Parent rejects my major!

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>My dad is trying to force me to major in something I don't want to do. I really want my undergraduate major to be in neuroscience, but my dad is VERY against me majoring in it. He says that the major might be to hard for me and that I am going to ruin my g.p.a and it will be impossible for me to go to medical school.</p>

<p>My dad knows a lot about the med school process. He was in med-school when I was little but he got really sick and had to be hospitalized for about 2 months, so he had to drop out of med-school, and he now works at a research lab. I think, because of that he is trying very hard to make sure that I become a doctor, and he is scared that I won't. Especially becuz of my personality. (extremely smart, but a streak of laziness, that has almost ruined me on seperate occasions)</p>

<p>Due to this he is always trying to guide what I do. He is always telling me that...</p>

<p>"your undergraduate institution holds little weight, your MCAT and gpa are the only things that really matter, your major is not that important, you should only go somewhere where your guaranteed to get a good gpa" (I didn't believe a lot of this until I became a CCer and realized a lot of what he says has some hard truth)</p>

<p>When I told him I wanted to major in neuroscience, he was like "HELL NO" its too hard.. blah blah blah. "Your going to decrease your chances of becoming a doctor, you don't want to be a neuroscientist, you want to be a doctor"</p>

<p>The thing is, I have no real argument against this, when I googled neuroscience, their were multiple sites saying how hard it can be, even Amherst labeled it as probably their hardest science major.</p>

<p>This has shook my confidence, and I don't know what to major in. The only other thing I could see myself majoring in is maybe, psychology, economics, or a language, but none are nearly as appealing to me as neuroscience.</p>

<p>Soooo, what should I do. Should I still major in neuroscience, or should I pick a major that will probably be easier. Please know that while I LUV the idea of being a neurscience major, I NEED to become a doctor, it is the only thing I have ever envisioned myself as. SO PLEASE HELP!</p>

<p>Sorry for ranting. :)</p>

2

<p>Biology wouldn't be as hard, and it would be great preparation for the MCAT.</p>

3

<p>While he's correct that you won't be given much leniency for a hard major, I personally find it slightly discouraging to see a parent tell their kid that they're not good enough to do something.</p>

4

<p>^Same, that is what struck me.</p>

<p>But, if he says the undergraduate institution doesn't matter as much as GPA or MCAT...why don't you go to an easier school and do neuroscience there? It won't be of the same difficulty everywhere.</p>

5

<p>A ton of my classmates were neuroscience majors. I know that's anecdotal, but it's the best I can do under the circumstances.</p>

<p>1.) It's easier to study when you like the stuff.
2.) It's easier to get very involved in research when you like the stuff.
3.) In small classes, your professors will sense how much you like the stuff and will think more highly of you for it.
4.) When the time comes to write essays and interviews, having a major you're passionate about will be an asset.
5.) I've never heard of neuro being a particularly difficult major. Certainly nothing along the lines of any of the engineerings or anything like that.
6.) Remember, it's not just about MCAT and GPA: your soft factors are hugely important.
7.) Try not to think of it as the end of the world if, when the time comes, medical school turns out not to be the right path. It's a very brutal career, and while it's emotionally worthwhile, too, there's plenty of other really great job options out there in the world.
8.) Also, he's wrong about school not mattering, and you can look at the numbers to see it. Different schools have different mean GPAs of the students they have admitted to medical school.</p>

6

<p>neuroscience is a cool major, and its not all that hard if you plan correctly. Of course this is highly dependent on the school you go to, but some neuroscience majors at my school say that while the material itself may be hard, its not as hard to get an "A" as it would be in other easier bio-related majors.</p>

7

<p>Your father has a good point.</p>

8

<p>Major in neurosciece. You like it, you will study more and you will get better grades.</p>

9

<p>While I think your father's demand is unreasonable, I also think that if you find you're getting nowhere, you should just do what they tell you -- not because it's part of being a good son or whatever, but because they can really make your life miserable if you defy them on something that's very important to them.</p>

<p>I don't think this major will get you in or keep you out. And trust me, parental gloating when they think they're right* is much worse than parental gloating when they think you're wrong**.</p>

<p>*Various diplomatic possibilities:
1.) "See? I told you you could get into medical school even if you majored in something else."
2.) "Imagine what a better medical school you could have gone to if you hadn't majored in neuroscience!"
3.) "You see? If you hadn't majored in neuroscience, you could have gotten into medical school!"
4.) They don't say anything, because you did what they wanted and still got rejected.</p>

