Premed Backups

I really want to be a doctor, but it is risky as there is low chance of med school.
I was thinking engineering major, but it will carry down GPA a lot.
However, if a person graduates in bio or biochem or something, an doesn’t make it to med school, what should they do? Reapply?
Is research their only option?
Is Physician assistant a good and possible backup for doctors?

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I really want to be a doctor, but it is risky as there is low chance of med school.


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There is a low chance for med school if you don’t have med school worthy stats. The low chances are not random.

If you want a Plan B, then being a bio or chem major probably isn’t best. What about math? Are you strong in Math? Or physics? Or Economics? Or Stats? What subjects do you LOVE?

Becoming a PA can be a back up. My son’s close friend couldn’t score well on the MCAT, but scored fine on the GRE, so became a PA instead. However, to become a PA, you need to have “hands on patient care,” which is more involved than what’s expected for med school. That said, you could prepare for both, and med schools will appreciate those hands on patient care hours as well.

If your Plan B is to become a PA, then majoring in bio or chem would be fine. If you have GPA issues right away and think that healthcare isn’t for you, then you can consider another career path.

i am really interested in healthcare- I like PA, but the only problem is I have to get lot of experience, probably through another job once I graduate undergrad. And the GPA is still high to get into PA school. I like bio and chem, but I think I am better at math.
I am considering both chemE and material science engineering.
If I was chemE premed, however, the GPA for med school would be lower as engineering is harder. That is my only problem. MSE is also of my interest, but that and premed is hard, as many classes don’t overlap.

I am still interested in other health care fields- PA, there was a presentation about physical therapy that seemed interested. However, if I don’t get into med school (medicine is my #1), are PA, PT/OT, pharmacy and podiatry still backups?

A few ideas:
–DO (doctor of osteopathy) schools that are somewhat less selective as compared to allopathic (MD) programs.

–There are a bunch of allied health fields such as physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech therapist to name a few.

–You could look into becoming a podiatrist or chiropractor.

–Also I know someone who went for a post-bac and got a nursing degree and went on to become a nurse practitioner.

Yes - of course they are backups but they are also all competitive in their own right. Each of these options have their own sets of prereqs as well which vary to some degree from school to school. Visit different college websites to explore options and prereqs.

Re your other question re major, I personally think engineering is a pretty challenging path to med school. I know @mom2collegekids son took this path and it worked well for him. I was a EE at Cornell many years ago and knew one person with med school stats - it’s just not easy to get high GPA’s in engineering.

My advice - find a major that you are passionate about that you can do very well in. As an example, we have a family friend who went to Tulane and majored in French . . . now in med school.

Honestly, I am not passionate in anything except science and math.

Also…it looks like you are not even in college yet. My advice is to take things one step at a time.

First get to college, then start off classes in your area(s) of interest with the pre-med requirements in mind and then you can take things rom there. Many colleges have advisors for people interested in health related fields so once you are settled in a college and have a better sense of things you can get advice and input from them.

Actually I think applied math is a good backup in terms of med school. Math major has much better job opportunity than Bio related majors as it does not require Phd level credentials. They are widely used in bank, insurance and high tech industries. In addition, math major is preferred by med school as few of them are applying to med schools. If you have a good gpa, you have a good future in med school and elsewhere.

Well math does sound good and I like it, but I don’t really like the jobs most math majors do, and it is pretty hard I heard. so GPA will not be as high. I prefer engineering over math due to interest in jobs and work settings, but they both are harder to get high GPA for med school.

My kid’s back up plan is science/business. Science/computing is another one that might work for you.

Some schools actually have those as specific majors (Notre Dame comes to mind). More often kids do those as double majors or major/minor.

I’m so conflicted right now!
first of all, is medical school/dental school worth it?

Major in something you like. Consider MD, DO, Dental school a venue to explore. Don’t decide now.

I like bio and chem, and honestly wouldn’t really major in anything else. I would consider engineering/math but they would make it harder to achieve med school.
Another problem I have with medicine is, besides loans, there is chance of not getting residency which I heard is really bad! However I want to try my best and I realy want to be a doctor.

@SREE33 Please do not stress over this too much, your first and foremost job is to get into a college that Fit your stats and your lifestyle. Once you are there, you can explore your options in your first two years with premed intention, you can change your mind any time before your Jr. year as to which major you’d like to pursue.

So if I majored in Bio or something and eventually for some reason didn’t like it or am really bad at it (which is pretty unlikely), can I switch into Math or Econ during my 2nd/3rd year?

Depends on if you have been taking the prerequisite courses for your other major during your first and second years. If you are considering multiple unrelated majors, you need to plan your first and second year courses to cover the prerequisites for all of them. In addition, be aware that some majors at some colleges may be filled to capacity and require a high GPA or competitive admission process to declare.

For premed, you need high GPA for everything you take, if you major in Bio and found out you are not good at it and the GPA and sGPA from the first two years are not med school worthy, you basically need to execute the plan B.

Bio and Chem are the two most important subjects in premed and in med school, if you don’t have them, you basically cannot be a doctor.