How to pick a major

[makeitbrahs]

HS Senior

2 things I'm wondering about:

1. How do you find the "right" major? Take a survey wheel of sorts?

2. How is the workload from doing a major and preparing for medical school? It feels like taking all the Engineer (as an example) and PreMed courses would be hell... and then there's shadowing, internships, research, volunteering, all on top of that.

How do you fit it all in?

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[RTC19]

1. I hate to be cheesy, but the best advice I was ever given in choosing the right major was to do what made my heart sing. If you do what makes your heart sing, you will love your studies. Loving your studies will lead to a great GPA. A great GPA is pivotal for receiving an acceptance to medical school.

2. The workload from completing gen eds and the courses for your major in addition to the pre-requisites for med school is very, very doable.

I wish you the best of luck, OP. Feel free to PM me anytime if you have any further questions.

 

[superpom_7]

HS Senior

2 things I'm wondering about:

1. How do you find the "right" major? Take a survey wheel of sorts?

2. How is the workload from doing a major and preparing for medical school? It feels like taking all the Engineer (as an example) and PreMed courses would be hell... and then there's shadowing, internships, research, volunteering, all on top of that.

How do you fit it all in?

What are your passions? What do you love? What subjects did you like a lot in school? Just ask yourself some questions. I'm sure being able to complete your major requirements and completing requirements for Med School is very doable, as people do it all the time, just like RespectTheChemistry said. What helped me pick what I wanted to major in was a few things: Would I be able to find a job? Would I like doing that job? Is it versatile? IF I chose not to go to Vet School or Med School, would I worry about what am I going to do with this degree? A lot of people change their major multiple times, and there's nothing wrong with that. A person that I know told me that they started out as Pre-Med, and changed their major at least four times before they finally stayed with something. For me it wasn't hard, because out of the 100+ majors that some schools offer, only about three of those I actually like and only one I love.

What can also help is to just narrow it down. This may seem silly, but this helped me so much. Make a list, a pros and cons list or what you like and what you don't like. When you write stuff down, it really makes you think. If you have a few majors in mind, start writing down pros of it and then go to cons. Then compare. For me it was between Political Science and Biology. After I was finished, well, it spoke for itself. But ultimately I got rid of Political Science as an option, and that list helped.

 

[Mr.Zero]

You really don't even need to pick a major right away either. You can go in as undecided and just take like gen chem or intro level biology and other gen ed classes that your college requires. After taking a few classes and getting the feel for college life, you might find a particular area that is interesting to you. As long as you take necessary pre-requisites for medical school, your major really doesn't matter to much (GPA is way more important). I guarantee your undergrad years will be much easier if you major in something you enjoy rather than picking something that you don't like, but think that med schools will. Also, it's not a bad idea to have a back up plan just in case med school doesn't work out for you.

As for finding time for everything, I knocked out almost all my gen eds my first two years by taking 15+ credits each semester as well as an occasional summer class and an online class through a neighboring community college (I also had a few credits from dual enrollment in high school). I then was able to focus on my major classes, while only taking 12-14 credits, which also left me time to do extracurriculars. I was also able to graduate a semester early, which left me tons of time to pretty much do whatever I wanted.

I majored in Chemistry Health Science, which was basically a 60/40 split between chemistry and biology classes. If I hadn't been able to get into med school, I would have used my degree to work in a laboratory/research setting or I could have continued my education through a masters or PhD program.

Best of luck OP!

 

[radkat101]

It's actually really easy to decide on a major if you KNOW you want to go to med school.

1. It's super easy
2. It's interesting

 

[makeitbrahs]

Thanks a ton for your advice guys.

Just a quick question: what do you mean by doable? There seems to be a lot of general stress going the PreMed route (MCAT, interns, etc). Wouldn't adding another major just double that?

... Or are there less classes than I think to fulfill a major or the prereqs? I feel like I'm missing something here. You go 4 years to prepare for med school. You go 4 years to finish a degree. So unless you're taking a major that overlaps with the prereqs, aren't you essentially doubling your workload?

