Business Major with premed

[tijames]

What are the pros/cons of majoring in business but still take the premed reqs?

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[rainymonday]

What are the pros/cons of majoring in business but still take the premed reqs?

Personally didn't have any cons by majoring in business. I majored in Accounting and ended up walking as magna cum laude with bio minor. I choose Accounting because I did not like biology enough to major in it- whereas I was facinated by the workings of big corporations and numbers. In a way, I didn't want to finish college wishing that I had study something that really interested me- no regrets!

But before I get on a soapbox here are some

pros:
1. Scholarship (my school's business college was loaded and paid for my entire undergraudate degree)
2. To study something I wanted to learn
3. Options (always have a plan B)
4. for some reason, people found this facinating on interviews (med school, residency etc)

cons:
1. schedules (have to start planning early so that you can sign up for some classes that get offered once a year or to avoid scheduling conflicts in upper divisions- ie. Ochem, physics, any business 400's)
2. MCAT scheduling -may need to take some time off or lighten up class loads or even consider taking 1 year off between undergrad and med (which is what I ended up doing).
3. heavy class loads (also did 3 years of summer classes).
4. difficulty getting a good mentor (no one really understands.)
5. isolation- as a business major, didn't get to interact with other pre-meds as much.
6. MS1 courses. Taking Histo really really sucked. (never had anything like it before)

Only thing I regret (if any) was not taking more "fun" classes that caught my interest while in college. Good luck with choosing your major!

~ MS4 with a business degree.

 

[thegymbum]

I'd say to definitely stick with whatever you'd prefer to have in the future as something to fall back on if medical school didn't work.. in other words, go for the business degree. The only fall backs would be potentially having to take the extra courses, although usually you'll have some elective room anyway, and have to take some science courses for any major- so you'd probably be alright in that sense. Also there's always the fact that taking more science courses will familiarize you with mcat material more, so you might have a little bit of a downside there. Definitely do what you like, though.. don't major in something like chemistry just because you think it'd look better for medical school.. if you don't like it, you don't want to be spending a bunch of time on it for your undergrad, or perhaps end up not going to med school and end up spending the rest of your life in a chem lab Best of luck.. and I say go for the business degree!

 

[Lee580]

The only drawback I faced was scheduling. You might need to put in a couple of summers.

Overall, B-school is a good experience

 

[politik]

I got my first bachelors in finance and worked in i banking for 3 years as an intern throughout college. Then instead of doing a postbac program I am getting a 2nd bachelors in science, b/c they transferred most of the classes for me from first undergrad adn getting a 2nd bachelors for me will take the same amount of time as doing a postbac. And I am still 22 years old. The biggest pro that I found in having a finace degree and those internships is that noone can doubt my desire to become a doctor. I've heard a lot of kids getting grilled on the interviews "why medicine: parents' influence, money, etc.", and they can't really doubt that with a business major because we could be working in i-banking right now making a s^%t load of money. Another big plus is that in order to get those internships I had to go through a lot of interviewing in the real world and I think that it is a great prep for med school interviews.
Major in anything you like and remember a different major and work experience on your part will only bring diversity into their medical class and med schools love diversity.
However, there is one con (but that's my personal experience). I finished first undergrad by 20, took a lot of classes and worked about 30 hours a week. I really regret rushing through it. I saw several threads last week where SDNers are thinking of graduating early. Enjoy your time while you're in school. In my opinion these are the best years of our life. We're students, no real responsibilities, most of us don't have families yet, so just enjoy it.

Btw, Happy New Year everyone!!!!!

 

[deuist]

5. isolation- as a business major, didn't get to interact with other pre-meds as much.

I call that a pro. I wanted to get away from all of the gunners in my pre-med classes. I can hand on one hand the number of pre-meds who didn't shout out their GPA within the first ten minutes of meeting them.

 

[deuist]

Major in whatever you want to. Your business degree will also give you uniqueness and make you better equipped for a future in private practice or even hospital administration. Yeah, MS-1 might be a little more difficult for you, but I think that you can manage.