Pre-med + unrelated degree.. need advice.

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Hello!
I'm currently going to be a sophomore in college and I'm looking for advice.</p>

<p>Some background information. I am a music performance major in a conservatory style music college within a large university (Temple University to be specific). I plan on finishing my degree. I could get into a long explanation about why I'm choosing to do this, but basically: I want to study music now. I have an interest in studying medicine later. My GPA currently is 3.74, I got an A-/B+ in chem I/II and A's in my labs. </p>

<p>Freshman year, I tried combining the premed classes with my major. It was rough. First semester was not bad even though I took 18 credits (17 is max, and I still didn't have room for my chem lab), but second semester I ended up taking both chem labs 1 and 2 which really drained me. I just didn't have enough time or energy to give my best for either subject, I could either practice OR study. That on top of extracurriculars + volunteering is just too much for me to handle. I decided to look into other options, and saw things about post-baccs in premed. They seemed like the solution to all my problems! Except.. they also cost a fortune. Now I'm stressed beyond belief about what to do.</p>

<p>I could stay for 6 years and spread my courses out between my major and pre-med stuff, but that seems like a very difficult and stressful plan. I'm worried by the time I take the MCATS that I'll forget most of the material I've learned 5 years ago. </p>

<p>So yeah.. this year I'm just taking my math courses. I'm taking pre-calc this semester and probably calculus I next semester. My other worry is that I've heard only horrible things about the bio department. I'm not sure what I can do about that.</p>

<p>Other information.. there are no music courses offered in the summer. And I read that med schools don't like core pre-med classes to be taken in the summer. So I was thinking about maybe taking general ed courses during a summer or two to get those out of the way. </p>

<p>Sorry for my jumbled thoughts and if it seems like I make everything too complicated. Thank you for your time and help!</p>

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<p>I’m not familiar with Temple University or how the conservatory fits into that setting, but I would stick with the post-bacc. program. Is financial aid an option for you? You’d have to pay tuition either way, whether it’s in university or post-bacc. </p>

<p>You could try and finish your music major earlier (3 years) to save on costs, and THEN do PB. </p>

<p>If I were in your situation, I would stick with just my music studies at TU (3-4 years), find a post-bacc program that is just one year long, and in the meantime, try to squeeze in pre-requisite classes or maybe even some of the core requirements at TU. But the point would be to focus on music, and focus on getting pre-reqs out of the way so you could do a 1 year post-bacc program (which would be less expensive than a 2 yr program)</p>