I don't mind working, but I just don't want to find myself 3 years from now regretting my decision at midnight.

 

[radkat101]

Thanks a ton for your advice guys.

Just a quick question: what do you mean by doable? There seems to be a lot of general stress going the PreMed route (MCAT, interns, etc). Wouldn't adding another major just double that?

... Or are there less classes than I think to fulfill a major or the prereqs? I feel like I'm missing something here. You go 4 years to prepare for med school. You go 4 years to finish a degree. So unless you're taking a major that overlaps with the prereqs, aren't you essentially doubling your workload?

I don't mind working, but I just don't want to find myself 3 years from now regretting my decision at midnight.

You don't start learning to be a doctor until your first day of medical school, therefore there's no real "preparing for medical school" done in undergrad. It's more like jumping through the hoops to GET IN to medical school. The pre-reqs are more to weed people out and the mcat tests that stuff also. You can easily major in something completely unrelated to medicine and get the pre-reqs done in four years. I majored in political science for example, but had tons of electives I used for pre-med stuff and some counted towards my major anyway. By the end you may have a few classes and some labs left over but this is very doable.

 

[makeitbrahs]

You don't start learning to be a doctor until your first day of medical school, therefore there's no real "preparing for medical school" done in undergrad. It's more like jumping through the hoops to GET IN to medical school. The pre-reqs are more to weed people out and the mcat tests that stuff also. You can easily major in something completely unrelated to medicine and get the pre-reqs done in four years. I majored in political science for example, but had tons of electives I used for pre-med stuff and some counted towards my major anyway. By the end you may have a few classes and some labs left over but this is very doable.

I was under the impression that the extracurricular activities helped you prepare for med school by helping you get into med school (Like cooking, part of the preparation is obtaining all the ingredients). I never thought that you'd learn how to be a doctor before going to an actual medical school. Just to make sure we're on the same page here!

So you're basically telling me that even with the PreMed courses and MCAT, you'll have plenty of free time left over to pursue a major and do extracurricular activities?

How early did you start your "major" classes for PoliSci?

 

[radkat101]

Yes we're on the same page. I thought you meant you we're learning things in undergrad that you need to know for medical school.

You have to major in something to get into medical school as they all require a bachelors degree. The nice thing is that you can major in whatever you'd like. Many students major in biology because it's related to medicine and there is SOME overlap with the pre-med requirements. You will start working on your major on day 1 of college (you might have to knock out some basics first). The downside I found to majoring in science is you will waste a lot of time in labs, and take difficult classes (that aren't required by medical schools) that ultimately take away from the time you could be spending doing other things to beef up your app (volunteering, shadowing, mcat prep, etc..). Many pre-meds go into college thinking getting into medical school is all about putting in hours and hours of hard work. It's partly that, but it's really more about having a strategy and being efficient.

Choose an undergrad school that isn't filled with other pre-meds competing for A's, and choose a major that you enjoy, and that will leave you with plenty of time to devote to your pre-med classes, extracurriculars, and the mcat.

 

[hmockingbird]

The pre-reqs add up to more of a minor. And it's more about timing/strategy for those like radkat101 said. If you chug along taking one or two pre-req classes per semester (probably 2 at once some semesters, but I don't think I had to do that every semester), you will finish them before senior year.

You don't need to go in with a major picked out. Take some classes you are interested in and go from there. Often you will have to complete some pre-req classes before you can start your major classes anyway (e.g. freshman writing before you take upper-level writing classes).

Also with ECs/shadowing/volunteering and timing... night classes are your friend if they are available in your major. Seriously. I had one semester where I only had regular classes T/Th, and two night classes M/W, so I basically had 3 extra free days every week (sacrificing 2 evenings during which nothing was going on anyway, not like it was a Friday) which was amazing for doing things that are usually harder to schedule during the school year like shadowing (easier to do during a weekday day), and it made me feel like I had tons of free time lol.

