<p>Seems that in other forums where someone is deciding on what university to go to or what major to study, someone doing pre-med almost always says that s/he will major in biology.</p>
<p>Why is that, when medical schools do not require any specific major?</p>
<p>A lot of premeds are Lit/hume-challenged? :D</p>
<p>A lot of premeds like/prefer science courses? They prefer lab writes ups to analyzing Shakespeare/Socrates? A bio major tends to cover (most of) the prereqs?</p>
<p>Wouldn’t it make sense for people that want to go into medicine to prefer the sciences over other subjects?</p>
<p>"Shakespeare/Socrates? "</p>
<p>-Most pre-emds (at least in D’s UG) have unrelated major(s) and minor(s) in art (this one is extremely time consuming, I do not know how they can afford it), music, language, others. D’s friend is graduating with unrelated triple major, D is graduating with Music minor (has been great R&R). Sorry, no Shakespeare/Socrates, D. does not like to read, which she has admitted at one Med. School interview, after which they talked about her music, which she can talk forever. Music has been the most popular subject at interviews along with volunteering at crisis center (very few pre-meds do it, crisis center was filled with psych. majors). The last one was one of the most fullfilling experiences with lots of training. Sciences are something that is natural for pre-meds to absorb, but most of them are not limited to that and have very wide range of interests, which sometime does not include reading literature.</p>
<p>I agree that part of it is that those who are interested in becoming doctors are more interested in science stuff. I can understand why many are bio or chem majors because the pre-med req’ts are almost all included.</p>
<p>I, for one, chose biology because…I like biology :)</p>
<p>Worked out pretty nicely too–my major requirements cover most of the premed prereqs.</p>
<p>lol. I was just yammering on to the kid early on in UG to take the stuff she liked, that excited her, that made her want to run to class to see what’s coming next. Not just all this Bio and Chem nonsense. Yuck! </p>
<p>“Dad. That is what I’m doing. This is what I’m interested in. This is what excites me. Leave me alone.” </p>
<p>Uhhh…Really? OK. Nevermind. ;)</p>
<p>Curmy…repeat after me…“I’m just the checkbook.” ;)</p>
<p>curm:</p>
<p>You should be lucky you recieved a verbal response. Most kids would just give dear old dad a :rolleyes:</p>
<p>"Most kids would just give dear old dad a "
^Sorry, no…when “dear old dad” is “the checkbook.” …I cannot even convince my kid that we can pay for her…will have to try harder, did not expect this difficulty.</p>
<p>Miami, a thought: even though my parents have the financial means to pay for my undergrad tuition and most of my med school tuition, in no way would I ever want them to spend such a fortune on me. I am happy to apply for scholarships and take on some student loans to pay for my education because it’s mine, and it’s something I want to take ownership of. I’m also the eldest of four; all of us went to private high schools and all of us will eventually graduate from the same state school. While I absolutely appreciate my parents’ generosity, and I am so grateful that they are willing to pay a small fortune for my education…I simply don’t want them to.</p>
<p>Maybe your d feels the same way?</p>
<p>kristin,
Thank you for sharing. However, we did not pay for D’s UG, she was on full tuition Merit scholarships. I have done extensive research and planning to do more, but in our specific situation it makes no financial sense for D. to take out loans. It might be even more expensive for our family (as a whole, including D.) to take out loans than jsut pay for her Med. School because of taxes and being close to retirement age and having no plans to retire. And, no it is not even close to “fortune”, although it is a good chunk, I agree. We both work and have no debt, no other dependents. Loans cost money, even “interest free”. If you look closely, you will find out. I just found out that to take out loans for all 4 years will cost close to $4,000 in fees plus you have to pay interest on some loans while still in school. Also, look at distribution at total cost. I believe that some amounts are overstated. In addition, couple schools have promised D. some Merit scholarships, we have to see how much.</p>
<p>I advise you to look very closely before you make any decision, if any discussion is going on in your family in regard to financing Med. School.</p>
<p>@curm, sorry to hear your son is not like kristen or miamidap’s d. my s1 is exactly like yours, or even more. i stopped advising him completely and can’t wait to write the last check to be done with his UG. Told him already that you’re 100% on your own for medschool or whatever. my s2 seems a bit different and shares a lot of his life with us, so, we’re partially lucky. eitherway, both kids are told to be 100% on their own after UG – as we have a 3rd child coming up and we need to retire sometime (will be mid 60s when 3rd finishes UG). we are just hoping s2 and 3rd to be different from s1 as we get less young.</p>
<p>Oh, don’t be sad for me, hopingdad. My D and I have a great adult relationship. It’s her job to draw the line and my personality is to run up against it from time to time. It works for us. ;)</p>
<p>well, good for you, curm. looks like i am in a group f by myself as far as that goes … i have no peace whatsoever when his college is in break. oh well. my new policy … contribute to the parent fund in proportion to how he behaves toward me, although i’m not amy chua style parent, i am asian and am much stricter than most parents here and my s doesn’t give it a dmn, once even said im the worst parent in the world.</p>
<p>hopingdad–how old is your son? 'Cuz your son sounds an awfully lot my D1 sounded (“worst parent ever”) when she was age 16 thru 21 or so. </p>
