I know that a lot of pre-med students major in bio or something similar because it easily fulfills the requirements. I also have heard that doing a non bio major can set you apart when applying to med school. Assuming you still fulfill the necessary requirements for pre-med, how would majoring in something such as global or public health, nutrition science, or public policy impact me? In terms of in college and applying to med schools. My end goal is to go to med school for internal medicine then use it as credibility to work on health policy, especially nutrition policy. I am NOT looking for critique or comments on my end goal or if you think I should even go to med school, just giving it for context.
Any major is fine. Seems like that major is your passion, so even better. Need to do well overall( 3.7 or better) and in core med requirements(need to do those a reputable 4 yr college/University 3.6 or better). Filling those requirements with great grades at local CC will not cut it.
You can major in anything you wish. I feel all premeds should have a plan B so I would suggest majoring in something where you could acquire some skills to get a job upon graduation. Gap years between undergrad and med school is very common these days.
As to applying to med school: compared to other parts of an application, your major has little, if any, importance.
https://www.aamc.org/download/462316/data/mcatguide.pdf
p. 14 Table 1. Mean Importance Ratings of Academic, Experiential, Demographic, and Interview Data Used by Admissions Committees for Making Decisions About Which Applicants Receive Interview Invitations and Acceptance Offers
Completely untrue.
see: https://www.aamc.org/download/321496/data/factstablea17.pdf
Your major has very little influence on your chances for a med school admission, Having an unusual or uncommon major will not make you “stand out” or advantage you in any way for a med school admission.
Be aware that allied health science majors (which includes nutrition science) actually are accepted at a lower rate that any other group of majors.
I also agree with @raclut that you should choose a major with a Plan B career in mind because over 60% of med school applicants fail to gain an acceptance to any medical school.
I don’t think your major matters and it won’t make you stand out.
I think when students do stand out, it is because of other things…activities, etc.
Is there any reason they are accepted at a lower rate?
@sophieee123 - I don’t know if this is helpful but saw a graphic that showed the majors with the best chance of success in Med school applications were in the Humanities - but it also mentioned that Humanities major applicants had the highest average MCATs. Does that mean Humanities majors are better prepared on average than Bio majors for med school? Nope. It’s likely a self-selecting population - if you major in 18th century poetry you won’t apply to Med School unless you’re actually very good in the pre-reqs and you rocked your MCATs. Conversely, a lot of students who major in health sciences will apply to med school even if they aren’t actually top science students.
Anecdotally. I had a friend who got a BA in English and went to Johns Hopkins for her MD. She was super bright, obviously, but her undergraduate major really had no relevance to her eventual career.
The reason appears to be twofold:
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there is the perception among adcomms that allied health science majors are less rigorous than more academically oriented majors.
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allied health science majors as a group have lower MCAT scores than all other majors. But even allowing for that, allied health science majors still have a statistically lower acceptance rate than can be explained by MCAT score alone
@CaMom13, per AAMC table 17 (see link above), the majors with the highest acceptance rate to medical school are Humanities and Mathematics & Statistics. (Statistically these are basically a dead heat.)
But you have to be cautious about accepting that data at face value. There is significant [selection</a> bias](<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_bias%5Dselection">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_bias) involved. The number of humanities and mathematic majors applying to medical school is much smaller than the number of either biological science or physical science majors. Because neither humanities nor mathematics have much, if any overlap, with medical school pre-reqs, those who do choose to apply to med school are a very highly self selected group who have gone out of their way to develop a strong application.Let me see if I am interpreting these comments correctly… Chances of getting into med school have very little to do with your major, and more about GPA, MCAT and work ethic?
@sophieee123
I would say GPA/sGPA, MCAT and personal achievements (not work ethic).
Your major–so long as it’s in an academic field, not a vocational one–is of little importance so long as you have completed the science and mathematics requirements with excellent grades.
Med schools want to conclude an applicant can handle the academics (eg GPAs, MCAT). They also look for evidence of traits that they believe MDs should possess (eg altruism, compassion, leadership, communication skill, maturity, etc).Med schools will look for evidence of these traits in your ECs, LoRs, PS, secondary essays, interview). For some schools (eg Loma Linda) fit with mission statement will be important. Weakness in any area could be enough to end your chances. Even if your application is competitive in all respects, med schools get thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of applicants to fill maybe 200 seats, qualified applicants can be left out in the cold.
If you would like to consider a model 4-year course of study as, for example, a public policy major with medical school goals, it would appear something like this (assuming 32 courses total):
Up to 15 courses might be needed for medical school requirements or expectations. About 10 additional courses might be needed for a public policy major. The remaining 7 courses could be taken as general education courses, as unrestricted electives, or during study away. If you were to choose a D.C. term for off-campus study, then it’s likely you would receive 2 course credits from this toward your public policy major (and 4 credits toward your general degree).
In choosing a college, you might prefer one with a flexible curriculum in order to most comfortably combine your interests.