 

[Time Table]

I'll use the analogy I used before: 4.0 + love for the major >>> hating a major, but 4.0 = loving a major, low GPA. You should do what makes you comfortable in your studies whether it be Biology, Chemistry, Humanities, Social Sciences, etc. A good back up plan in case you don't want to do medicine is always a plus, and ranges from Social Sciences to Humanities to hard sciences. ECs such as volunteering, shadowing, research, leadership will come as you progress through your college career whether it be during winter break, summer break or weekends during the semester. Take it a step at a time.

 

[makeitbrahs]

Thanks a ton for your help guys.

About the PreMed competition comment... what do you mean by a college that doesn't have competitive PreMeds? Could you give an example?

How hard are these PreMed req classes (basically, how much time should I be expecting to spend on it), and will I have time to pursue athletic activities? (I know college sports take a LOT of time)

 

[makeitbrahs]

The pre-reqs add up to more of a minor. And it's more about timing/strategy for those like radkat101 said. If you chug along taking one or two pre-req classes per semester (probably 2 at once some semesters, but I don't think I had to do that every semester), you will finish them before senior year.

You don't need to go in with a major picked out. Take some classes you are interested in and go from there. Often you will have to complete some pre-req classes before you can start your major classes anyway (e.g. freshman writing before you take upper-level writing classes).

You make it sound so easy.

Would my career/grade counselor in college help me set up those classes?

 

[Law2Doc]

You make it sound so easy.

Would my career/grade counselor in college help me set up those classes?

Stay away from career counselors at this juncture. you don't need them and bad advice is rampant from clowns in these fields.
Decide what you want to major in. If it's art history, underwater basket weaving, whatever, that's fine. On the side, take the prereqs. We are only really talking a class or two a semester. If you don't take the prereqs and just want to concentrate on good grades in the basket weaving, that's fine too --you can always take the prereqs in a Post-bac after college. Medicine is really a life of learning, and you'll soon realize that an extra year here and there, be it in a Postbac, or a med school research year, or a longer residency or a fellowship, Is not a big deal. You aren't in a race and there's nobody else you need to keep up with. The people you start with will all go down different paths and the guy who spends two years in a postbac and takes a research year during med school before going into rheum still ends up an attending long before his college classmate who goes into neurosurgery.

One word of advice -- experience a lot in college. Once you funnel in to the premed zone, you are going to spend your life jumping hoops and when you finally come up for air it's tough to turn back. also not everybody does well in the prereq science classes -- it's a big weed out -- so it's probably a good idea to keep an open mind in case you need a plan B.

 

[FutureOncologist]

Do you know what you wanna do? If you do, good. Get into a college that has a great program for you. If you don't then I suggest maybe a Liberal Arts college because the institution forces you to take a huge variety of classes and thus it's easier to find what you're interested in.

For the sake of example, lets say you really love English, especially during the Victorian Period. Find a college (if you haven't yet) that has a good amount of classes that you would enjoy taking in that major. Apply, get in, get some scholarships (or maybe a free ride!) and get settled in. Now, once you get to college (and here's the important part), meet with the schools PRE MED adviser, NOT your freshman adviser. In my experience (I was an RA in college, so really I had to deal with freshman advisers twice), they only care about the paycheck and to get that, they are told to persuade freshmen to take all of your prereqs first and put premed on the backburner for junior year, which is very costly. Your pre med adviser has dealt with literally thousands of students from all different majors that want to go into medicine. So if you're an English major, they will really help you with how to juggle volunteering, research, your major, minor, premed classes, etc. I cannot stress how important a pre med adviser/program is. They will save you thousands of dollars and give you sweet deals that they have with major MCAT-studying programs (such as Kaplan or TPR).

I won't waste too much space telling you what others have already said--college is about exploring you. You wanna join a club on glass-making? Do it. The next 4-5 years of college for you will provide opportunities that you will probably never have again. The undergrad physiology course that you are looking at to "prep you for medical school" won't do anything. My semester-long physiology class was hard, but what I had learned in a semester didn't compare to what I had to do first semester of medical school.

