What's the most fun and stimulating undergrad major?

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Ross434

Ross434

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Considering you can do anything and go into med school, what are your views? perhaps list a few reasons?? I think engineering, because of cool research, problem solving, and, well, yeah.

Your opinions?
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CanIMakeIt said:
I am an engineer myself (and lots of other majors ....). I just wish I could explore a little bit of Antropolgy, Psychology, and a few other topics......
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How many other majors did you have ? :eek: haha, or did you mean, you know other people?
 
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Neuroscience. It's a great interdisciplinary major that combines biology, chemistry and physics, so it allows you to explore various scientific intersts and see how seemingly disparate fields can be integrated into a single discipline.
 
Sociology - Theory

This would make a good poll.
 
dance! (but i'm not biased or anything)

edit: just realized you wanted reasons. ok, number one, you get to wear your pyjamas to class and roll around on the floor a lot. number two, it keeps you in shape. number three, no multiple choice tests, and it teaches you abstract thinking (hence, you will do well on the verbal section of the mcat).
 
bio! i actually am a bio major b/c i really love the science. at least at my school, with a bio major and not something more specialized (i.e., molecular genetics, biochem, etc) you can really tailor your classes to see a wide variety of subjects or concentrate in one field you really like.
 
I agree w/ you, any natural science.

:D


crys20 said:
bio! i actually am a bio major b/c i really love the science. at least at my school, with a bio major and not something more specialized (i.e., molecular genetics, biochem, etc) you can really tailor your classes to see a wide variety of subjects or concentrate in one field you really like.
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I minored in English/creative writing but looking back, majoring in it would have been awesome.
 
The cool part about my major (biomedical engineering) was that we got to participate on a design team and work on a real life project every single year. For example, one year I helped develop an emergecy response system for a quadriplegic. It was pretty cool :)

If I could pick a different major though, I would have picked public health. I loved how the classes were very people oriented and how they focosed on applying knowedge, not just learning random facts. I also loved how you could tailor your classes towards your interests... like international health, or tropical diseases :love: , or toxicology, etc.
 
Economics or business
 
Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics

While I do not agree that it is fun, it's universal at our institution that this is one of the most interesting majors around. Unfortunately, being interesting in this case is also largely correlated with being difficult.

As far as the reasons go, it is very experimental in nature; students are expected to know the material obviously, but to be able to apply it in various situations is what is really being tested. Core courses are fascinating, and include Human Genetics, Microbiology, Virology, Immunology, Parasitology, Bacterial Pathogenesis, Advanced Molecular Genetics, and many others.
 
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i did interdisciplinary environmental science. it was so great because it gave me a survey of several sciences, but in an integrated way. it taught me to focus on systems and interrrelationships--very useful analytical skills for med school. earth and environmental scientists are the best people to hang out with--laid back and outdoorsy and into having fun. also, how great is FIELDWORK???
 
I would think anything that you are interested in or passionate about would make for the best and stimulating major for yourself! :thumbup:
 
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ENGLISH!! Literature's the best: it's the foundation of a liberal arts education, teaches you analytical thinking and problem solving (literary criticism), plus it's so cool to get in the heads of the greatest minds in the history of the world. Nothing turns me on more than reading and analyzing "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" or any other great literary text.
 
I think philosophy is a great major/minor. I mean you develope critical thinking skills and how to talk and argue with other individuals.
 
I think neuroscience has got to be the coolest major.
Unfortunately, not offered at my school.
I wish there were more majors that combined social sciences and hard sciences. I liked a lot of my psychology classes, but it would have been better if they had included more hard science in the couses and if they had talked more about organic causes of mental illness instead of all that Freudian weirdness. It also would have been cool to learn about pharmacology. But, it leaves me with something to look forward to in med school.
 
PineappleGirl said:
I think neuroscience has got to be the coolest major.
Unfortunately, not offered at my school.
I wish there were more majors that combined social sciences and hard sciences. I liked a lot of my psychology classes, but it would have been better if they had included more hard science in the couses and if they had talked more about organic causes of mental illness instead of all that Freudian weirdness. It also would have been cool to learn about pharmacology. But, it leaves me with something to look forward to in med school.
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yea if neuroscience was available at my school, which its not, i would have picked it as my major...
 
Ross434 said:
Considering you can do anything and go into med school, what are your views? perhaps list a few reasons?? I think engineering, because of cool research, problem solving, and, well, yeah.

Your opinions?
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Most Fun: Underwater Basket Weaving

Most Stimulating: Hot Oil Massage Therapy

Unfortunately these are not offered at all undergraduate institutions :(

Engineering is Ok but riding trains for a living is hard work
 
I like engineering, but my school basically killed all the fun of chemical engineering. I think most of my classes are rather dull.
 
