<p>I am having a difficult time choosing my major, and I have heard your major has no affect on medical school admissions, but is that really true? Is it beneficial or increase my chances for med school if I major in a "science major". My conflict is between psychology and cognitive science, however is it okay to major in for med school?
Thank you for the responses, hopefully this will also help some people.</p>
<p>That is correct. Just as many humanities majors get into medical school as natural science majors. Your chances do not go up because you majored in the natural sciences. All pre-meds must take the MCAT. The MCAT tests over a very specific set of material and all of that is covered in pre-med requisites. For instance, whatever your major, you must take chemistry, biology, physics, and math as a pre-med. Those classes are sufficient to give you a good score on the MCAT.</p>
<p>okay thank you. a couple people recommend neuroscience because that will also cover some pre-med requirements, but as much as I enjoy the different aspects of the brain I find the broader topics with cognitive science much more interesting. I just keep hearing that taking the science major will give you a little boost.</p>
<p>The only area where a science major will give you a boost is on the MCAT and that doesn’t cover advanced science material anyway. For instance, all pre-meds take Orgo and that’s covered on the MCAT. A Chemistry major would also take Thermo and other advanced courses that aren’t covered on the MCAT. The knowledge would be essentially useless. </p>
<p>Of course, a natural science major may be an easier path because there’s more overlap with required classes. For instance, an English major wouldn’t need to take Orgo or Physics unless he/she was a pre-med. As a humanities major, you would be taking those pre-med classes as electives.</p>
<p>True, natural sciences overlap w/required courses but I guess do what you really enjoy and ace those pre-med classes.
Are you currently in medschool?Alright thankyou very much btw</p>
<p>No, I’m an undergrad who is a pre-med. I’m majoring in engineering.</p>
<p>Here’s AAMC’s data grid on applicants and matriculants to medical school in 2011 sorted by major</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>cool so not a natural science major. Do med state schools give more seats to in state kids that out? or is that another false statement?</p>
<p>thanks WOWM</p>
<p>^when you look at that chart, make sure to look at the ratio of matriculated students to applicants by major, since while most students in the natural sciences matriculate, they also have the most number of applicants.</p>
<p>Many state medical schools reserve most of their seats for state residents. Percentages vary widely by state and by school–from 100% instate to <25% instate. And some states have no public in-state medical schools–either no schools or only private schools. (Delaware, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Alaska, District of Columbia.)</p>
<p>There’s a data analysis article for the 2010 statistics in JAMA. Barzansky B, JAMA. 2011 Sep 7; 306(9); 1007-14</p>
<p>AAMC also has a data grid, but it only shows the number of med school matriculants by state and whether they went in-state or OOS. No other info given. (And remember that in-state numbers include students who matriculate at private medical schools that are located in the applicant’s state.)</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/159330/data/table5.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/159330/data/table5.pdf</a></p>