Help. All throughout grade school I’ve excelled academically in both the math and sciences department. Now that it’s my senior year, I really need to make a decision as to what I want to go to college for. Throughout high school I’ve taken a couple of business classes & I’m really interested in pursuing a business career because it also ties in a little bit of mathematics. As far as that goes, I think I want to major in Economics as an undergraduate, get an MBA and MRED, & pursue a real estate development career. BUT, as of late, I’ve been really interested in medicine because of the science background. I’ve considered following the pre-med track as an undergraduate, going to medical school, & pursuing a career in either plastic surgery or neuroscience. What should I do? I know my undergraduate major doesn’t necessarily matter if I go to medical school, but is there a major that could equally prepare me for medical school & business school?
Also, I’m going to minor in Spanish; I’ve taken Spanish for four years & love the language, and if I pursue a business career, it would give me an advantage in the executive world.
If you feel that you need to specify a major and you are undecided between two areas of study, why not plan at the beginning to combine an econ major with a major or minor in biology, chemistry, or some other science? You don’t need to determine your career path right now
If you’re still in high school, it’s fine to think about this stuff, but no need to stress about it yet.
What business school and medical school both have in common is that you can major in anything and still go to either (or both). There’s no set of prerequisite coursework for business school (what’s most important there is post-college work experience and evidence of leadership), and you can complete pre-med requirements with a major in anything. In fact, I’ve met quite a few pre-med economics majors - who smartly reasoned that many physicians work in private practice and need an understanding of economics and business to run their practices and think about medical reimbursement. You don’t need to double major in anything. You can just plan to go in as an economics major on a pre-med track, and make career decisions later.
Also, you don’t need two master’s degrees to do real estate development. You can get just one of the other and do just fine. The MBA is more flexible.