<p>Hey!
I am a Freshman at NYU, and I'm currently on the premed track. I don't know if this is the correct forum, but I'm looking for advice from current NYU students. I understand that Medical Schools are crazily competitive when it comes into admissions, but unless I go into medicine, I'm not very interested in majoring in the Sciences. So my question is, If I organize my 4-year plan so that I'm working towards an economics degree, would that hurt my chances of gaining admission into med school? And if after 4 years, I decide medicine is not the correct path for me, would it be impossible to prepare for the GMAT in time and apply for admission to business schools (Is it the norm to take that exam during undergrad, or do a lot of people spend a year studying for it after college, and then get a job, take time off, and go to business school a few years after undergrad).</p>
<p>Any study tips or inside knowledge about premed is appreciated. Feel free to lead me to other blog posts or threads. Thank you!</p>
<p>Your major doesn’t matter for medical schools - so long as you complete the necessary prerequisite coursework, whether you are a STEM or Social Science/Humanities major will not matter. In fact, some medical schools actually like certain humanities majors because medicine is part science part human interaction, so understanding the parts of the human experience which aren’t so cold and scientific might be seen as a benefit. </p>
<p>Most people attend business school after gaining some work experience. </p>
<p>Economics, Business or anything related to STEM will lower your chances of attending a good med school because they will lower your GPA. Best bet is to complete med school pre-reqs while majoring in an easier humanities major. </p>
<p>If you are really passionate about business tho then just go a BBA and don’t worry about the MBA. </p>
<p>Some MBA programs require you to take a few elementary accounting classes before enrolling. You could always satisfy those through community college if need be, </p>
<p>As others said, any major can apply to med schools, as long as you complete the pre-med requirement, which unfortunately are mostly science classes - general chem & organic chem (with labs), bio, physics. So the obvious question is - are you going to survive the cut-throat competition in those “required” science classes, specially in large univ such as NYU (which I’d image those classes normally draw 500+ students)? is it possible to get the NYU committee letter if you barely pass with C or D? and how med school admission think? </p>
<p>I’ve always amazed at some schools stating their med school success rates are 80% or above. This rate is actually based on those survived pre-med that pre-health committee is willing to write the committee letter, not the general freshman population who are thinking/trying pre-med <- which is probably below 20-30%. </p>
<p>Long time physician here. You don’t have to major in a science to get into medical school – econ, music, English, history, finance, engineering are all totally acceptable. I’m in a group of 51 docs and these are just a sampling of my partners college majors that came to mind. I was a chem major. As another alluded to, what does matter is how well you do and GPA is important. How do you really feel about science? You don’t have to major in it, but if you don’t like it/love it, I’m not sure medicine is a wise career path. That said, while medicine is grounded in science, it is also big business and the more you understand about those things the better off you’ll be in terms of understanding the forces at play in your day to day life as a doctor. </p>
<p>In terms of the GMAT/GRE, they are aptitude tests and you can take them now if you want. It’s not like you’re going to take any specific class in college that is required to succeed on those tests. I think most good MBA programs prefer that you have some work experience prior to matriculation, so there’s really no hurry on those tests.</p>
<p>Going straight into medical school after college is also not the norm. The avg age of a first year medical student in the US is something like 24. There’s a host of reasons for this, but it seems to me like a lot of kids these days don’t get in right away or they defer applying for awhile. A partner’s son graduated 2 years ago and re-took the MCAT, worked as a medical scribe and has gotten into 9 of the 11 US allopathic medical schools he applied to. He will be 25 in his first year. There are a lot of paths to medical school. They all involve very good grades and MCAT scores. Bad grades in tough classes help a lot of folks decide it’s not for them. Good luck.</p>