Pre-Med and College Choices

This question may have been asked before but I could not find it. My goal for college is to major in biology or psychology or something science-like and minor in Spanish. My 3 questions are

  1. Does majoring in science or something medical related hurt or harm you in any way? I have found many articles over this and they really say you just have to take more science related classes so it makes you seem more hardworking. Would majoring in biology hurt my application or would majoring in something like Spanish or Linguistics make me seem more hardworking?
  2. How much do medical schools care about your school? I am planning on graduating high school with about 40 hours of dual credit hours (done at a community college) and then go to a 4 year for my freshman year. I am not that interested in going to an ivy league and honestly wouldn’t mind a small public school (TWU) with aiming for honors possibly (would that help?) or just an “average” private university or college (DBU or ACU). I would consider a more prestigious school like SMU or Baylor if I can get my SAT scores up enough to get enough scholarships (currently it’s 1310 but it was my first time taking it with not much studying and I had horrible allergies that day so I felt sick).
    Thank you for any future responses!
  1. Does majoring in science or something medical related hurt or harm you in any way

no

  1. How much do medical schools care about your school?

except for a handful of tippy-tops, not at all. Your GPA, MCAT, LoRs and evidence of the ‘core competences’ * are what will matter

*(https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-medical-school/article/med-schools-looking-for-15-competencies/)

Major in what you truly enjoy. Any major works and you will naturally do better in something you’re enjoying.

Pick a school where you are in the Top 25% of entering students and you’ll have a decent chance of getting into med school. Pick one where you are in the lower 50% could leave you feeling dumb in the pre-med pre-reqs because others likely had a deeper high school foundation and know more coming in than you may have been exposed to. This is perceived - not real, but your brain won’t know the difference. It will just feel outclassed. In med school they teach you everything you need to know, so don’t worry about needing to be overchallenged in college in order to know enough for med school.

Once you’re in college, your work ethic and ECs will be all that matters.

Regardless… Have a Plan B you want to do in case you don’t make it in to med school. Currently about 60% who apply do not. If I recall correctly, it was even 11% among those with the highest GPA/MCAT. Literally everyone needs a Plan B. If you don’t have to use that plan, no biggie.

Note that your courses and grades from college courses taken while in high school do count on medical school applications.

That is good if you have a very high college GPA (3.7+ science and overall) in them. But if you have significantly lower grades, they can be a problem.

Medical schools do want to see pre-med courses taken at four year schools over community colleges. If you have taken some at community colleges, the usual recommendation is not to repeat them (repeating looks like grade grubbing) but take more advanced courses in those subjects at the four year school.

Consider the total cost and debt of college plus medical school versus physician pay levels for lower paid specialties to see if it will be financially realistic for you to become a physician, or if it depends on choosing a lower cost undergraduate college and applying only to lower cost medical schools (which reduces the chance of getting into any).

If you want to go pre-med then think about:

  1. The cheapest reasonable college so you/your parents can use the money for med school

  2. The college needs to prepare you for MCATs but still allow you to get a good GPA

  3. Access to volunteering opportunities (e.g., near a hospital)

  4. Success in graduates getting into med school

  5. Options if you don’t go to med school. You think you are going to med school, but less than 20% of pre-med freshman actually do.

  6. Major in whatever you want to major in. You still have to take the pre-med pre-requisite classes (Bio, CHem, Org Chem, Physics, Calculus, etc) It is easier to fit them in with a Bio or Chem major…

  7. I bet like 80% of freshman pre-meds do not go to medical school. So major in what you might want to do.

Being in the Honors program/college at a public or private college will help you because premeds need support.
Major in what you prefer, but beware of biology (there’s an oversupply of them and the market can’t absorb them so this major has a very low ROI). Perhaps Spanish and Psychology would work better for a plan B.