Best major for pre-med, Biochem, Biology, geology?

[SJ_D122]

I know a lot about biology as a pre-med major, but can someone tell me about biochemistry and geology? How difficult are these majors and how useful are they in a application?

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[Lucca]

It doesn't matter what you major in. Major in what you enjoy and are good at

 

[Sardinia]

It doesn't matter what you major in. Major in what you enjoy and are good at

The sad thing is that you don't really get to specialize in your area of interest as much as you would like in college. Most students begin getting into their area of specialty their junior year and some of the electives are a joke or the courses are just joint-"master level/PhD" courses. The popularity of the Master's program detracts from improving the standards of the current Bachelor's program. If kids are schilling out to get a six year degree, then why the hell would you streamline a four year program to be more aggressive with getting Gen. Bio, Chemistry, and Physics out of the way in lieu of a more holistic medical technology/physiology/pharmacology course for pre-meds that would be much more applicable to their interest and likely be information retained in the future.

I majored in biotechnology which is a subset of biochemistry and even then I never had the chance to take bioinformatics. Do you know how surreal that is? First of all, it wasn't a pre-requirement course for the major and second it was listed on syllabi as being a fourth year second semester course if you were going to take it. Literally occupying the last quadrant of an academic career. Learning how to program and do bioinformatics is so integral to the field of biotechnology that it made me jaded about universities really teaching anything relevant to the degrees they give out to students.

 

[Lucca]

The sad thing is that you don't really get to specialize in your area of interest as much as you would like in college. Most students begin getting into their area of specialty their junior year and some of the electives are a joke or the courses are just joint-"master level/PhD" courses. The popularity of the Master's program detracts from improving the standards of the current Bachelor's program. If kids are schilling out to get a six year degree, then why the hell would you streamline a four year program to be more aggressive with getting Gen. Bio, Chemistry, and Physics out of the way in lieu of a more holistic medical technology/physiology/pharmacology course for pre-meds that would be much more applicable to their interest and likely be information retained in the future.

I majored in biotechnology which is a subset of biochemistry and even then I never had the chance to take bioinformatics. Do you know how surreal that is? First of all, it wasn't a pre-requirement course for the major and second it was listed on syllabi as being a fourth year second semester course if you were going to take it. Literally occupying the last quadrant of an academic career. Learning how to program and do bioinformatics is so integral to the field of biotechnology that it made me jaded about universities really teaching anything relevant to the degrees they give out to students.

Both of my degrees were fairly liberal in their requirements. In biochemistry only two classes were explicitly necessary and the rest of the biochemistry courses in the degree could be tailored to what you wanted to do. I took bioinformatics, synthetic biology, and some structural biology/chemical physics classes. It depends on the institution. The engineering degrees here are definitely the most rigid but they also have the most requirements.

 

[lyana]

I might be biased, but I loved my Biology major mostly because I could take tons of diverse biology electives. Otherwise it is a pretty useless major if you decide not to pursue graduate education.

 

[Lucca]

I might be biased, but I loved my Biology major mostly because I could take tons of diverse biology electives. Otherwise it is a pretty useless major if you decide not to pursue graduate education.

Unless you decide to teach high school biology or something. But ya, without further professional training in IT, programming, or statistics or something there is little else to do it seems.

I would've been fairly happy teaching high school physics I think. Don't know if I could've done it for my whole life though

 

[lyana]

I would not be able to handle high school kids... no no no way.
Teaching at community college/ university is much more appealing, which in turn requires Masters or PhD of course.

IT/ programming or engineering majors are the best degrees out there ( my humble opinion)

 

[celling]

First, choosing Bichem vs Biology vs Zoology isn't going to change your admission to med school. Admissions sees hundreds of these applicants per year and they all seem to blend together. If you want to stand out, have a different major. Examples would be Engineering, Business, Russian literature, etc. None of these will help you once you get into med school, but they will let you stand out.

What I would suggest taking to help in Med school and beyond (things that most pre-meds don't understand). Take a couple of statistics, business, and law courses. All are important once you are done with training.

 

[Turkishking]

I know a lot about biology as a pre-med major, but can someone tell me about biochemistry and geology? How difficult are these majors and how useful are they in a application?

rocks for jocks?