PineappleGirl said:
I wish there were more majors that combined social sciences and hard sciences. I liked a lot of my psychology classes, but it would have been better if they had included more hard science in the couses and if they had talked more about organic causes of mental illness instead of all that Freudian weirdness. It also would have been cool to learn about pharmacology. But, it leaves me with something to look forward to in med school.
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I agree with you. I'm a psych minor and it seems like the professors just keep throwing out the same neural phrases (limbic system, HPA axis, frontostriatal cortex). Sometimes the explanations they give in lecture don't make scientific sense, so it's not until I probe them in their office hours that I can get them to give me a more scientific neurobiological etiology.
 
I majored in chemical engineering. It was NOT fun. +pissed+ :thumbdown: I spent more time studying than anyone I knew in any other major.

Still, I found a way to party sometimes. :hardy:

I'm just glad its over now so that I can go to med school. :laugh:
 
I enjoyed AMO Physics (atomic, molecular and optical). You learn lots of cool stuff and definitely have fun labs. The math gets interesting since for some reason we are only required to take math up through diff eq, but then we are expected to be able use material that isnt taught until matrix theory and theory of imaginary numbers.
 
Urban Planning. Only a few schools offer it as an undergraduate, but it is basically interdisciplinary theory paired with action; you get to apply the things that you learn immediately and often in the field. The great thing about it is that it incorporates political science, economics, law, design, organizing, health, technology, and is more of a field than a discipline.

Go ILLINI
 
I went to a liberal arts college and majored in Natural Sciences and Spanish. I ended up completing all of a bio degree, most of a chem degree, and also took several physics, math, social sciences, and humanities classes. Considering how specialized graduate school-level work is, my advice to those of you who are undergrads is to take as broad of a range of classes as you possibly can. You will be spending four years in med school studying science day in and day out, so enjoy those social science and humanities classes now, while you have the opportunity. If nothing else, taking non-science classes will help give you something to talk about when you go for interviews. ;)
 
javert said:
Neuroscience. It's a great interdisciplinary major that combines biology, chemistry and physics, so it allows you to explore various scientific intersts and see how seemingly disparate fields can be integrated into a single discipline.
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I took neuroscience....might be one of my favorite classes ever!! So interesting and we know so much, yet not really......neurology is something I will seriously consider in the future :)
 
Microbiology 4 show! Bacteria, protozoans, and viruses cause havoc throughout the medical community. Why not study these areas in depth so you don't make the mistake of overprescribing antibiotics like so many oldschool docs do?
 
Of course I'm biased.

We have all the science, plus clinical applications - immunology, hematology, microbiology, clinical chemisty, immunohematology etc.

In addition, it makes me money :D
 
I majored in Biochem and Microbio, w/ minor in Business Admin but I think the most fun I had was when I took a class in German, Dutch, and Scandanavian Studies (Oral Tradition is pretty cool) - though you're going to have a lot of prereq's to do. Otherwise, Biochem is pretty useful, its kinda boring but is the basis for a lot of the biological sciences.
 
philosophy, coupled with neuroscience
 
Anything from the following: Neuroscience, Film, Psychology, Nursing.
I think that Nursing is a good major. That way, if you don't get accepted into med school for the first time, you can go back to college while maintaing a good job. Its a good fallback career....at least I think so.... :D
 
Forensic Science! :thumbup:

(premed core curriculum already built in!)
 
The allied health degrees have a lower acceptance rate to medical school.

Also, difficult majors like engineering are simply not worth the effort if you just want to become a doctor. The GPA will be really hard to keep high. I'll put anything with high volumes of math in this category.

(Things are different if you want a second career, but if you are going straight through, you should avoid the above.)
 
How's Chem/Biochem/Psychology...?
 
I think "Brain and Cognitive Sciences" sounds very much interesting, but I'd probably pick an engineering major.
 
Definately has to be a double major in Anthropology and International studies. I can get the best of both worlds, travel, learn about new cultures and languages and be able to focus on the natural science aspect of both majors. You'd be suprised by how similar Anthro and IS are; not to mention, the courses are frelling awesome! What other majors let you travel all over the globe just to learn about indigenious people of Oceania and the economics of Scandinavian countries? :)
 
I am a bio major. I love biology. Prior to that, I was anthro. I still love that, too.

If I don't become a doctor, I'll become a biologist, or do my grad studies in phys anthro.

At UC Davis (where I'm transferring), the lower division requirements for biosciences are pretty much the same as the med prerequisites, so I'm pretty safe being a bio major, but even if I weren't going premed I would be a bio major anyway.
 
at UCLA we have a psychobiology major and it is the best!--basically it is exactly what it sounds like--a combination of psychology and biology, plus some neuroscience. so basically all the pre-reqs are the classes required for med school plus some lower division psychology courses and then the major classes are upper division sciences, psychology and neuroscience classes. by far the best and most interesting major ever! :)
 
i'm doing psych right now, and i'm a freshman. i must say it's interesting + fun + not as competitive as other majors.
 
