Pre-Med Major Help

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

Hi,
I have already taken calc 1 and I am undeclared major. I am not sure whether I want to do biology or do something like biochem yet, since I am not sure how I like biology. I have taken chemistry 1 and 2 and really enjoyed it, but I’m not sure if I like biology, as I am yet to take a college course in it. I am planning on taking calculus based physics 1 this summer and taking calculus based physics 2 after that, which requires calc 2. However, I know that I need stat for the mcat and many people think that algebra based physics is better for the mcat. I am not sure what to do and I am scared that if I do change and take algebra based physics and don’t end up being a biology major, then I will have to take calculus based later. Is it dumb to take calc 2 and calculus based physics without knowing my major when other pre-meds who know their major take algebra based? Because this way I will need to take statistics soon too for the mcat, but the algebra based physics would let me kill two birds with one stone by taking that and leaving out calc 2 and taking statistics with it.
Please help.

2

I just need help figuring out which major would be best for me to go to mcat and med school with especially since the new mcat requires so many classes, so which major would cover most of those?

3

It really does not matter which version of physics you take.

Algebra-based physics isn’t “better” for the MCAT than the calc-based version. In fact, some undergrads require ALL their pre-meds to take calc-based physics regardless of major–this includes non-science major pre-meds. (D2 attended such a school. For the record, both my Ds took calc-based physics and both did spectacularly well on the PS section of the MCAT. N=2)

If you want to cover all your bases w/r/t a future major–take the calc-based. (If you major in biochem, you’ll likely need to take calc 2 anyway as a departmental graduation requirement.)

But really, you need to make a decision about a major soon–no later than midway through your sophomore year if you want to graduate on time.