<p>I am currently undeclared but I want to major in one of the divisions of biological sciences. Being undeclared is the main reason I'm not 100% sure on UCSD because if I want to pursue a career in the medical field and if I don't get my major then I would be basically wasting time and money, right? I heard that it is really hard to get into Bio and I'm really worried. Do you guys have any tips and advice? Should I go to UCSD or to a lesser UC with my major? I don't know what to do :( HELP!</p>
<p>1) You don’t need to be a biology major to go into the medical field. You don’t have to be a bio major to take the bio courses required for med school. You have an equal chance of working in a bio-related lab if you’re not a bio major. There are music majors that go to med school, psych majors that go to med school, and English majors that go to med school.</p>
<p>2) If you can’t get into the bio major, you’re going to have a difficult time getting into medical school from a purely gpa standpoint.</p>
<p>Med school aside, read everything on the bio webpage about exceptional admission: [Exceptional</a> Admission Information](<a href=“http://biology.ucsd.edu/undergrad/exadmit.html]Exceptional”>http://biology.ucsd.edu/undergrad/exadmit.html) and [Exceptional</a> Admission Information](<a href=“http://biology.ucsd.edu/undergrad/emfaq.html]Exceptional”>http://biology.ucsd.edu/undergrad/emfaq.html), especially the second link (the FAQ).</p>
<p>Med school messes things up a little because it means you can’t AP your way out of all the LDs. Which is totally fine, if you’re okay with having workloads that look like this the first 1-2 years of your college: GE + chem + physics + (math, bio). This was my exact workload for my first 4 quarters of UCSD, because you have a time limit on when you can finish your lower divisions.</p>
<p>Personally, I wouldn’t (and didn’t) let my major factor into my admissions decisions because I had my heart set on doing something in the medical field. The switch into bio is just another hoop to jump through and there are much more stressful, difficult and gut wrenching processes in college than switching into an impacted major. </p>
<p>There’s this very recent thread with more information about exceptional admission. I suggest you use the search feature or browse a few pages of threads back before making a new one next time 
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-san-diego/1318074-those-who-actually-switched-into-impacted-biology-major.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-san-diego/1318074-those-who-actually-switched-into-impacted-biology-major.html</a></p>
<p>I only have two things to say here:</p>
<p>1) You don’t have to be ANY particular major to get into medical school. Here’s a small sampling of friends, with their college majors and current [post-med school] positions: History/cardiothoracic surgery at Stanford, Buddhist Studies/clinical pathology at Stanford, Physics/emergency medicine at UNC, Spanish/pediatrics at USU, Biophysics/pediatrics at Yale</p>
<p>2) Even if you’re not a bio major, everything opportunity a bio major has is still open to you. UCSD recognizes that lots of people want to go to med school, lots of med schools require stuff like microbio and physiology and whatnot, so ALL these classes are open to non-bio majors.</p>
<p>In short: pick something you’ll love studying for four years. It may be the last time you have that much freedom in a long, long time.</p>
<p>Thank you both so much. I really appreciate it.</p>
<p>It might be better to pick another major other than a biology major, too. If medical school doesn’t work out with you, then you can have a back up plan. Biology is a somewhat hard major to find a job with.</p>
<p>^ not true, all the gruntwork in basic research (both academic and industrial) is done by scientists holding BS/BA degrees. the PhDs sit in their cushy offices and stare at computer screens all day long. in a biotech hub like SD or SF, a bio degree + 1-2 years of lab experience somewhere is enough to land you a job somewhere.</p>