This is me coming at it as a nontraditional-age person, because every 20 year old thinks they've found their calling for The Rest Of Their Life and that things are going to be Just Great after they get out of school. Then they either find out in their second year of school that they really want to join the circus. Or they get out of school and don't know what to do with themselves.

At that age you still have to ask yourself, who wants you to be a doctor? Yourself or your mom? You need to especially ask yourself this if you're going into some field that is really popular with parents: medicine, engineering, dentistry or law. Parents just somehow don't get as excited about us joining the circus, and really, speaking as a 31 year old, many 20 year olds (esp. if they're from the social group where their parents can afford to put 'em through med school) don't yet know the difference between what THEY want, and what MOM wants. I'd pay my own way through school if I had ten dollars for every ex-premed/ex-predental/ex-prelaw I've known, who was in the early-twenties age group.

The thing with the major... is it something you'd do/want to study if you DON'T end up becoming a doctor?

But let's say your passion is film. Sure, you can be a liberal arts major... but if you stop at a bachelor's (things like that happen), can you actually get a job? Do you have a backup plan in case you decide you can't stand body fluids?

And, it's easier to get a liberal arts or social sciences Master's or Ph.D. if your undergrad degree is science, than to do it in reverse: to backtrack and slog through four years of math and science that you didn't complete. I'm doing this, I had no idea I was going premed, and never took a single math class my entire college career. So yeah. Learn from the mistakes of people stupider than you.

Even if I ultimately end up in anthropology and not medicine, I'm in a better position launching from a biology degree than from an anthro degree.
Anthro = "do you want fries with that?"

Also - since changing my major to biology, I'm amazed how many scholarships are opening up. Sure, I could go to med school with my degree in art or anthro (two previous majors), too, but as a bio major, I have a better shot at actually paying for school. And yeah. At the school I'm transferring to (UC Davis), a general BA degree in Biological Sciences covers all the med prereq bases. But you also get to take nifty classes about plants (botany) and environment and stuff like that.
 
DoctorV09 said:
at UCLA we have a psychobiology major and it is the best!--basically it is exactly what it sounds like--a combination of psychology and biology, plus some neuroscience. so basically all the pre-reqs are the classes required for med school plus some lower division psychology courses and then the major classes are upper division sciences, psychology and neuroscience classes. by far the best and most interesting major ever! :)
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same at USC. I was in the psychobiology major.....it rocked. :cool:
 
thirdunity said:
This is me coming at it as a nontraditional-age person, because every 20 year old thinks they've found their calling for The Rest Of Their Life and that things are going to be Just Great after they get out of school. Then they either find out in their second year of school that they really want to join the circus. Or they get out of school and don't know what to do with themselves.

At that age you still have to ask yourself, who wants you to be a doctor? Yourself or your mom? You need to especially ask yourself this if you're going into some field that is really popular with parents: medicine, engineering, dentistry or law. Parents just somehow don't get as excited about us joining the circus, and really, speaking as a 31 year old, many 20 year olds (esp. if they're from the social group where their parents can afford to put 'em through med school) don't yet know the difference between what THEY want, and what MOM wants. I'd pay my own way through school if I had ten dollars for every ex-premed/ex-predental/ex-prelaw I've known, who was in the early-twenties age group.

The thing with the major... is it something you'd do/want to study if you DON'T end up becoming a doctor?

But let's say your passion is film. Sure, you can be a liberal arts major... but if you stop at a bachelor's (things like that happen), can you actually get a job? Do you have a backup plan in case you decide you can't stand body fluids?

And, it's easier to get a liberal arts or social sciences Master's or Ph.D. if your undergrad degree is science, than to do it in reverse: to backtrack and slog through four years of math and science that you didn't complete. I'm doing this, I had no idea I was going premed, and never took a single math class my entire college career. So yeah. Learn from the mistakes of people stupider than you.

Even if I ultimately end up in anthropology and not medicine, I'm in a better position launching from a biology degree than from an anthro degree.
Anthro = "do you want fries with that?"

Also - since changing my major to biology, I'm amazed how many scholarships are opening up. Sure, I could go to med school with my degree in art or anthro (two previous majors), too, but as a bio major, I have a better shot at actually paying for school. And yeah. At the school I'm transferring to (UC Davis), a general BA degree in Biological Sciences covers all the med prereq bases. But you also get to take nifty classes about plants (botany) and environment and stuff like that.
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I think you should study something you are interested in and something that can pay the bills in the future. Perhaps that means double major or dual degree, or a minor in one subject or whatever. I don't think a career should be the deciding factor in your studies; there will be a career in whatever field you chose to go into. I am a philosophy major, and obviously there are few job opportunities with such a degree in the non-academic world. However, I would chose this major again over any other because I was so interested in it. I know you may think "Oh, well he's already IN, of course he can say that" but i decided that philosophy was where my true interest lied, and that I will have plenty of time to do science the rest of my life. Oh, and I come from a very poor immigrant family (1st to go to college) so I am not one of the rich kids you mentioned. Anyhow, I really feel people should major in something they enjoy.
 
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