Hello! I want to study political science or international relations, but I have been thinking about going to medical school. Will my non-science major affect admission into med school? Should I change my intended major to biochemistry even though I have absolutely no ECs or AP classes related to the field, and will the lack of knowledge of basic college science for biochemistry lower my chances into college? Can I get into med school with polisci/IR?
no. doesn’t matter. yes.
Can you do a minor or at least take some electives along the line? It would be easier to catch up that way.
It will help, especially if you do something a little more interesting than politcal science. With poly sci they will assume you planned to go to law school and changed your mind. Something like majoring in a language, anthropology. Unless Poly Sci really interests you. It is also a fairly easy major at most places which will help your GPA.
They get tons of applications from Biology majors. You will still need to do the basic pre med requirements and do well in them
Hi I’d urge you to check the website of any medical schools that you are thinking of applying to ensure you will be completing all their prerequisites (and ensuring that any “equivalent” courses count). All medical schools have this on line now and it should be fairly easy to check out and take from there. Just a couple of examples http://www.uwmedicine.org/education/md-program/admissions/applicants/course-requirements
or say https://medicine.yale.edu/education/admissions/apply/premed.aspx. Also don’t forget you’ll need to do very well on the MCAT (hence many people take the sciences you mentioned). But as @T26e4 notes it is not required that you major necessarily in any particular field. Check it out directly from the schools you are considering and good luck
you might find this thread helpful http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-medical-school/1611978-what-exactly-is-the-path-to-becoming-a-practicing-physician-after-high-school.html#latest
@oldladyandmom I was going to say much the same thing you said. Pre-med is advising, not a major. You will need to fit the required courses into any major you choose. Many choose science or health majors because many of courses are built into them. With Poli Sci you will likely be using them as your science or gen ed classes. It may require you to take bigger course loads than you would otherwise and some students consider courses in the sciences more rigorous than others.
I listened to a very interesting piece on NPR two days ago about just this topic. It seems that Cornell Med School now accepts almost 1/2 its class specifically from humanities majors. They feel these students are well rounded and have had a more fulfilling college experience. It would be worthwhile for you to google the piece and listen to it. Good luck!
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and will the lack of knowledge of basic college science for biochemistry lower my chances into college?
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? What are you asking here??
You can major in anything you want, as long as you also take the pre-med course work (e.g. biology, chemistry, etc.).
About half of applicants and matriculants to medical school are biological science majors, but the rest come from various different undergraduate majors, including humanities and social studies majors.
Wow, thank you so much for all your helpful responses!
( @mom2collegekids I was asking if a major unrelated to my ECs and APs would work against me in college admissions since I don’t have demonstrated interest in the field.)
Unless you are applying into a specific course or school, colleges do not assume that you will stay in your announced major. Many, many people graduate with a degree in a different subject than they thought they would when they were in high school.
Premed = 2 semesters each of biology, chemistry, physics, and English + 1 semester each of calculus, statistics, sociology, psychology, organic chemistry, biochemistry, a diversity-focused class, and preferably a language spoken by an immigrant group (not necessarily Spanish: Hmong, Portuguese, Korean, Urdu, Russian, French Creole…)
This matches many gen ed and electives and can thus be added on to any major. What will matter is that you are extremely successful in what you choose to study as well as in your premed core classes.
Let me remind you the ‘field’ is patient care, not science lab. An unofficial requirement for med school admission is experience in a health-care setting. Don’t do this, bio major or econ major, and your chances of acceptance are slim.
I’m confused, are we talking about undergrad admissions or med school admissions?
@iwannabe_Brown I meant for undergraduate admissions in that particular question. This was my thought process:
I want to maybe go to med school.
- I want to study IR/Polisci.
- Best/most helpful(?) major into med school is science-related.
= Should I change my intended major? If I do, will no demonstrated interest in my high school career negatively influence undergraduate admissions? All of my ECs have nothing to do with science.
And then:
Can I study IR/Polisci and take pre-med reqs along the way, and would THAT negatively influence graduate admissions?
(I am sorry that I didn’t articulate my questions better; I hope that this clarifies some of my questions!)
Actually, science-related majors are NOT favored or preferred when it comes to med schools - they actually like diversity in academic backgrounds and the ability to complete the premed core + a non science major is highly valued. Philosophy majors enjoy a higher rate of med school admission than biology majors. So, yes, you can major in IR/PoliSci and take the premed core, AND it not only won’t be detrimental but will be helpful.
Two posts of interest:
http://www.oswego.edu/academics/colleges_and_departments/departments/biology/faculty/mackenzie/homepage/advising/Pre-health_Careers/major_admission_data.html
http://www.gapmedics.com/blog/2014/01/13/non-science-majors-and-medical-school-admissions-standing-out-among-the-applicant-pool
This could be your go-to reference manual/guide:
https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/careers/act/gradstudy/health/guide
@Aralis gotcha. That all makes sense
No
Yes, it will be a negative
Yes you can. It will not hurt you at all.
Be wary of data that shows it’s a boost. Students are not randomly assigned majors. It takes a certain kind of student to be pre-med without majoring in science. Brown Classics department has a 10+ year record of 100% success in med school admissions - it’s not because med schools like Brown Classics majors.
Slightly disagree. For the less scientifically gifted but still competitive applicant, being a humanities major is a boost for many reasons. First med schools do not want an entire grade of bio and chem majors and most top medical schools could. So diversity is a plus and Classics is pretty diverse. Frankly classics sounds hard. However honestly Poly Sci does not and I think that gives your GPA a boost over your chem major. Most medical schools do not care what you get As in as long as they can say 90% of our class has a GPA of 3.7 or whatever. You must have at least a B or better in your required science classes.
https://www.aamc.org/download/321496/data/factstable18.pdf indicates that 40.3% of biological science majors applying to medical school were admitted and matriculated, similar to the 40.9% of social science majors. Both were similar to the overall 41.1%. However, over 5 times as many biological science majors as social science majors applied to medical school.