<p>Hey all, I wanted to know what are some good majors to get into medical school, that will prepare me for the MCAT test.
Also, I want a major that I can fall back on, incase I don't get accepted my med school.... like engineering through which i can earn about 100,000 minimum.</p>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>
<p>I can’t think of such a major. Majors that fulfill class requirements for medical school and prepare you for the type of thinking and knowledge required for the MCAT (like biology) don’t have great job prospects. Majors with good job prospects and good pay (like engineering) tend to result in deflated GPAs (very bad for medical school admissions), and taking the medical school requirements in addition to the required major courses will be very difficult. I think the closest pick would be biomedical engineering but your GPA might become lower than what it could be with a different major and I don’t think it’s in as much demand as the other engineering fields.</p>
<p>You can try to get into medical school with something like a biology degree and if that doesn’t work out try to get into phamacy or PA school, however this is not a guaranteed path at all due to the highly competitive nature of it. Or you can major in something like computer science and get a comfortable job after you graduate but you probably won’t reach the salary levels that you would achieve if you were to go to medical school. </p>
<p>New graduates are unlikely to earn $100,000 pay levels. See <a href=“University Graduate Career Surveys - #69 by ucbalumnus - Career Opportunities & Internships - College Confidential Forums”>University Graduate Career Surveys - #69 by ucbalumnus - Career Opportunities & Internships - College Confidential Forums; .</p>
<p>Any major may be taken by a pre-med, as long as there is enough schedule space to include the pre-med course work in your schedule. But note that engineering other than chemical or biomedical may be difficult to fit all of the pre-med course work in the elective space.</p>
<p>do one you like not one for the money… if you’re looking into engineering just for the cash (or medical field for that matter) you will fail out</p>
<p>I really love medicine, but I’m just scared if I’m rejected my med School, it will be a waste of 4 yrs cuz I can’t do anything with for example a bio degree</p>
<p>There are always options, including strengthening your application and reapplying to medical school or pursuing another medical career. Your Bio degree will only be a waste if you get rejected <em>and</em> give up just like that… But you can’t let the risk of failure stop you from studying what you enjoy and pursing your dreams.</p>
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<p>Only about half of those who apply to medical school get any acceptances to any medical school, so one has to be realistic and know that there can be a point where one may have to abandon the idea of medical school.</p>
<p>Are you at a private college where you could choose your major at the end of sophomore? If yes, you may have completed a majority of prereqs and know where you stand. You could choose your major based on your GPA. This is the “beauty” of attending a private college.</p>
<p>I do not know what you would do if you attend a public college which requires you to choose your major well before that.</p>
<p>Also, do you know that the life is very brutal especially in the residency training years? A CCer who has a S in the intern year posted the following: (intern year is the very first year after med school - in the grand scheme of becoming a doctor, the med school students do not learn much in the area of all important clinical training in med school due to the lack of clinical training hours except for the third year in med school. The real training is in the 4-6 or 7 years of residency traing after med school. )</p>
<p>“S has finished his intern year which included almost 8 months of 12-15 hour days 6 days or nights per week…”</p>
<p>A question to ask is: Are you willing to commit so many years of your young adult life to get through this and accumulate 6 figures of student loan debt? (COA in a private med school is 80+ K a year. So COA at such a school is 320+ K for 4 years.)</p>
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<p>When/how one chooses or changes one’s major is not clearly delineated by whether the college is public or private.</p>
<p>Of course, I am not very familiar with how the choice of major works at a public college since my child did not go to one. But I have the impression that:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>At many public colleges, some majors are more challenging to get into.</p></li>
<li><p>At many public colleges, if you was not in a major when you entered the college, you may need good college GPAs in order to transfer into a new major if there is a high demand for that major.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>At least at DS’s private college, this is not the case. Anybody can select any major at his/her will at the end of sophomore. Of course, if not enough courses (prereqs?) required for a particular major have been taken for that major by that time, it may take a longer time to graduate. (But their 4-year graduation rate is still very high, like 90+ %?) But in general, the hurdle enforced by the college tends to be lower. This is all I was trying to say.</p>
<p>There are private colleges where changing major or division can require an admission process (e.g. Cornell, CMU, Penn), so what you describe is not unique to public colleges. Of course, some public colleges do not have any majors that are hard to get into (e.g. CSU Dominguez Hills).</p>
<p>When should I start studying for mcat if I want a really good score like 35+, and what helps to study for it?</p>
<p>@Vinurame please don’t worry about that right now. As much as you can, explore broadly in college. Pick the major that best satisfies your academic passions. In your pre-med coursework, work hard and actually learn all the concepts the first time around. It will make MCAT studying infinitely better when the time comes.</p>
<p>@retrorocket I am still going into 12th grade man, but i probably will go to a state college… can i still go to med school if my undergrad is a state?</p>
<p>@Vinurame a trillion times yes. Med schools care about how you do in college, not where you went.</p>
<p>war subjects can i take in hs that will help me with the MCAT, so far i took Biology, Ap Chem, Honors Chem, Honors Anatomy and Phsyiology, Ap Psychology. but i am debating on wether to take physics or not…@retrorocket.</p>
<p>Like I said…worry about finishing high school strong and getting into college first. One step at a time, buddy.</p>
<p>Second what tetrorocket said (“trillion times yes”.)</p>
<p>Pay more attention to the verbal section of MCAT (not sure what sections the new MCAT has.) More often than not, more people have problems with that section if their goal is a high score. But I am not sure how to “prepare” for it though as it seems to measure what reading comprehension skill you have accumulated throughout your whole life. Maybe reading widely and deeply for all kinds of subjects in your daily life?</p>
<p>ucbalumnus, DS’s college is not like that so I may have been misled into believing all/most private colleges are like his college.</p>
<p>However, Cornell may be one of these 8 schools which is most similar to a public one due to its class size (and stronger graduate programs.) Penn may be the second most similar one to a public one because its graduate school (e.g., their med school has been established for a long time) tends to be more " famous" than its UG, arguably speaking. The flagship public schools in general tend to have a stronger graduate program than its UG program because they are required to take in more in-state students for their UG (esp. when top 5% or top 7% from any high schol are admitted per their admission policy.) CMU is more like a tech-oriented college like Cal Tech, MIT, or even Harvey Mudd. More courses need to be taken mostly sequentially or they have more required (for a major) courses at such a school.</p>
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<p>CMU is divided into divisions (listed at <a href=“Academics - CMU - Carnegie Mellon University”>Academics - CMU - Carnegie Mellon University; ); an internal transfer into some divisions requires an application process and a higher GPA than needed to stay in good academic standing. For example, its business school lists a 3.0 minimum for qualification, although it appears that admission is competitive, not automatic based on the GPA requirement: <a href=“http://www.tepper.cmu.edu/undergraduate-business/academics/transfer-information/index.aspx”>http://www.tepper.cmu.edu/undergraduate-business/academics/transfer-information/index.aspx</a></p>
<p>In contrast, changing major at MIT does not appear to involve any kind of internal admission process.</p>