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Maybe totally wrong here in case there is some favor for humanities majors. I don't think med schools care about your major, but I would argue non-hard science majors are much more well rounded as individual applicants.

EDIT: Oh, and don't count yourself out of schools like Hopkins. You never know, you might end up as a great applicant. I've read about other students believing they had no chance and were advised, said why not and managed to land spot. Just be realistic with yourself if it's worth the extra money to make an attempt to you.
 
Amino Base said:

Maybe totally wrong here in case there is some favor for humanities majors. I don't think med schools care about your major, but I would argue non-hard science majors are much more well rounded as individual applicants.

EDIT: Oh, and don't count yourself out of schools like Hopkins. You never know, you might end up as a great applicant. I've read about other students believing they had no chance and were advised, said why not and managed to land spot. Just be realistic with yourself if it's worth the extra money to make an attempt to you.
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Thanks for the helpful link and the support! Very good point in terms of major -- I don't think it's the major itself but the ECs + LoRs + awards that came with it hopefully standing out
 
smearguardhighlighter said:
I know stats + other factors to determine fit are always important, but my advisor suggested Hopkins as one (lol as if I have a chance there but) apparently certain schools like Brown take a lot of liberal arts majors, w/ humanities-med tracks, etc. Just wondering if there are any others with that reputation or if it's a stretch to base school prefs on majors
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Also, totally don't go by Brown, because they take a disproportionate percent of their class from their BA/MD program, where everyone is a liberal arts major. In general, people who apply to med school tend to be science majors, and they tend to do better in the prereqs than liberal arts folks, but, no, schools love liberal arts folks who have an aptitude for the sciences since they add diversity to the class.
 
KnightDoc said:
Also, totally don't go by Brown, because they take a disproportionate percent of their class from their BA/MD program, where everyone is a liberal arts major. In general, people who apply to med school tend to be science majors, and they tend to do better in the prereqs than liberal arts folks, but, no, schools love liberal arts folks who have an aptitude for the sciences since they add diversity to the class.
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BA/Liberal arts =/= humanities major.

Princeton, for instance, has historically graduated students with a BA in chemistry. Schools like Smith, Williams and Grinnell only offer BA degrees and don't have much trouble placing students within graduate schools in the sciences or medical school.

Liberal arts and BA vs BS are about your core/general education requirements, not about your major. Additionally, the natural sciences, as well as mathematics, are core areas of the liberal arts- both historically and currently.

I'd be very interested to see support for "liberal arts folks don't do as well in pre-requisites". It's certainly not something I've seen in my classes.
 
smearguardhighlighter said:
I know stats + other factors to determine fit are always important, but my advisor suggested Hopkins as one (lol as if I have a chance there but) apparently certain schools like Brown take a lot of liberal arts majors, w/ humanities-med tracks, etc. Just wondering if there are any others with that reputation or if it's a stretch to base school prefs on majors
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Med schools don't care about your major, only that you do well.
 
eigen said:
BA/Liberal arts =/= humanities major.

Princeton, for instance, has historically graduated students with a BA in chemistry. Schools like Smith, Williams and Grinnell only offer BA degrees and don't have much trouble placing students within graduate schools in the sciences or medical school.

Liberal arts and BA vs BS are about your core/general education requirements, not about your major. Additionally, the natural sciences, as well as mathematics, are core areas of the liberal arts- both historically and currently.

I'd be very interested to see support for "liberal arts folks don't do as well in pre-requisites". It's certainly not something I've seen in my classes.
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Excellent points about the differences between BA and BS, Perhaps I overstated the case, but, the Brown program does allow for degrees in the humanities, social sciences or behavioral sciences, in addition to the hardcore traditional sciences that most combined programs require. In addition, Brown takes like half of its class from this program, so it is an outlier in terms of percentage of class coming from majors other than hard sciences.

I don't have a study to support the notion that liberal arts folks don't do as well in pre-requisites. Of course, those that make it to applying perform comparably. But, anecdotally, are you saying that your classes are equally split between science and non-science majors, and that both groups perform comparably?

In my experience, liberal arts majors tend to take as few, and as easy, hard science classes as they can, and they don't seem to have the same aptitude or interest in them. Maybe that's why they're liberal arts majors? Those that apply to med school are usually the exception to the rule, both in terms of performance and raw numbers. Maybe that's why they add diversity when they do show up!
 
Major in what you like; then you're more likely to get good grades which is of upmost importance tied w/your MCAT score
 
KnightDoc said:
In my experience, liberal arts majors tend to take as few, and as easy, hard science classes as they can, and they don't seem to have the same aptitude or interest in them. Maybe that's why they're liberal arts majors? Those that apply to med school are usually the exception to the rule, both in terms of performance and raw numbers. Maybe that's why they add diversity when they do show up!
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Again, you seem to be confused on what a "liberal arts" major is. Chemistry can be a "liberal arts" major, as can physics and math. I think you perhaps mean "humanities" major here?

My experience has been that in my intro classes, there isn't a significant difference in performance by major. STEM majors are split across the gradebook, as are humanities, arts, and social science majors.

In upper level STEM courses, my experience has been that the average performance of non-STEM majors is higher than STEM majors. This is largely selection bias: there are many people across the ability and interest spectrum that major in STEM fields. The non-STEM majors who are choosing to take upper level science classes as electives are usually above average in both interest and ability- they are choosing to take the courses, and usually have a reason they want to do well.

As for the general split: people take courses they're interested in and they feel will contribute to their education. I don't see many math majors taking my upper level OChem or Biochem courses, but I don't see many of my biochem majors taking upper level math electives either. Same is true with, say, sculpture classes. I get fewer studio arts majors in my chemistry classes than chemistry majors, but there are also a lot fewer chemistry majors that take studio arts classes.

My perception has been that, if students have taken the same pre-requisite courses, there is no significant difference in performance by major (i.e., when you control for preparation). That said, average performance (like averages in med school acceptances) are a different matter- there are a lot more students who major in biology and don't take their classes or their applications seriously.
 
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