<p>She’s now 25 and we’re in a much better place. In fact, when she was accepted into med school this spring, she called me first (even before her significant other who was also waiting to hear from the same med school) so she could tell me and thank me for “supporting her and her dream” for the past 3 years. She also said that she would not have been to do it without my help.</p>
<p>Yeah— she made me cry.</p>
<p>My point is kids can and do grow up. It’s just that some kids take a whole lot longer than others. My other D has never been the surly, ungrateful child her sister was. (Which is not to say she hasn’t given me plenty of heartburn and sleepless nights from time to time.)</p>
<p>so if you don’t major in biology or chemistry, it doesnt hurt your chances for med school, right? Im a MatSE major at u of i and going pre med, i just wanted to be in the engineering college since its so much more reputable (and if i changed my mind about pre med, I could get a job more eaisily).</p>
<p>Swimfast</p>
<p>the D1 referenced above has a double BS in physics and mathematics. Didn’t really hurt her during admissions (except for the fact she struggled as a freshman & sophomore and that in turn gave her a lower than optimal GPA). </p>
<p>So, yes, you really can major in anything you want.</p>
<p>I recently read a thread on SDN where the difference in “learning styles” between a graduate/PhD track science student and a preclinical MS1 student was discussed by the students who had experiences in both programs. (One of them was in Law School before going to a medical school.)</p>
<p>Here are some of their “opinions” – Read it with a large grains of salt, because some of them (who had gone to the traditional MS/PhD science program before going to a medical school) expressed a quite negative point of view (e.g., master of trivia, half-assed, intellectual bullemia, get in trouble with independent thought and are rewarded by memorizing like a parrot.)</p>
<p>Why are these so negative about the preclinical years for these non-traditional medical school students who used to be on the graduate school science track? Were they forced to abandon their “physical science” learning style and adopt some new one in order to survive in medical school? For the MS3 year, on another thread, one medical student thinks it is similar to the “hazing” experience while joining a frat.</p>
<p>i went to graduate school…last year i finished up in chemical physics. so, this year, my first in MD program, was doable…</p>
<p>however, i feel that my training, which never involved my becoming an encyclopedia or master of trivia, made it difficult. i was always a problem-set kinda guy. getting used to the difference is still difficult. but, i am getting over it. i resisted at first, but i want to know all the medicine i can, so i’m trying hard to change. a big challenge was loss of identity…i became an expert in my field (chemical physics) …only to have entered med school and have my ass kicked by textbook-trained biochemists. so, i really have newfound respect for pre-meds. they work hard, and are very efficient students (efficient in absorbing a massive amount of info and good at putting in enormous number of hours for studying densed materials?)…i am learning how to compile massive amounts of information from them.</p>
<p>Did a PhD before med school in bioengineering. I loved the academic part of my graduate school education. M1 I worked hard but thought it was pretty much BS. M2 was awful. … Had to totaly learn how to binge and purge…which was no easy experience. There was a test or two that I barely got through under the wire. But in the end ended up doing pretty strongly on step 1.</p>
<p>definitely doable but its a learning style you need to pick up. I find that there are some advantages to wrought memorization.
The way I look at it:
grad school way: understand —>eventually know all of the details
Med school way: know all the details —> eventually understand</p>
<p>I graduated from law school and then went to a medical school and found, like the others (who had got MS/PhD first) that it is a detriment to my performance in M1.</p>
<p>Law school and law practice taught me how to think and solve problems not to memorize thousands of useless details, which is what the first two years of medical school is. Memorizing is a skill no doubt but so many of my classmates have what the dean calls intellectual bullemia and will not remember anything beyond the test. When I really learn something, I learn it. But medical school is so rushed that I always feel like I am doing things half-assed.</p>
<p>While the notion is around here that grad school is more independent (i.e., no one tells you what to do, etc), I have found medical school to be more isolated than grad school. Sure, with your project, you’re on your own, but that is how it should be, it’s YOUR project. But other than that, you have a lot of students in the lab willing to help you out, since they have been there before, etc. Medical school is all about finding the most quiet spot in the library to memorize 200 pages of nonsense.</p>
<p>in medical school, all you have to do it show up for tests but graduate students usually have research obligations. In graduate school, independent thought is rewarded. In medical school, you get in trouble with independent thought and are rewarded by memorizing like a parrot.
Another huge leap was the method of learning material. In grad school, you take a concept, and hopefully modify it in some way, to apply it to some novel ideal in science related to your work. Exams test your ability to apply this knowledge in different situations. In medical school, you are given the same material as 150 other students, you read it over and over again, like the 150 other students, and on Friday, you learn who could memorize it the best. After Friday, there is this massive purge of knowledge, and that’s the end of it. There is no intimate relationship b/w you and the material you are learning. This is very frustrating to me.</p>
<p>Yes, major in what u want. Son is chemE, so he’s not a bio major either.</p>