Dorise04 said:
HI guys 🙂
My name is dorise and I am 20 years old. I live minneapolis, I will be starting a comm.college in may. I was wondering since I have made a choice to go to become a doctor. Always wanted to go for it but I didn't think I could. I have 2 year old son and I am a single parent. I will be taking math classes, chemisty and biology so I can transfer to MSU for the BS in biology. I was wondering if biology was a good major for medical school? I love biology in high school and I got good grades. I was wondering if any one took that major or what major did you take in undergrad school. oh and give me some advice on undergrad school..study tips, do and don't...etc
Thanks guys
Happy Hoildays 🙂
Hi Dorise,
You can major in anything as long as you take the core pre-med courses (General Biology with lab, General Chemistry with lab, Organic Chemistry with lab and General Physics with lab). If you are interested in Biology, by all means major in it and do well. There are no "bad" majors for medical school, just students who do poorly and end up not getting accepted.
Keys to doing well in Biology (or any thing for that matter): Always come to class prepared. This means keeping up with your reading and studying on a daily basis. Pre-read the material that will be lectured and link it with the previous lecture. When you receive your syllabus, make a schedule for reading and reviewing each day. Review the previous weeks material on the weekend so that you don't have to attempt to cram for the exam. Treat each day as if the exam was going to be the next day. Don't get behind and don't listen to your classmates who brag about never having to study. Study daily and study smart. In the end, you will have the good grades to show for it.
The best source for questions about lecture is the professor. Utilize office hours on a regular basis. Go to the office even if you think you totally understand the material for a check. Many professors give key clues to the most important material during office hours. Don't waste the professor's time so have some good questions or material to be clarified before you go.
General Chemistry and General Physics require that you be able to use your college-level math to work through problems. If your math is shaky, get it up to speed before you take these courses. You need to be able to manipulate the math in order to understand concepts presented in these classes and on the MCAT(Medical College Admissions Test).
Take a course in critical reading and analysis. This will help you later with the Verbal Reasoning portion of the MCAT. Good readers are generally good writers so take some writing courses that can help you read and evaluate college level materials. Turn off the TV set. Television watching should only be done as pure recreation and not on a daily basis unless it's the CNN while you are getting ready for school.
Learn to be a good standardized test taker. You can't use the excuse that you are not good at standardized tests because as a physician, you will be taking tests for the rest of your life. Good standardized test-taking skills can be learned so look for these types of courses at your school. They can usually be found in the counseling department along with note-taking courses and critical reading courses. These are usually free so take advantage of them.
Do not listen to other students in any of your classes. If you run your own race, you can be very successful. Believe in yourself and the gifts that God has given you and you can succeed. Spend time with positive people who can encourage you in your quest for medical school. "Pre-med syndrome" is an affliction of insecure post-high school students who believe that they can bolster their chances and egos at the expense of yours. Don't buy into their head games. The knowledge out there is to be learned and it doesn't care about your race or anything else. Learn to love learning for the sake of mastery. Master your coursework and find what works for you. If it isn't working, try something else but take immediate action as soon as things are not clicking for you. Often a small adjustment can make all of the difference in the world so study daily and review often.
When MCAT time rolls around, plan on taking that test just once and doing well. If you have prepared well, you will do well. Take plenty of practice tests and make sure you have done at least a couple of full-length tests under test-taking conditions so that you know what to expect. Get some of the retired exams so that you know how the questions are written and practice with these.
I was an Analytical Chemistry major with a minor in math. I loved both Chemistry and math and did well in both because I loved them. If I were starting college today and knew for sure that I wanted to go to medical school, I would major in American Studies with a Spanish minor and take my pre-med courses. American Studies is far more applicable to what I do today in medicine then my Mass Spectrometry and Higher Algebra coursework.
😉
Good luck and welcome to the group!
njbmd
🙂
