Hi all,
I have been accepted to UCLA as a Regents scholar. I was admitted as a Neuroscience major, and I’ll be pursuing the pre-med track. However, I’ve given some very serious thought to this, and I am thinking about changing my major to English as it’s a subject that I love very much and can’t see myself not doing. I will still be pursuing the pre-med track even if I do change my major. I was wondering if it is still possible (and how difficult it is?) to pursue scientific research at UCLA despite being an English major?
Also, as of right now, I do not see myself pursuing a double major in both English and Neuroscience. I am not sure if doing that would be feasible, although I am giving some thought to it.
Thanks in advance.
First off, congrats on being accepted as a Regents scholar. To answer your question, it doesn’t matter what major you are. Interest, curiosity/creativity, motivation, critical thinking skills, commitment, etc. are more important. Past experience/previous knowledge and familiarity with the research topic (i.e. through coursework) can also help but is not absolutely necessary as some labs are willing to train you from scratch, and you are taking pre-med courses anyway which will give you a foundation/background in science.
It’s certainly possible, but you will meet resistance for a number of reasons.
- You will not be as focused on your project as someone else who lives, eats, and breathes science.
- Some professors may be biased against pre-meds. Many pre-med students do research just to do research. Just to write about it on AMCAS, and once that's over, they leave research and only do clinical. These are students who are just resume-padding. Students who actually want a research career will benefit more directly from doing research, and will build on that experience as a career, as opposed to someone who does it to add another check to the resume. In this view, it makes more sense to have student who wants a research career join a lab over a pre-med. That said, these are ideas I have read from a non-UCLA professor's blog. And I think it makes sense. I have not met a UCLA professor who is vocally against pre-meds, though I have met one such instructor who became a lawyer and left UCLA.
Ultimately, you can do research as long as you can show a professor you are worth taking in on the lab. There are no rules that say “no.”
You bring up good points, although OP could minor in biomedical research or something or put in some extra effort and attend seminars/talks to get exposure to science beyond the lab and to make up for the lack of dealing with science on a daily basis as an English major.
For me going into research actually changed my career trajectory from solely pre-med to pre-med + research scientist. A PI with an MD degree might be more receptive than one with just a PhD, I feel, because they’ve been in your shoes before and in some cases their work may fall more into the realm of translational/clinical research than basic science. To OP, I don’t think you necessarily have to work in a wet lab, any sort of research (i.e. psychology or social science) would count, it’s more about making the most of your opportunity, putting in the time, and turning it into something meaningful that may or may not lead to a publication but at the very least is intellectually rewarding for you and gives you something to talk about at the interview. Just make sure it’s something you’re interested in and actually care about as nothing is worse than dreading going to lab and not enjoying the work. Initially during the training phase you might hate it because you’re doing menial, tedious tasks but I promise if you put in the effort it will lead to good things such as your own project, presenting at conferences, etc.
@UC-Dreams and @phospholipase, thank you both for your responses. I really appreciate them!