bio majors - regrets?

[internet]

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I studied bio in college because, like many others, it covers all the med school reqs. but unless you want to get a Phd in the basic sciences, I'm not sure if it's the right track. after basic bio and genetics, the major gets pretty topical and repetitive, and personally I wish I had done something like psychology or evolutionary bio, subjects I find more interesting and maybe more useful for med school. who's with me

 

[Haybrant]

I studied bio in college because, like many others, it covers all the med school reqs. but unless you want to get a Phd in the basic sciences, I'm not sure if it's the right track. after basic bio and genetics, the major gets pretty topical and repetitive, and personally I wish I had done something like psychology or evolutionary bio, subjects I find more interesting and maybe more useful for med school. who's with me

if i had the time I could go on about how much i felt like being a bio major was a waste (in a post a few months ago i did), esp. the upper div classes. I like science and all but it didnt develop my brain as I wished it had; If i could do it over again I would double major in chem and english

 

[myodana]

bio was fun... but i don't think i would have been happy if i hadn't been a double major (i doubled in dance and bio with a minor in chem). it's also not a very tough major to complete... you take classes, you study, you do labs, you take tests. not too bad. it seems like the people who did ecology were really happy... there are so many different routes you can explore depending on what your school offers...

 

[MoosePilot]

I loved my Zoology major. It didn't get repetitive. There's a big difference between say P-Chem, Biochem, Physiology, and Limnology. Great stuff!

 

[tacrum43]

I selected Biology as my major because I thought that's what all pre-meds had to do. I liked science and I knew I wanted to go to medical school, so I just checked the box. I later switched to Microbiology because I thought it was much better to come out of lab with purple fingers (now very fashionable in D.C. I hear 😉 ) from gram staining, than smelling like the dead shark I had to dissect in Animal Biology (never fashionable).

In retrospect, I would have picked philosophy, not because they have the best entrance rate to medical school, but because the one philosophy class I took in college was easily the best class I've had; it changed my life (no kidding).

I'd aslo like to give a shout out to my fellow August MCATers who are still waiting for some good news, keep the faith alive!

 

[sKorpia]

No . . . but then again, I was a World Lit/General Bio double major. And I always considered myself a Lit major first. What I do regret about my bio major is not taking more lab classes or having the financial ability to take a fifth year so I could get some research done with professors in both the bio and lit departments.

 

[sunny123]

Yes, another person regretting the whole bio experience (profs were not great, didn't get the marks I wanted, gpa suffered). I should have gone into Kinesiology (as it would've been more related to the discipline of medicine, but kine students were looked down upon and I had to be in the bio program with all the other smartypants 🙄 ). Anyways, right now my focus in the bio degree has turned towards an evolutionary (systematics and phylogeny analysis) and animal adaptations (herpetology and icthyology) perspective.

My real choice would have been mathematics (which I will never get tired of) or english (essays are really my kinda thing).

Anyhoo, just my two cents. Stay 😎

 

[funshine]

I studied bio in college because, like many others, it covers all the med school reqs. but unless you want to get a Phd in the basic sciences, I'm not sure if it's the right track. after basic bio and genetics, the major gets pretty topical and repetitive, and personally I wish I had done something like psychology or evolutionary bio, subjects I find more interesting and maybe more useful for med school. who's with me

oh yes, i definitely regret it! The funny thing is, I decided to major in bio NOT because I was pre-med, but because I was anti-medicine and wanted to go into research. (If I had been pre-med, I would've majored in something I genuinely liked but was not considering a career in, like slavic lit 👍 )Once I started working in a lab however, I realized I was even more anti-research than medicine, so I'm back on the pre-med track.

Now that is a story ADCOMs will never hear 😉

 

[gbiz]

Research is depressing...

Im doing Chem actually, and if I redid things I would choose a different major. Not because I dont like chemistry, but rather other majors are easier. Ive had to do research and now Im doing a thesis and presentation (well honors too, if I wasnt honors, no presentation and not thesis, just writeup), whereas the bio majors at our school dont even need research!

Research is depressing!

 

[Agent Splat]

Sometimes I wish I had stuck with photography as my major when I decided to pursue medical school, but I knew that with my poor science background, I was better off immersing myself in all the science classes I could to get the most out of the prereqs. In retrospect, I don't think I personally would have had time to do a lot of developing in the darkroom and study for the hard science classes. I still miss doing it, but overall I'm happy with my decision. I made some great friends in biology/premed classes.

 

[bigbassinbob]

I really wish I had not majored in Bio. I just thought I had to do it when I entered college because that's what all pre-meds did. It was a lot of fun and pretty interesting, but it didn't set me apart enough from other premeds. There were some other subjects that I was very interested in that I couldn't take classes in because of lack of time. If I could do it all over again, I would have picked Chemistry, Biochem, or Physics as a major.

 

[shantster]

For me, I chose Bio as a major because it was something I'm interested in rather than it was something that I felt I needed to do. I almost double majored in Chem for that reason but I have learned that I really am not a chemistry person. I'm going to get my minor in Chem after this year and am still planning on taking Biochem next year but in the extra time I'm doing a minor in Psych, since I am also really interested in it. For a major, it just depends on what you are interested in.