Admittance to Med requires high GPA and completion of pre-reqs and high MCAT. Although adcoms don’t prefer any specific major, there have got to be those few select majors that helped in:
maintaining a high GPA
preparing for MCAT
preparing for rigor of med
completion of pre-reqs
And as I see it, taking a non-science major would be counter productive because you would have to take many pre-reqs separately from your assigned major, increased difficulty of preparing for most sections of MCAT(science-related sections?) although it might be easier to maintain that high GPA.
As a side note, I find that the adcoms frequently mention that increased rigor of a major IS NOT AN EXCUSE for a sub-par GPA (somewhat scaring me from biomedical engineering)
Also please note that any major wont just be based solely on the topic of pre-med admission, but also my interest in it to ensure I can maintain a high GPA.
Some popular choices I’ve seen are: biomedical engineering (was my 1st choice, but people constantly mentioning the low GPA), biochemical, biology or chemistry major.
Hoping that insight from pre-med students could share which majors they took, their personal opinions on said majors, any other advice, historical data, etc. Im sure many students could benefit from advice other than the “choose whichever major you want”
Thanks
P.S. Could some one explain how non-science majors manage to actually complete pre-reqs. It just baffles me how they are able to fit in extra science courses along with work from their original choice of major.
I am assuming you mean admittance to med school and not pre-med.
There are many factors that go into choosing a major. The foremost one is whether you can live with the income expected from the major if you don’t go into medicine. There are many reasons people give up on medicine along the way and if they do make it all the way upto the application point, only 40% make the cut for MD admission.
Biology or chemistry are considered easier majors for GPA but that is not always the case if one attends a state flagship or a reasonably good private school where they tend to weed out premeds by grading them rather harshly in beginner level classes. Many premeds drop out because they get a B or C early on.
An academic major or an eng’g major will prepare you for the rigors of med school. I imagine that some of the lighter majors, that don’t require much studying/critical thinking, would be a detriment.
as for including the premed prereqs…Well, Bio, Chem, and ChemE majors include many of the premed prereqs.
You are right that this is important and you are right that this will vary depending on your own strengths and weaknesses. Just know it’s not always “engineering is harder, humanities is easier.” I know plenty of engineers who couldn’t translate a latin poem to save their life or explain the significance of the development of naval warfare for the Athenians. I also know from my friends doing PhDs in humanities and thus grading undergrad essays that this satire piece hit very, very close to home for them: http://mugdown.com/2015/04/14/why-liberal-arts-is-super-dumb/
The MCAT is largely a critical reasoning exam. What this means is that a very small proportion of the questions test actual fact based knowledge that you had to have memorized prior to the exam. Doing well on the MCAT is somewhat of its own skill and will require its own prep no matter what you do. For example most Harvard students feel that Harvard does not prepare them for the MCAT (http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/5/16/mcat-test-prep-premed/). Schoolwork is not supposed to “prepare” you for the MCAT. MCAT prep does.
The rigor of pre-med comes from the volume, no class in college will prepare you for that. In college you’re in class for a few hours a day, in med school you might be in class from 8 or 9am straight through 4 or 5 each day (with lunch break). Probably the best way to prepare for the rigor of med school is by having a busy schedule in college (which is good, since you need ECs too) and building time management/study/work skills. By senior year of college I had gotten so efficient at studying/learning/writing/managing my time that I was doing well in my classes with little to no effort on an average week and only several hours on a rough week. This allowed me to then enter med school and effectively study the material each day that had been presented to me for the previous 7+ hours as well as be active in my university’s graduate student government.
This is the only one where there is a consistent, objective, correct answer. From a scheduling standpoint, surely a biology major is the easiest/best choice, with things like chemistry, BME/ChemE
@mom2collegekids I was also thinking that a lighter major that doesn’t require deep analytical skills might prove to be detrimental to someone studying for the MCAT @iwannabeBrown Thanks for the insight especially coming from a med student! @iwannabeBrown & @mom2collegekids I felt that someone who had way more experience studying biology or chemistry might have had an advantage on the MCAT as opposed to a humanities major (ex. they’d be learning the material for much longer, and might help them in grasping techniques/ideas or allow for deeper analysis). <— Or am I wrong? But I can see that if the MCAT is the test where only it’s specific prep can help you succeed, then I suppose that everyone is in the same boat.
It’s probably what non science major you’re talking about but one way to fit in extra science courses along with major reqs may be facing the reality that you’re going to have to apply at end of senior year and delay starting med school for a year as opposed to a more “traditional” route (ie applying at end of junior year, finish up senior year, graduate, start med school). This would be especially important as part of a competitive app are ECs and the extra year would free up time
@Jugulator20 Would the extra year might actually result in a negative, because adcoms might expect you to fully utilize the year…and as a result expect a productive year? Also, how would taking an extra year affect your MCAT?
My son was a ChemE major. I think it helped him because:
A) all the science and math
B) engineering is an analytical and problem-solving major. It requires critical thinking, deduction, and creativity. Not every “smart person” can be an engineer. You have to have an engineering mind. You’re supposed to find elegant solutions. That said, not every engineer has what it takes to become a doctor.
