I am currently a senior in high school who is aspiring to attend medical school one day. I am planning on attending the University of Texas at Dallas. At first I was planning to major as a BS in Biology, but they also said that I was able to obtain BS in Interdisciplinary Studies or BS in HealthCare Studies to help give me my pre-med classes or classes required for medical school. They explained that I could major in whatever I wanted and still be part of their Pre-Med program. For example (they gave me this example), I could major in Dance and still take the courses required for medical school so I would be able to go to Med School What is your suggestion? BS in Biology or BS in Interdisciplinary Studies or BS in HealthCare Studies. (btw… the Biology at UTD is heavily focused on research).
Yes, you can major in anything. You will need a good gpa to get into med school, so your aptitudes should be a consideration. And you should consider what you’d like to be doing if you don’t get into med school.
Many med school aspirants fail on that last point: they study a life science to prepare for med school, but they don’t see themselves in a med sciences career apart from being a medical doctor. If med school doesn’t work out, they’d rather pursue an unrelated field. Why study a life science, if that’s the case?
–What were your favorite subjects in high school?
–What were your strongest subjects (for grades)?
–What career do you see yourself in if med school doesn’t occur?
^Yeah, you aren’t limited to those three fields. You could pick anything.
I agree with Dunboyne that you want to think about what you really want to study and how you might use the major beyond college, especially if you don’t go to medical school. The healthcare studies major seems geared far too perfectly for med school - most of the classes seem designed around exposing students to the health professions and guiding them into health professions school, rather than teaching them a perspective or way of thinking like a traditional major would. I would be wary of that. (Some of the classes actually seem pretty good, though.)
Interdisciplinary studies sounds like a really structured approach to a self-designed major. You have to come up with a concentration and then build some classwork around that concentration.
There are lots of cool majors at UTD that could be useful and interesting beyond medical school: applied sociology, healthcare management, neuroscience, public policy, cognitive science, global business, biochemistry, etc.