The workload? 1st ring of hell. College was hard (Biochem Major reporting) but I delegated my time with free time to hit the gym and hang with friends every other day. Medical school is a sacrifice. This is pretty much the first actual step to my career in (possibly) being a Navy Physician/Surgeon for the rest of my life.This truly is a lifetime of school, learning, dealing with bureaucracy, handling family, and fitting in a life outside the career.

When you come back here on the pre-med "What are my chances?" threads to post about your GPA, ECs, etc. don't be deterred by the responses that say "even DO is a long shot" or "take a year off to do [x] or [y] THEN consider DO schools." We aren't trying to get you out of medicine. We really just want you to be the best applicant you can be. [Here comes a small personal story, skip if you'd like: ] I came on here 4 years ago with a different account, posting my stats and asking "Where should I apply?" Almost everyone told me "stick with DO or go to a postbac and maybe apply to MD schools." Not liking this, I finished my junior year with a 4.0 both semesters with research on top of that. It rose my GPA up quite a bit and applied to ~20 schools. I got 5 interviews and got accepted to 2 different MD programs. Currently, I am starting rotations in 2 weeks and am almost at the top of my class. [End personal story]

OP, in short, you have a bunch of time and I wish I were in your shoes because college is so much fun if you make it to be. Or, you can make it hell with trying to be this neat "copy&paste" premed students from the AAMC website that honestly, most can't keep up with.

 

[FutureOncologist]

Choose an undergrad school that isn't filled with other pre-meds competing for A's, and choose a major that you enjoy, and that will leave you with plenty of time to devote to your pre-med classes, extracurriculars, and the mcat.

So. Very. True... Another story. Sophomore year in my Organic Chem class, I would have a "B average" throughout. However, I ended up with a high "C+" the first semester and a "B-" the second. Why? The orgo professor only allows 10% of the class to have each letter grade. I was on the lower end. so the 10% with a higher "B" would push me down into the C+ area. This was true for a bunch of other higher up chemistry courses that honestly, I don't remember what I learned from day 1.

 

[hmockingbird]

You make it sound so easy.

Would my career/grade counselor in college help me set up those classes?

Check out your college's bulletin (book that has all the class descriptions in it) to find the prereqs for each major. If you go to a school that has a core curriculum, often any pre-reqs for the major, especially in "core" subjects (English, history, sciences) will match up with the core classes you have to take anyway. If you have AP credits, you might be able to use them to skip some of those classes. (Side note: If you have credits for med school pre-reqs the general advice is to take an equal number of upper-level classes in that subject, or just re-take those classes in college if you don't want to do the upper level classes, since med schools generally don't accept AP credits *only* for pre-reqs.) If you are interested in a major and have questions, I would recommend talking to a professor in the major, since an advisor outside the department won't know their policies as well.

As for the med school pre-reqs maybe someone will post the updated list that goes with the new MCAT. I would also suggest talking to the pre-med advisor or maybe even better, an upperclassman in the pre-med club for advice. To start off with I would probably take bio 1 and/or gen chem 1, though. If you want to start off gently, you could also take some of your pre-reqs in the summer. I did this with gen chem after freshman year. It makes for a busy summer but it was nice to get it out of the way so quickly.

 

[makeitbrahs]

Thank a ton guys.

Where can I find the prereq courses to apply for med school?

Is there a recommended pathway to take them in? (like bio first, chem next, biochem after...)

 

[superpom_7]

Thank a ton guys.

Where can I find the prereq courses to apply for med school?

Is there a recommended pathway to take them in? (like bio first, chem next, biochem after...)

Each school has a list of it's required courses. You would find them on the schools website under prerequisites.

