forceful.
When your DD is a senior, if she wants to take some DE socio and psych classes, that’s fine.
As for picking a Plan B major or a major just for personal interest, that’s fine. My son was a Chemical Engineering major so that he would have a Plan B in case he changed his mind.
What is a HS freshman going to get out of a college sociology class? Kid doesn’t have enough history classes under her belt to have any appreciation for context. Kid hasn’t taken statistics so will be limited analytically.
And to avoid having to take non- med related courses once she’s in college four years hence for a possible med school application in 8 years?
Jeez. Relax.
This.
There are so many variables in getting into a medical school that unless you are tailoring all your requirements based on a specific school which will accept the classes the way being planned, it would be very hard to say this plan will make any difference.
Fine to loosely look ahead, certainly see how HS curriculum is and plan HS coursework and gather info, but let your HS freshman be a HS freshman. Be sure to allow student to take advantage of fun things in HS, and not be so directed on college/med school - find happiness in the moment and in the journey. If student is really focused, all the more reason to help the student find contentment in the present.
Student should take advantage of exploring interests through HS and college. Many times people do gravitate to what they are good at - sometimes that will be a hobby and not a career, but one does have life outside of school/career.
Keep in mind that it’s possible to get into med school with any sort of college major. In fact the most unique applicants are those who did not major in the sciences.
Med schools have an over abundance of applicants who have majored in biology or chemistry. But very few who have majored in the arts or social sciences. For these type of students there are post baccalaureate programs to fulfill med school requirements.
As mentioned above, the key thing about med school admissions is maintaining a high GPA (above 3.8 is ideal). Choice of major or undergraduate college is largely unimportant.
I really like and appreciate the feedback from so many experienced folks. I will take a deep breath and slow down and in the meantime let her live a great high school life…which she is through sports, musical theater and clubs.
Our high school is very focused on the future of each student and while that will eventually be a blessing, it is hard to focus elsewhere when that is the school community in which we are entrenched. At the end of eighth grade, about 25% of her classmates and their folks were educated on AP versus dual-enrollment choices and how those correlate to usefulness at a variety of college types: flagships, directional schools and LACs. During that meeting, four year planning was encouraged so that necessary prerequisites did not become last-minute challenges. We learned that many high-achieving students chose to take dual-enrolled courses. I guess I am trying to figure out why make that choice instead of taking courses at the HS.
Her wish is to major in a performing art and with quite a few of her own weekends spent on stage, these initial visits I mentioned are intended to see performances at schools during weekends that do not conflict with her own. The informality is really about observing campus layout, look/feel, and style of performances.
Again, the thoroughness of your comments and variety of ways to think about all of this is encouraging. Thank you.
Many people enjoy performing arts and carry this out as a hobby and not a career - however if very talented and very driven in this area…
DD is happy in a major that has really good use of her science and math abilities, after announcing in 8th grade that she wanted to work in interior design (my comment was she could not afford herself on interior design, and put to use her abilities - and that she can always utilize her pinterest etc time as a hobby). That was a wake up call to her, who does like nice things and having money to spend. DD did have her eyes open to careers and suggestions, going to a week long introduction to engineering before senior year in HS to determine which area suited her. She is really enjoying her classroom successes and has had successful internships.
Some do know right from the get-go what they are going to do. Others talk about degrees that they are familiar with, but may not be the best use of talents/abilities/interests. Some choose something that is going to be more difficult to provide a living wage.
Our goal was to have DDs be able to be self supporting after 4 year degree. One done, and one almost done. Also had enough merit and planned funds so no student debt, and starting out life ahead of most in that regard. Certainly, if going into a profession (law, medicine, etc) that requires additional education, that would have been with student loans.