I’ve been interested in CS my whole life, but when I thought about it, I didn’t fancy the idea of programming as a lifestyle rather a hobby. I started to entertain the idea of becoming a doctor. Every since last summer I’ve been set on that goal. However, I really don’t want to go through premed as a bio major and take the MCAT and risk my whole life on that at this point since I’m a junior in high school and have decided so late. I’m really confused on what to do. I’ve heard I can major in cs and take the premed classes or something and still apply. Is there any route through which I wouldn’t have to take the MCAT? I know it’s a long shot but I’d love to see my choices as I really am clueless right now.
You can major in ANYTHING you want and go to medical school, as long as you take certain prerequisite classes. But you do have to take the MCAT. And you do NOT have to decide anything now. Major in what you like, take the prerequisites, and see where life takes you in the next few years. Good luck!
Well, you can find programs that would allow you to not take the MCAT at all for medical school admission:
https://www.studentdoctor.net/2014/08/want-to-skip-the-mcat-check-out-these-programs/
However, to be successful, you would still need to be a very strong student at (ideally) one of the limited group of undergraduate colleges that have a defined relationship with a medical school.
You can major in CS, take the premed pre-reqs (they will mostly match gen-eds anyway), and are the mcat spring junior or senior if you still want to go to med school. You don’t have to decide now.
@AviSaxena33 Though you are junior, still it is not too late. The key is to understand what it takes to get selected for BS/MD programs and plan for the coming summer. That is the key. See the following links to get an idea of what students have done to get selected for BS/MD and what it takes. Academics, test scores, EC, you may already have. But the key area which you need to ensure you have taken care of is to demonstrate your passion and interest in medicine. If you have not done any thing towards that, you need to act NOW and line that up for coming summer.
Your interest in CS and Medicine is nice to have for 2 reasons. 1. In case later if you decide medicine is not your path you want to move forward, you have the plan B, which will enable to get a job. 2. Combination of these 2 fields really good to solve many problems, and it can compliment extensively.
There are many programs which does not need MCAT and all are highly competitive and selective. Example, Northwest, Brown, Rochester, Case, RPI, George Wash, Pitts.
There are plenty of options in CS other than programming, have you thought about EE for circuit or chip design? Have you thought about material science so that you can make faster chips or circuits? Of course IT /MBA can be in management position as well. CS has such a wide area of fields, you have the whole world in your oyster. In addition, CS is a field you do not need much more education than a BS and perhaps 1 year MS after that, where as an MD require 10 or more years of schooling after UG before you can become a physician. You have to love medicine before you jump in with two feet.
It will be hard as a CS major to be on a pre-med track, you have to know about it and since CS is such a time consuming subject, there is very little time left for pre-med track after those programming and hardware design, in addition, you need those medical ECs and shadowing to be successful in med school application. At that time, you need to choose paid CS interns vs volunteering in Medical ECs. If you are good in CS, you could make 100+ K right out of UG, you could make 1 M+ in total salary in 10 years in CS whereas you will still be struggling with Residency and Fellowship in medicine and like 50% of the medical school graduates, they all get into internal medicine or family practice and that is not very high paid.
Again, you have to LOVE medicine to be in it and money should not be your primary concern.
Here is another concern in BS/MD. OK, if you are tipy top student who can get in Northwestern or Brown, you could start a good CS carrier if you change your mind and stay in CS. OTOH, if you got in a program like Robert Morris/Drexel, you could major in CS but Robert Morris does not have a good/well known CS department, so if you change your mind, your UG degree won’t get you into a high profile company like Google, Apple and others. In other words, once you are in BS/MD, your option is limited to become some thing other than medical doctor and young man like you change mind every day, who knows what you really want to do 5 years down the road.
I started as a CS major on the pre-med track but then changed it because I realized that I would not be able to finish med school prereqs on time. I would have to take a gap year, which I didn’t want to do just for a CS major (something I didn’t even want to pursue for a career).
Granted, I also started pre-med late so that was a big contributor. I think it’s totally doable if you’re set on it. If you start early and plan your schedule well, you can 100% do it if you’re willing to work hard. If you were “behind” like me, you can still do it if you’re super passionate about CS. But be prepared to maybe take a gap year or something in order to finish your pre-med prereqs.
But yes, I definitely agree with you that if you are unsure about pre-med, being a biology (or chem or biochem or the like) major is not the best idea. Because if you change your mind about medicine, you can’t really do much with a bio degree except research (for which you’d have to go to grad school). With CS or another similar major, you would have “backup” options because you’re much more employable fresh out of undergrad.
Smart thinking!
Also you have to take the MCAT unless you’re in an BS/MD program that allows you to bypass it.