Pre Med (science) and theatre double major?

i think all you would have to do is simply major in preforming arts and just take the required Pre-Med required classes.

I think that trying to double major in those two and having a high enough GPA for med school would be very difficult. I will defer to @WayOutWestMom to give you advice.

Hi @charmk - this question actually gets asked a lot. Everyone initially thinks they are the “only one” who wants to mix academics with MT but - it’s not that unusual. Here are three recent threads to read through - you can find more by searching the forum. After you’ve read them you might have a good start on your school list.

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/2122601-double-major-or-minor-poly-sci-and-musical-theater-p1.html

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/2121184-best-schools-for-drama-but-also-offer-robust-academic-liberal-arts-P1.html

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/musical-theater-major/2097832-dual-degree-in-musical-theater-and-physics-p1.html

@charmk : Many students underestimate the efforts needed for premed. Three months ago, the person in this video quit premed – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsINDWmdXZE

The best advice people can give you is to have a 4-year course schedule for the double major and then find out if that schedule is feasible. Make sure you allocate at least 15 hours per week study time (a lot more hours might be needed) for your organic chemistry. After you watch the video, you would know why I said that.

You could consider a theater major with some of the pre-med courses to fulfill gen eds. Then a possible postbac year to finish off any missing pre-med courses if you still want to pursue medicine. Several colleges and universities run formal postbac pre-med programs (Bryn Mawr and Harvard Extension come to mind), but the missing coursework could be picked up just about anywhere.

@nrtlax33, that video is a silly example of quitting “pre med”. That student was clearly never seeking to go into medicine in the first place. Just saying you are doesn’t mean anything. Pre med is an intention, and that student clearly didn’t have that.

My D is in a similar situation. She is a Dance major who wants to be a Physical therapist. Most of the prerequsite for premed and pre pt are similar the though premed usually requires organic chemistry. She initially began as a dual degree student as a BA Dance major and an Exercise Physiology major. Her second semester she decided that she just wasn’t interested enough in Exphys to major in it. So she chose to concentrate on her prerequisites and complete her Dance major. She is now a 2nd semester junior and has completed all but 1 of her prerequisites. She just added Biology as a minor as she will only need to add a course or two.

The pros to this approach are that she is very interested in both her prerequisites and her major. Dance was time consuming but fun, the pre pt course work was challenging but manageable and on the whole she enjoyed her courses. So you get to enjoy yourself while preparing for your future.

The cons are that it is very difficult to make your way in the arts. If you are not successful in being accepted into medical school you don’t have another degree to fall back on. It can be a challenge getting the courses you need when you need them. It’s less of a challenge when you only have one major as most of the prerequsite courses are required for a large number of health related majors so there will be more classes offered. As a science major there will be fewer classes of the upper level courses and they could conflict with your theater courses. Biology is the most popular premed majors so there is a surplus of graduated biology majors.

Good luck. There should be a number of schools of a variety of types and level where you can find what you are looking for. Going to the most selective school may not be the best path to medical school. What will be important is getting the best grades you can in all of your courses and of course doing well on your MCAT and the shadowing etc. you do.

@CottonTales : Most premeds who start the premed journey have no clue whatsoever what is involved . It is a fashion word these days. Most end their journey due to some silly reasons too. They have no intention to do any premed ECs. They don’t want to be a doctor actually (like the UNC girl in the previous video). They only look at the money at the end. (we have to admit the money is not too bad.)

I guess those people who watch this one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJkGZDYjNII) which was on my video feed recently would tend to join the premed cohort :smiley:

Since this is an advice forum, more advice. We have already established you can major in theatre and be pre-med. The more important question at this point is whether you should.

When a lot of HS kids think of a career in medicine it becomes “I’m pre-med!” and happily embark on a track that will take 11+ years of school/training plus enormous debt. Doctors are far from the only ones in the health field that help people. Physical therapists, radiology techs, nurses, speech pathologists, nurse practitioner, physician assistants, to name but just a few as you can see on http://explorehealthcareers.org Unless you’ve carefully considered the alternatives and have spent time working in a health care setting (which is an unwritten requirement to get into med school, BTW) its better to think of yourself as interested in exploring a career as a doctor rather than someone who has already made the decision.

An additional benefit of doing this is it will give the motivation to persevere thru the hard work it takes as a pre-med should it turn out to be right for you. A lot of kids that throw in the towel (maybe 4 out of 5 entering as pre-med) because they were never that committed in the first place.

Pre-med has been popular for long before “these days”.

Then and now, most end their pre-med journey after earning a few non-A grades in college and finding out that they have no realistic hope of attaining a college GPA high enough to avoid automatic screen-out when applying to medical schools. Some more give up after earning an MCAT score that is too low to avoid automatic screen-out. And more than half of those who do get to the point of applying (at a cost estimated to be $7,520 in 2014: https://career.berkeley.edu/Medical/AppCost ) get no admission to any medical school.