<p>I'd choose the 1/4 combination (other major) over the 2/3 combination (neuroscience). But that's just me.</p>

10

<p>^^^^
That's EXACTLY how my dad is. He still brings up stuff from years ago on what I should of done. If my g.p.a suffers at all I will be hearing about it until he dies and then some. There would prolly be other consequences too, such as not wanting to give me as much money or drilling me on why I need money for certain things. I don't want to make something that is hard, almost impossible just because I didn't listen to him.</p>

<p>He would prefer me to major in a language like japanese (i'm not japanese) just because I find the language interesting and he thinks it will be easier than neuroscience. And I'm not totally against that ideas either. The thing is I WANT to study neuroscience. And I know that I might regret it if I don't study exactly what I want.</p>

11

<p>Personally, I would say that if the goal has to be to get into med-school, then, like I've said before, why not just go to one of those combined BS/MD programs? That way, you can just tell your father that you already have guaranteed admission to med-school anyway,and so you should be free to major in whatever you want.</p>

12

<p>He does have a good point though, med school admissions is superficial to say the least and it's very important that you have a high gpa (that is unless you can get a ridiculously high MCAT score). However, in any major, you are going to have the risk of not getting good grades, so I think if you truly are interested and are confident in your abilities, major in neurosciene. Also, in whatever major you choose, you are still going to have to take the required premed courses (chemistry, organic, biology, physics, biochem), so what is he going to say about your ability in those courses? There really is no shortcut to getting in med school, just good old fashioned hard work.</p>

13

<p>I'm in the same boat; I want to major in Physics. My mother wants me to major in Biology because "I've done well in it." Bio's cool and all, but Physics is much better, IMO.</p>

14

<p>Compromise.</p>

<p>You can still take Neuroscience classes as a non-major.</p>

15

<p>"Please know that while I LUV the idea of being a neurscience major, I NEED to become a doctor, it is the only thing I have ever envisioned myself as."</p>

<p>What happens if you don't become a doctor?</p>

16

<p>is neuroscience a subfield in biology? If so, and if your school's anything like mine, bio major is the easiest science major possible. every "wanna be" premeds who arn't "as smart", major in bio, but between chemistry/biochemistry majors vs bio major, the chem/biochem majors do look down upon bio majors as morons b/c the chem/biochem curriculum includes all the courses in the bio curriculum plus a lot more calc based classes (physics, physical chemistry, and other non calc based courses like biochemistry) where as the bio major doesn't require these courses. Bio majors do need physics, but only algebra based physics.
In our school, all the subfields of the bio major (neuro, general bio, microbio, genetics, etc) are all the same. People only choose neuro because it sounds good but in reality, is no harder than the other bio courses. So if you really wanna **** off your dad, major in biochemistry.</p>

17

<p>
[quote]
There really is no shortcut to getting in med school, just good old fashioned hard work.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I would say that, actually, there is one. Like I said before, if you are sure you want to go to med-school, then go to one of those combined BS/MD programs. While some of them have GPA requirements to stay eligible, those requirements are usually relatively mild and so they are still basically a shortcut towards getting into med-school.</p>

18

<p>^^^
Arent those really competitive. Im smart, but definently no superstar. I doubt I could get into one. But u never know. I might look into it. And I don't know if I should really fight my dad about my major. It just seems like its gonna be a losing battle. But on the other hand, who says he has to know my major. :)</p>

19

<p>^The only school that I am aware of that does not give parents your grades is UChicago. I would assume that because your parents are paying for your education, they see your grades, and seeing a bunch of neuro classes instead of Japanese (or whatever you tell them your major is) will make it kind of obvious what your major is. Now, you could always minor in neuro and major in something "easier."</p>

20

<p>
[quote]
I would say that, actually, there is one. Like I said before, if you are sure you want to go to med-school, then go to one of those combined BS/MD programs. While some of them have GPA requirements to stay eligible, those requirements are usually relatively mild and so they are still basically a shortcut towards getting into med-school.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I wouldn't really call that a shortcut. Those are some competitive programs. For example, Florida has a combined BS/MD program, but it is limited to only 12 students per year. I know a guy who had a 1480 SAT (they take into account your sat score), 3.97 gpa, a slew of volunteer and research hours and didn't get past the second phase. If you can get into one of those programs, you certainly did not take a shortcut.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.med.ufl.edu/oea/admiss/site/Junior.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.med.ufl.edu/oea/admiss/site/Junior.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>