ADVICE

[sgwu]

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I am a premed student at a fairly prestigous university. I am a Computer Science major and I am also minoring in Biology. I would like to know what my chances are of getting into med. school. My GPA is low (3.3), I am a second semester junior but I did manage to get a 3.7 last semester. Although I am not trying to pick on any other major Computer Science is a little harder than Bio. or Chem. etc. At least that's what I think, the courses are rigourous and that is why my GPA is low. The mean GPA for our curriculum is about a 1.8.

I want to know if Med. Schools take into consideration a harder or different major as opposed to your traditional Bio. majors. Also what are my chances of getting in and what type of MCAT scores would I need.

I do not want to go anywhere fancy. I would basically attend any Medical school as long as I receive my MD after 4 years.

I would appreciate the advice.

[email protected]

 

[fishtolive]

First, careful about saying compsci is harder than "traditional" majors. At my college it is just not so.
That said, what I was told by a former admissions officer is that non-traditional majors experience some grade inflation when their apps are looked at. This is not because they are in harder majors, but beacuase they have done the whole premed thing as sort of a side job and still managed to get decent MCAT scores (which I'm assuming you will). That's the plus side.
The down side, or so I heard from a friend that is in med school but was a history major, is that you simply won't have the background traditional majors have. The core courses of gen bio, chem, phys, orgo do not give you enough of a foothold in med school. Again, this is what he told me, not my opinion. By the way, he's doing great, so who really cares. I'm just saying that you miss out on some courses like biochem, histo, molec bio, orgo spec, comparative anaatomy, p. chem, etc.
sdm

 

[sgwu]

But would it still be possible to get into Med. School without taking these other courses such as Histo. etc. I mean I do have some upper level Bio. courses.