@mom2collegekids Thanks for the info! Having taken ChemE, how did your son’s GPA turn out? How was he able to finish any pre-reqs that ChemE didn’t cover? Did he feel prepared when he got admitted into med? (course work, etc.)
S hit speed bump freshman year ending with GPAs below 3.2. He was science major. He still ending up taking MCAT second half junior year. Because of speed bump, he needed weight of 3 more years of grades to raise GPAs to competitive levels and to free up time for ECs. He graduated, spent gap year working, volunteering, etc. Yes med schools will absolutely expect you to be productive in gap year and not simply play video games. That doesn’t however mean being in school is only way of being productive. So it can or cannot be a negative depending on student. However you really only want to apply and get accepted to med school on your first try. There’s a saying that med school admissions are a marathon, not a sprint. So if for whatever reason you have to slow down and tap on brakes to produce a competitive app, I would suggest you do it. In last reported MCAT cycle just over 95K (including repeaters) got to point of being in a position to take MCAT. Who knows how many 10s of thousands of premeds crashed and burned before that point. And as referenced in post 1 above, of those who actually went ahead and applied in last reported cycle, only approx. 40% started med school. Again do it right first time. As a note S is third year resident.
Just a quick question…
What about a major such as neuroscience? How would that compare to something like biomedical engineering/biology/chemE? Is it as intense etc.?
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Having taken ChemE, how did your son’s GPA turn out? How was he able to finish any pre-reqs that ChemE didn’t cover? Did he feel prepared when he got admitted into med? (course work, etc.)
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He had a 4.0 BCMP and a 3.99 cum GPA. That was not easy, and please don’t think I’m recommending this route. It’s doable, but very hard to do.
He’s a 3rd year med student so he came under the old MCAT, so no psych or sociology. He was able to easily fit all the premed prereqs since nearly all were already part of the curriculum.
Did he feel prepared when he got to med school? Are you asking if he felt lost? No. did he still have to study in med school? yes. Was he unprepared (weak foundation)? No. He was used to the hard work.
Is it as intense etc.?
Maybe, maybe not. It depends on you, do you actually like any of these subjects (why? I don’t need an answer), what profs you get when you take whatever course, your schedule in any particular term,etc? So many unknowns to offer answer that’s anything other than generic
I was a Biology and Classics double concentrator at Brown and am currently a 6th year MD/PhD student. My course of study would not have been possible at schools with stronger curricular requirements.
With applying? Definitely the essay writing experience with the classics helped…not sure if I understand what you’re asking.
I don’t know how many schools actually have full undergraduate neuroscience majors. It will probably have less labs than engineering so I would put it on par with an arts and sciences major such as biology, biochemistry, chemistry.
Jug already talked about the gap year - it’s definitely easier to find a good gap year job than to get into medical school so if you can’t secure a gap year position you’ve probably got bigger problems. With regard to the MCAT, MCAT scores are valid for 3 years so by doing a gap year you can now take it at the end of the summer after your junior year (or later) rather than needing to take it no later than beginning of summer after junior year. Depending on your other commitments during the school year, having that summer to work on the MCAT can be a huge advantage.
@iwannabe_Brown Thanks for answering! Sorry for the confusion to the “Did you think it helped you with the whole process of applying?” What I meant to say was if you felt that your choice of undergrad major (as opposed to a chemistry major, for example) was a key factor of your admittance to med school (e.x.ability to achieve a higher gpa, courses offered/intensity)
I came to college with very clear educational goals for myself. I chose Brown specifically because I wanted to study what I wanted to study. I had planned on doing a biology and classics double for a while and never really thought about doing anything else. I applied to college and spent the first two years thinking I would be doing a PhD where obviously you do need to major in the sciences.
It wasn’t until I worked with an MD/PhD the summer after my sophomore year that I decided to pursue the MD/PhD route instead. Even after I committed to going that route, I still hated much of what, in my opinion, being pre-med stood for. A large chunk of my closest friends from college are in fact doctors now (well, residents technically), but I don’t think any of us ever said we were “pre-meds.” We were bio, neuro, or comp(utational)-bio concentrators. I think that’s an important distinction. Are you in college to learn or are you there just to get to the next step? In fact, thinking about it now, the one girl I know who always referred to herself as a pre-med on top of being a bio concentrator didn’t get into any medical schools the two times she applied.
Obviously studying what I wanted to study helped me get a higher GPA - and I knew that going in to college - but it also just made me happier. I hated being forced to take certain classes in high school, and so pretty much the only things that guided my course selection were my own interests, physically scheduling my classes, and (for thankfully only a couple of my 32 classes) satisfying concentration requirements. I honestly never really thought about this kind of stuff.
So in some ways, yes, it was key, but it’s also weird to think about it this way because I never did.
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Did he feel prepared when he got to med school? Are you asking if he felt lost? No. did he still have to study in med school? yes. Was he unprepared (weak foundation)? No. He was used to the hard work.
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to clarify in case my post was ambiguous. He felt prepared …as much as one can be prepared. Undergrads don’t “prepare” students for med school. He had a very good high school science foundation. That was furthered at his university. So, he was as ready as one could be.