 

[Minipi]

1. How do you find the "right" major? Take a survey wheel of sorts?

This is something that a lot of students worry about. As someone who has gone through it, don't stress about it! First semester, pick classes that interest you. And I'm going to give you some advice I wish someone had given me: when you're signing up for classes, search for every professor you're considering taking on ratemyprofessor.com. My GPA went up drastically after I learned about that website. You simply must screen your professors! I thought philosophy (medical ethics) would be extremely boring but I had an amazing professor who motivated me and made me want to do well. So find out what you can get excellent grades in and interests you. Just remember to do your medical school prerequisites and I will explain that more below.

2. How is the workload from doing a major and preparing for medical school? It feels like taking all the Engineer (as an example) and PreMed courses would be hell... and then there's shadowing, internships, research, volunteering, all on top of that. How do you fit it all in?

My personal opinion would be: only pick engineering if you know you can get really high grades in it. Some people I consider geniuses had a hard time getting good grades as an engineering major (for example, everyone in their engineering class would get ~90% on the test so the teacher would say "that means 90 is AVERAGE"). Plus, at my school, the engineering program was set up so there was no room for electives.
Also at my school, they had PDF files for each major and the exact list of prerequisites, core classes, and electives options. I'm sure most schools have something like this.

Start researching the medical schools you want to go to now. I think that's the best advice anyone could have given to me at your point. They will have an outline of the requirements they want in their website. Print these out! Keep them in a safe place and check off everything as you go.
My dream school's prerequisites:
- two semesters of each: biology, physics, English, inorganic chemistry, and organic chemistry (all with labs)
-one semester biochemistry
Note: most schools have very similar prerequisites to these!
Also, check the student profile (if available) of the most recently admitted med students. That will give you a general idea of the GPA (science and overall) and MCAT scores they are looking for.

Research: start looking into it EARLY. Go on your school website and look through different departments. My school had information about the research each professor was involved in. Send out e-mails to the professors you think you would like to work with and ask them for an interview.

Internship: this is the only thing that I felt like was "too much." I regret doing my internship while taking other classes. Shadowing and volunteering can be more relaxed because you can spread them out during your 4 years. My internship had to be completed in one semester and I took 18 credit hours of classes on top of that. I somehow managed to make it through but it was NOT FUN. I would recommend taking your internship during the summer between junior and senior year with 0 other classes or at most, 1 other class.

As for everything else, just create a schedule. And always remember to have time set aside to relax

 

[Minipi]

Wow that was much longer than I intended

 

[frosted_flake]

like @Mr.Zero said, go in undecided.
At my school, you can take a course (I think it is 1 credit hour) that introduces you to all majors offered, where professors from each department come to answer questions you may have, etc. Do you know if your school offers anything like that? Many of my friends found it very helpful

 

[Odpb55]

1. If all the professions in the world were the exact same salary, which one would you choose? (Figure out what major is required for the career you picked)
2. Is there anyone you know in real life that you kinda wished you had a job like theirs? (Find out what major they picked and what career path they took)
3. Flip through a college course/major catalog (these can be found online too). Read course descriptions/check out different majors, and see if there's anything that grabs your attention. Put in tabs for majors that are interesting to you, keep narrowing down your choices to one major.
4. Make a list of what is important to you in a career (working hours, work conditions, work setting, finances, family life, etc ) and cross check it with whatever you came up with in the first 3 questions.

 

[ems2doc]

Go into college undeclared if possible, and in the first year take all of the "distribution requirements" at my school that meant taking science, humanities, fine arts, and other subjects. Choose a major related to your favorite classes. Medical schools really do not care so long as you take the required pre-med courses. I've seen people get accepted into medical schools with degrees in math, language, Asian studies, history, polisci, etc. That being said, many pre-med students end up majoring in a life-science, for obvious reasons. I ended up majoring in Biological Science.

 

[bonedoc82]

In general, pick something that you enjoying doing or learning about. Dont pick a major based on what other people are doing or just because Biology is required for pre med. These days, applicants are more interesting if they have a non traditional degree such as music or literary science rather than the common biology/chemistry route.

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[EvenStevens]

1. Do something you enjoy
2. Do something you PERSONALLY can succeed in
3. Do something you can maintain a high GPA in (generally you must enjoy it)