<p>I was wondering, how do people majoring, in say, history, art, film, etc, complete the pre-med requirements?</p>
<p>Like do they ALL have a minor in biology or biochemistry or something? I'm confused on how they fit the classes in.</p>
<p>In order to fulfill pre-med requirements, you just have to complete a year of Chem, Bio, Physics, and Organic Chem. A lot of schools also require calculus and English as pre-med requirements. Check out this link.</p>
<p>[Premed</a> Requirements: Overview and Advice](<a href=“http://www.bestpremed.com/preMDreq.php]Premed”>http://www.bestpremed.com/preMDreq.php)</p>
<p>And many people do have those types of majors/minors, but many do not. In fact, it really doesn’t matter how you major or minor to med schools, you just need to fulfill those requirements.</p>
<p>I know you need to fulfill the requirements, but how do they do this? Do they take summer classes or what?</p>
<p>Well the minimum requirements for medical school applications are 2 semesters of Biology with lab, 2 semesters of Chem with lab, 2 semesters of Orgo with lab, 2 semesters of Physics with lab, 2 semesters of English/Writing, 2 semesters of Math, and, in some places, an extra Biochemistry class. </p>
<p>So that’s 12-13 classes. It varies from college to college, but at Penn, to major in Economics, you need to complete 12 credits worth of classes. From there, you fill out the rest of your schedule with the needed pre-med classes, plus a few freshman seminars + interesting courses.</p>
<p>I’ve found that people double up on Chem/Physics or Bio/Physics their sophomore year.</p>
<p>I’m a Philosophy/Pre-med major and I only have to take 1-2 Phil classes a semester to graduate on time. That leaves plenty of room for all the pre-med classes during the year and summers open for research/volunteering.</p>
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Summer classes or classes at a JC are seldom a good idea. The admissions committee will question whether they’re really the same rigor as the full-time classes you evaded. As for fitting in in, at a semester school you’ll take lets say 32 classes over 4 years. English is required for just about any major, so for premed you’re just looking at 10 classes over 4 years that you might not have normally taken for your major in History or something.</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard you can major in anything, but if you do not have a science major the adcoms expect a good explanation of why you didn’t. If you satisfactorily answer this you’re ok. Note, too, that an unofficial requirement of getting into med school is exposure to medicine via volunteer work or a job, and that taking part is research is a plus factor.</p>
<p>About half of MCAT takers are students whose primary undergraduate major is in the biological sciences. That means that about half of MCAT takers are students with other primary undergraduate majors, though only about a sixth of the total is humanities and social studies majors.</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/161692/data/table18.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/161692/data/table18.pdf</a></p>
<p>I know of one woman who is now studying podiatry who majored in history. She’s at the top of her class & got into all the podiatry schools she applied to, so it didn’t hinder her that she didn’t major in a science. She DID take a lot of science, including OChem.</p>
<p>A standard college major in lit/hume only requires ~10 college courses. The premed prereqs total 8 courses. A four-year college curriculum entails 30+ courses. Do the math. :D</p>
<p>btw: Neuro is one of those interdisciplinary majors that requires a lot of courses beyond standard. At my D’s college, a Neuro major requires 19 courses alone, but many of them also count for premed prereqs.</p>
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<p>Incorrect. As long as you earn mostly A’s in the prereq courses, you are good-to-go in nearly any major. Music and philosophy have the highest acceptance rates to med school. (Of course, it’s mostly self-selection, but the point is that a 3.7+ in the sciences will cover any major.)</p>
<p>Moving, please post threads about premed on the Premed Topics forum.</p>
<p>Would not majoring in a science put you to far behind once classes start? for me, i think it would be cool to major in history and get pre-med reqs done but I would only do it if I felt adequalty prepared for med school.</p>
<p>Could it be that majoring in history or something else unrelated is an advantage, in that you can spread out the pre-med course work (and its time consuming lab courses) a bit, instead of having to cram most of it in your first two years like the biology majors have to (since the pre-med courses are the freshman and sophomore prerequisites for biology majors)?</p>
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<p>Do you mean in med school? The answer is somewhat, but not seriously. Med school classes cover so much new material that everyone is working hard to keep up.</p>
<p>As an example–biochem. All the material in a semester of undergrad biochem is covered in about 2 weeks in med school. So even if a student had taken it before, most of the class will be completely new material. </p>
<p>According to couple of med students I know the biggest advantage a science pre med has is that they already know how to think like a scientist. (And the non-science pre meds have a tough time in statistics since their math background tends to be weak.)</p>
<p>Since the pre-med pre-reqs are 100/200 level science classes, you wouldn’t be “behind” the others. The others are taking the same classes as frosh and soph students. It’s not as if they’re taking a bunch more science classes before taking the pre-reqs.</p>
<p><a href=“And%20the%20non-science%20pre%20meds%20have%20a%20tough%20time%20in%20statistics%20since%20their%20math%20background%20tends%20to%20be%20weak.”>quote</a>
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<p>Not sure why this would be the case. Stats only requires a background in Algebra I, as does Gen Chem and non-Calc Physics. If a hume/lit student can do well in college (non-calc) physics against the premed curve, Stats ought not be too difficult.</p>