Can being an exercise science major work to my advantage?

[411309]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Ive been spoon fed ideas about dieting/working out all my life and one of the biggest problems our country faces is obesity. And I saw that many primary care doctors (which is what im interested in) are having trouble dealing with that, but ive been in a gym setting for several years. Does the idea of combining physical fitness and dieting in medicine appeal to DO schools? Im just curious what some people think on here.

 

[HotandCold]

Ive been spoon fed ideas about dieting/working out all my life and one of the biggest problems our country faces is obesity. And I saw that many primary care doctors (which is what im interested in) are having trouble dealing with that, but ive been in a gym setting for several years. Does the idea of combining physical fitness and dieting in medicine appeal to DO schools? Im just curious what some people think on here.

I think it does. I got a BS in Nutrition and Food science congruently with my BS and Biology, and then didn't finish my BS in biology. I used it as a selling point, and I think it appeals to the idea of preventative medicine. That's what we need now, the preventing of chronic diseases.

Of course, your major's content and courses influence how schools will view it. Mine was pretty science heavy. Taking courses (even if they're not your major) like Nutrition and Disease with tough professors makes you stand out😎

So yes, at a glance, it's good.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

It won't be a disadvantage. If you think it will set you apart though.....on my DMU interview there were 15 people. I'd say 6 of them were exercise science majors.

 

[Oo Cipher oO]

Ive been spoon fed ideas about dieting/working out all my life and one of the biggest problems our country faces is obesity. And I saw that many primary care doctors (which is what im interested in) are having trouble dealing with that, but ive been in a gym setting for several years. Does the idea of combining physical fitness and dieting in medicine appeal to DO schools? Im just curious what some people think on here.

I'm an excercise and sport science major and I'll be attending a DO school in the fall. ESS is a fine major but honestly undergrad degree doesn't matter. Now if you use your degree to volunteer at a hospital or senior center giving exercise classes (or something like that) this is an EC that medical schools might care about. Focus more on the EC's and less on the specific major.

Another thing I just want to bring to your attention is that ESS classes will count towards your sGPA for DO schools but it will not count towards sGPA for MD schools. For me this ended up putting me at a significat disadvantage for MD schools (3.4 vs 3.74 for DO). Your science prerecs will become much for important as a result.

 

[TriagePreMed]

They will love you as you are more likely to do family medicine since sports medicine is a fellowship of it.


Sent from my SCH-R910 using Tapatalk

 

[sylvanthus]

I think its been stated a couple hundred times already, but schools do not care what your major is. Do what you enjoy, don't do it because you think it will give you an edge in admissions.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

It'll be helpful, though I think the better marketing point is the usually highly grade inflated life science classes that count for BCPM or SciGpa, which = a chiller atmosphere and more time for ECs and Mcat studying. Not to mention since they are required to take work out classes they generally are all in better shape than most a lot of other premeds.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

They will love you as you are more likely to do family medicine since sports medicine is a fellowship of it.


Sent from my SCH-R910 using Tapatalk

or Orthopedic surgery....

 

[ManBroDude]

Am I the only one who thinks that the difficulty of sports science/kinesiology degrees is less favored by adcoms compared to "hard" sciences like chemistry or biology?

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Am I the only one who thinks that the difficulty of sports science/kinesiology degrees is less favored by adcoms compared to "hard" sciences like chemistry or biology?

They probably do realize it, but statistically they don't really seem to care about major as much as they care about other things.

 

[411309]

I'm an excercise and sport science major and I'll be attending a DO school in the fall. ESS is a fine major but honestly undergrad degree doesn't matter. Now if you use your degree to volunteer at a hospital or senior center giving exercise classes (or something like that) this is an EC that medical schools might care about. Focus more on the EC's and less on the specific major.

Another thing I just want to bring to your attention is that ESS classes will count towards your sGPA for DO schools but it will not count towards sGPA for MD schools. For me this ended up putting me at a significat disadvantage for MD schools (3.4 vs 3.74 for DO). Your science prerecs will become much for important as a result.

is there a line between exercise science classes that do/dont count for your science gpa for DO? Because looking at the DO sheet it looks like a lot of them wouldnt count- like exercise testing for special populations..which was basically just reading ekgs. Or measurement and evaluation.


Thanks for the opinons guys. Interesting to see some different views. I guess there are a ton of exercise science majors these days though.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Eh many EES classes will count for BCPM, such as A&P, exercise physiology, neural basis of motion, muscle and motor control, etc.. It's really about the course content.

 

[Oo Cipher oO]

is there a line between exercise science classes that do/dont count for your science gpa for DO? Because looking at the DO sheet it looks like a lot of them wouldnt count- like exercise testing for special populations..which was basically just reading ekgs. Or measurement and evaluation.


Thanks for the opinons guys. Interesting to see some different views. I guess there are a ton of exercise science majors these days though.

Most of my ESS classes, if not all, fit into the "other science" category. I never had to take anything like the exercise testing class you described. At my school we are allowed to emphasize within the ESS degree like pedagogy, athletic training, etc. I emphasized in exercise physiology so most of my classes were very science oriented.

 

[411309]

One thing im curious about, theres a major class worth six credit hours thats simply called "internship" where I got to do basically a work study in the exercise field for 300 hours. should I include that?

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Goro]

It's the type of thing we comment on favorably when the AdCom meets. So yes, if you can still meet all the basic pre-reqs.

Ive been spoon fed ideas about dieting/working out all my life and one of the biggest problems our country faces is obesity. And I saw that many primary care doctors (which is what im interested in) are having trouble dealing with that, but ive been in a gym setting for several years. Does the idea of combining physical fitness and dieting in medicine appeal to DO schools? Im just curious what some people think on here.