<p>I will be applying this Fall for admissions to UT in the Fall of 2012. Deciding between a Business or Biology Major. I am concerned about the size of the freshman classes and am wondering if I should try for Honors in either? Would that decrease the size of classes? As of right now, I am planning on grad school in the medicine field. Does Honors look better for acceptance into grad school? </p>
<p>How hard to get into Honors and how much extra work? </p>
<p>How are UT Honors compared to USC and UV?</p>
<p>Hey! I’m applying this fall too 
The McCombs School of Business is a HIGHLY competitive school at. You can put Business as your first choice major and Biology as your second choice major when you apply. That being said, the freshman requirement classes are very large, but your class size shrinks when you get the requirements out of the way. I’m pretty sure the honors classes are smaller, since most people are not in honors/accepted into honors. Try for honors if you have really high stats. McCombs is competitive, and so is honors, so getting in isn’t exactly easy. I don’t know about the work but I’m sure it’s harder and you may or may not have the same or more work as people in the regular school, you’d have to ask someone with personal experience in that. I’m also sure that being in honors (as long as you have a high GPA) looks very good for grad school. UT honors is absolutely excellent, as is UT all around, and I’d say UT in general is on par with USC and UVA. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>If you want to go to med school, don’t bother with business as an undergrad major (unless you really really love business). Your best bet is something in the natural sciences or engineering, and honors definitely looks good for admission to med school.</p>
<p>I can’t speak for UV, but UT honors is pretty similar to that at USC.</p>
<p>^Agreed with soadquake981, business doesn’t really have anything to do with med school. Natural sciences will give you a more solid background.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice guys. There are so many majors to choose from at UT it gets to be a little confusing. The only reason I was thinking business is if I don’t get accepted into med school. I don’t really see that many opportunities with a natural sciences major compared to business. Engineering sounds like a good idea though. Do the classes in an engineering major overlap with the requirements for med school? I know there is biology honors but is there engineering honors? Thanks again guys.</p>
<p>Yes, there is engineering honors.</p>
<p>I can’t speak for the other engineering majors, but chemical engineering does overlap quite a bit with med school requirements. You would only need to take a few extra classes in addition to the chemical engineering curriculum, and some of these extra classes even count as CHE electives. I know at least 4 or 5 CHEs who are planning to apply to med school.</p>
<p>I also hear the biomedical engineering is good as a pre-med major, but I’m not entirely sure.</p>
<p>I would not recommend engineering for a pre-med. Medical schools care alot about GPA and its harder to keep a 3.6+ if you are doing engineering</p>
<p>Yeah, I have a couple of friends who are doing biomed and applying to med school. Thanks for the help soad. Med schools are more concerned with GPA more than the MCAT? What would you suggest? Doing something easier to keep a higher GPA? Or doing harder courses with not as high of a GPA?</p>
<p>Med school admission is very objective - I would say GPA and MCAT are about equal in terms of importance, at least if you are looking at tier 1 med schools. I don’t know the exact statistics, but I do know that the amount of people who actually get into med school at all is very low. If you are looking at top med schools, you need to have a very high GPA and very high MCAT. Pick a major that would give you a good background in the medical field/help you with the MCAT <em>and</em> maintain a high GPA. I would not recommend doing something harder and having a low GPA. Med school admission is pretty brutal, especially depending on where you want to go.</p>
<p>laurennicole hit the nail on the head. As I said, engineering is much more difficult to maintain a 3.6+ in than something in the College of Natural Sciences. I recommend majoring in something from the CoNS, perhaps biology, biochemistry, or physics (though physics suffers from the same problem as engineering, it’s hard).</p>
<p>Still, if you do well, you’re in good shape since Texas has many different medical schools and the public ones are required by law to accept 90% of their class from Texas residents. As for the elite medical schools, you also can have a great shot if you do very well, but taking engineering is risking your GPA.</p>
<p>I just want to point out that for medical school you can major in anything as long as you take all the pre-requisite courses. Granted, it’ll be easiest to accomplish as a Natty Sci student, but if you really enjoy business don’t let medical school aspirations stop you. Sure, you’ll be juggling classes and having a hard time, but please do something you enjoy and learn from it.</p>
<p>To further comment on what annematronical said, you can definitely major in anything you want. In fact, med schools may even like students who major in something besides the typical natural sciences/biology. Both majors will have large class sizes at the beginning but small when your progress to upper level classes.</p>
<p>I would say the MCAT is a tad bit more important than GPA (almost equal), since it is a standardized test where the med school adcoms can base your performance fairly against everyone else.</p>
<p>Xcellerator, exactly! I’m a French and human biology double major. It’s hectic, but I love it. You definitely learn how to expand your horizons. It’s wonderful to be able to think outside of the science box and indulge in the humanities.</p>