<p>Hey guys, so I'm a senior in high school about to go off to college next year. I wanted to know what major I should enter for my college. Since I want to go to Med school, I first thought of bio-medical engineering because even if I don't get into med-school it is a great UG degree for jobs. However, someone urged me to do a non-science major in order to achieve a higher GPA in college. I realize that engineering is a difficult field and could potentially destroy my GPA. However, do you guys believe that I should major in something non-science in order to have a higher GPA; thus resulting in a higher probability of getting accepted in Med school? Meanwhile, I would like to know what you guys would do in my situation. Thanks for answering!</p>
<p>GPA is definitely important for med school admissions, but the prevailing wisdom is that you should major in whatever you find the most interesting and are passionate about. Don’t do a major because you think it will be “easier” - these things have a way of deceiving you and if you don’t enjoy what you are studying, you will be more likely to do worse.</p>
<p>Icarus, I certainly appreciate your input and thank you for it. Looking forward now, I can see that although majoring in something that I am not passionate about may be the easier route to medical school, majoring in something that I am actually interested in can have a huge impact. Maybe it was just the stress of trying to decide then and there what major to put down on the common app. Again, thank you for your input, I truly appreciate it.</p>
<p>Majoring in non-science only works for those students who can excel at writing papers. if you cannot write well, A’s aren’t that easy to come by in non-science courses. Many premeds major in science because they hate lit/hume. </p>
<p>fwiw: the philosophy dept at Cal has a lower mean gpa than the most popular science premed major.</p>
<p>@bluebayou I understand what you are saying and where you are coming from, are there some statistics with which you can back-up your claim? I always believed that A’s were easier to come by in lit/humanities than in chemistry/biology and other sciences.</p>
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<p>What you “believe” is of no consequence. Time to start putting on those critical thinking glasses. </p>
<p>Yes, it is a fact that Lit/Hume courses tend to have much higher curves, i.e., proportion of A’s in a class, relative to science classes. (One exception I noted above about philosophy at Cal-Berkeley.) Heck, many Lit/Hume courses have an class average of an A/A-; contrast that to premed prereqs which are curved to a C in large public Unis (a low B in top privates). </p>
<p>But the simple fact remains that if one are a crappy writer, one will not be receiving one of those coveted A’s in Lit/Hume. If you hate literature research, and cannot fathom cranking out a 10-page paper much less a 15-page paper, you might think long and hard about one of those disciplines for a major. </p>
<p>Think about it this way: music majors have the highest acceptance rate to med school, and perhaps a really high distribution of A’s, but if you are tone deaf, is being a music major a good plan for you?</p>
<p>The point is that Russian Lit majors, or philosophy majors or music majors are self-selecting…</p>
<p>Just some anecdotal evidence over here.</p>
<p>I don’t have a ton of experience in art, English, and humanities classes. I took maybe two of each for my entire undergrad career. At my school, a B is an awesome grade in an art or humanities class, and your grade rests on what the prof thinks of your paper/final project/portfolio. Here, the only set of courses that admits to curving to A are the education courses. At least with science and math classes, there are concrete answers and largely objective evaluations!</p>
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<p>D1’s and D2’s biggest whines about their anthro/philo/lit/history/assorted humanities/fine arts classes at undergrad—there are no “right” answers.</p>
<p>If you major in BioE, it’s going to be much harder to maintain a good GPA than if you majored in biology or a liberal art. Engineering classes are typically curved harsher and are conceptually much more difficult than the the “soft sciences” like bio and the liberal arts. I have heard that med schools like people who major in non-sciences since it diversifies the class, so it might be a good idea to do the premed reqs with another major. Another reason to major in something else is if you decide that you don’t want to go to med school, you may have a greater shot at landing a job with a liberal arts degree than a biology degree. People who graduated with a degree in biology from my alma mater were paid the least. I would not recommend majoring in biology.</p>
<p>’’ Another reason to major in something else is if you decide that you don’t want to go to med school, you may have a greater shot at landing a job with a liberal arts degree than a biology degree. "</p>
<p>I highly doubt that. Liberal arts majors have the worse job prospects of any major. Art history, philosophy, etc will land you jobless and thousands of dollars in debt.</p>
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<p>Maybe now, but when I graduated bio majors from my alma mater had the worst job prospects and were paid less on average. The average bio major made in the 20ks, I’m guessing doing lab work. Liberal arts majors made on average 30k-40k starting, I’m not sure what they did. But you’re right, majoring in a liberal art or biology is a bad idea.</p>
<p>Thousands of debt? Nobody should be paying for undergrad with loans.</p>
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<p>Just because they shouldn’t doesn’t mean that they don’t do it. And as a bio major I have to say that yes, if you don’t plan on doing something medical related, I would say major in something else. But you are better off majoring in bio and not a lib art</p>
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<p>Last I checked, biology, a typical premed major, is a “liberal arts” major. :rolleyes:</p>
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<p>Strictly speaking, maybe, but I think people tend to group majors into three groups: hard sciences, soft sciences, and the liberal arts. Hard sciences include engineering, math, chemistry, and physics. Soft sciences include biology and maybe economics. Liberal arts include the rest, with business being the oddball.</p>
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<p>Most people are ignorant, and that is what cc is for – to help educate them. :D</p>
<p>Biology is not a liberal arts major. It is a B.S after all</p>
<p>Biology comes under the heading liberal arts & sciences-or liberal arts in short-hand speak. Liberal arts is generally used to designate any non-business or non-engineering or non-allied health science [nursing, speech therapy, radiation therapy, dental hygiene, etc] major.</p>
<p>Biology is a liberal art. So is math. So is chemistry. So is physics.</p>
<p>Whether one earns a B.S. or a B.A. is–</p>
<p>1) school dependent (Some colleges only grant BA degrees regardless of the major)</p>
<p>2) program dependent (Some departments offer a choice of a BA or BS within the same major, with a BS generally requiring more upper level major coursework and emphasis on grad school preparation.)</p>
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<p>Depends on the college. Cal-Berkely does not offer a BS in bio, nor physics nor math…BA only in all three.</p>