Hi, I will be applying to colleges soon and I’m having trouble choosing a major. I am very interested in pursuing a career in the medical field. I know that a lot of pre-med students choose biology or chemistry or something in biological sciences as their major. However, I do know the AAMC does not ask for any specific major so it doesn’t really matter which major you choose–as long as you complete the requisites. Now I took Physics in the summer prior to 9th grade and I took Biology as a Freshman. Then I took Chemistry as a sophomore and Anatomy and Physiology as a junior. I’m not taking any science classes as a senior. I regret so much not having taken AP Biology or AP Chemistry last year, I suppose I didn’t want to be too overwhelmed with stress since I was already taking other AP classes…I still think I should’ve of gone for it so that makes me upset. Would it be recommended that I choose a science major even though I haven’t taken Biology, Chemistry, or Physics since my freshman and sophomore year? I also read somewhere that if you select a competitive major upon applying to a college you might be denied admission because they may not think you’re competitive enough or qualified enough for that major. Is that true? I’m applying to the campuses of the University of California (so the UC schools) and schools such as UC San Diego say their science majors are “capped” meaning they’re competitive. I don’t know what should I do. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
What subjects are you strongest in?
@MYOS1634 Well I’ve always had an interest in History and Political Science but I’ve been pretty good in English, math, history, and science. The only thing is that I’ve forgotten the content in physics, biology, and chemistry so I’m not that familiar with them, but I did great when I actually took the courses.
Choose a major that you enjoy, that will enable you to maintain a strong GPA and will offer you some good Plan B career choices in case you don’t get into med school.
The one I thing I would check is whether not being a science major will affect your ability to enroll in the courses you’ll need to take for med school admission. Impacted majors may limit the number of non-majors in certain classes because the dept’s obligation is to see that all majors get first crack at the courses they need to fulfill graduation requirements.
As for not remembering the content of courses you took in high school, don’t worry, intro level classes assume that you have little or no background in the material. Of course, college courses cover the material at a much more rapid pace than do high classes so having a familiarity with material helps.
^Depends on the UC… at most UC’s (except Merced) premed students, who know they must rank top 10-20% to keep a med school worthy GPA, will have taken AP Bio and AP Chem. Not having these classes makes ranking high almost impossible.
Your odds of success in the hyper competitive system that is premed education at the UC’s is very low.
What you CAN do if you’re interested in health professions is look into PA direct entry, Nursing direct entry.
Or, take classes
Not taking a science as a senior and not having an AP science puts you at a distinct disadvantage for UCB/UCLA/UCSD/Cal Poly SLO, even if you don’t apply to a science major, and your odds of admisisons there are almost nil if you apply for science.
I am wondering if you’re that committed to being premed - is it possible you don’t know what to do so you think, well, why not premed?
You could also attend a private school with no impaction but you’d need to pick one that has a lot of scholarships so that it’s within budget (St mary’s of CA, ULaVerne, Pacific Lutheran, Lewis&Clark, Willamette, UPS…?), and/or apply to a WUE university that doesn’t restrict classes based on majors (Montana State or Colorado State would be OK in that respect, you could apply for History or Poli Sci and register as a premed, taking the basic premed pre-erqs, ie., English, Chemistry 101+lab, Calculus 1 first semester, and Chemistry 102, Biology 101, Psychology 101 and Biostatistics semester 2, plus whatever gen eds are required.)
What’s your parents’ budget from income+savings (not counting on any loan)?
Note that you’re allowed 5.5K in loans for freshman year, that’s it.
“I also read somewhere that if you select a competitive major upon applying to a college you might be denied admission because they may not think you’re competitive enough or qualified enough for that major. Is that true?”
If you choose a capped major, I suspect the school will ask you to pick an alternate major choice, having no effect on whether you get admitted to the school.
Just because a school caps a major and you don’t get into a major, doesn’t mean you’ll be barred from taking a premed req. Adding to @WayOutWestMom what I see as a potential hurdle with the decision to skip AP Bio/chem is priority of class registration, especially at large schools like UCs. When class registration begins, students (eg continuing, honors, athletes) get to register first. If a class is full, students with later registration times would be waitlisted/shut out and have to wait until next term to try to register. An incoming freshman with a boatload of AP/DE credit would be treated like a continuing student and have a big advantage in getting into classes he/she wants. A delay in registering could affect when you start a premed sequence such as bio/chem and perhaps delay taking MCAT/graduating in 4 years. Please don’t write me and tell me how many AP credits you’ll will have and ask me when you’ll get to register at any UC, I won’t have an answer. Good luck.
@anatomy12 If you are going to be National Merit Finalist, consider applying to few out of state schools which give generous Merit aid like OU, UAB etc. If you have taken decent number of APs (though not science related), still your standing will be better for course registration after the 1st semester in college.
My pre-med son’s major is music. Just relax and choose the major that you’d be happy with and at the same time something you can fall back on in case you end up deciding not to pursue a career in medicine.
@MYOS1634 I’ve always been interested in the medical field, I don’t know why in my stupid mind that I refrained from taking AP Bio or AP Chem. I really excel academically…I just have a poor science background (meaning I didn’t take any AP science classes). I feel really ashamed of my poor decisions. I’m starting to doubt whether I should pursue a career in this field.
You can still pursue medicine without AP classes, just probably not at a UC unless you go the CCC + transfer route.
Also consider looking at affordable private in-state colleges.
Another option would be to look at WUE schools that accept CA students. At a WUE program you’d only pay 150% of instate tuition rates.
[Western Intercollegiate Commission on Higher Education](www.wiche.edu)
Can you post your stats–weighted & unweight GPA, SAT/ACT score? If you do that we may be able to suggest some colleges to consider.