Computer Science Major or Neuroscience? Pre Med

[ShadowIo]

Hi, I wanted to get some advice on which major I should pursue when I enter uni.

I'm going to be entering university this fall, and I'm confused on what major I should do.
The thing is, I really enjoy Computer Science and I've looked over the syllabus. This doesn't change how my long term goal is still to go to medical or dental school.

I'm just worried on if it's the wisest option. I'm not really thinking of using Computer Science as a "backup" to medical school, since the skills and time investment required for excellency in Computer Science is vastly different from that of medicine. I'm just thinking of doing it out of enjoyment and due to the skills it could teach me.

On the other hand, there is Neuroscience. The thing is, I don't know much about the field despite my research and I'm not sure how much I would enjoy it. I do believe that computer science may be helpful in Neuroscience based research but I may be incorrect.

Finally, I did consider potentially pursuing one of them as a minor, but to be honest, I'm not entirely sure if I want to add another minor since I'm considering doing a minor in business too. If I did minor though, I don't know whether I would choose Computer Science or Neuroscience.

Do you guys have any advice?


Edit: 4 years later

I ended up doing premed + cs for two years. Performed extremely well with a perfect gpa, research, volunteering, etc.
But the most I did in CS was perform excellently in the classes, and intertwine some of it in medicine.
I realized I loved CS more, so took the hard move and dropped medicine for a bit after doing my last pre req in my second year.

Maybe one day I'll come back to Medicine super old? But honestly, I absolutely love what I'm doing in Computer Science at the moment

I appreciate everyone's advice here, gave me the confidence to attempt doing both Computer Science and Pre med

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[deleted1037524]

Hi there! There's definitely a ton of relevance for computer science in medicine and neuroscience. Programming skills are invaluable and highly sought after. Example areas of research (just a few examples of many) include AI in medicine (lot of Python), biostats (Python, R, Stata, SQL), and computational neuroscience (Matlab, Python, R, some others).

It is (in my own experience) more straightforward to catch up on the neuro background than CS background for the latter. Feel free to PM me about research areas in computational medicine.

Choose whichever major is more interesting for you. Neuroscience might be easier to overlap with premed reqs. The most important thing is to do well. You could take intro courses in both to get a feel for them.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

If you’re sure about wanting to go to med school then do neuroscience.

CS will be harder to get a high gpa but offers better career prospects if you change your mind

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

If you’re sure about wanting to go to med school then do neuroscience.

CS will be harder to get a high gpa but offers better career prospects if you change your mind

Depends on the school. my N=1 is CS with 3.98/523.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Depends on the school. my N=1 is CS with 3.98/523.

I’m not saying it’s impossible…there will always be some students with a natural ability and or interest that makes it easier to work hard.

i think the median grades for cs courses at my school were at least 1-2 sdev lower than the median for most premed courses.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Programming is very helpful for any type of research as well

 

[CherryRedDracul]

You enjoy CS, so do CS.

Knowing CS can be high-yield for research.

 

[ShadowIo]

Hi there! There's definitely a ton of relevance for computer science in medicine and neuroscience. Programming skills are invaluable and highly sought after. Example areas of research (just a few examples of many) include AI in medicine (lot of Python), biostats (Python, R, Stata, SQL), and computational neuroscience (Matlab, Python, R, some others).

It is (in my own experience) more straightforward to catch up on the neuro background than CS background for the latter. Feel free to PM me about research areas in computational medicine.

Choose whichever major is more interesting for you. Neuroscience might be easier to overlap with premed reqs. The most important thing is to do well. You could take intro courses in both to get a feel for them.

Ah I see. Yeah I did some research into CS applications into med and those areas look interesting.
I organized my next years in university (of course it is subject to change), where I finish my pre med pre and CS pre-requisites by second semester of my sophomore year, Currently, for my first semester, I am doing Discrete Math and some chemistry/bio courses I need to get out of the way. Then next semester I will do a programming course and organic chemistry.

I'm hoping I can get a feel for if I love CS enough with this course load in my first year.

The main thing is that I enjoy it and I can do well. I've been feeling disheartened since many people told me that doing CS might destroy my GPA, which could ruin my chances for med school, but I'm glad to see this advice. Thank you!

 

[ShadowIo]

I’m not saying it’s impossible…there will always be some students with a natural ability and or interest that makes it easier to work hard.

i think the median grades for cs courses at my school were at least 1-2 sdev lower than the median for most premed courses.

Hmm I see. I think I can put in the hard work, and I'm pretty motivated, but I guess I'll know when University actually starts next week.

The way I've organized it is that if I have an extremely difficult pre med course, I kind of have one of the easier CS pre reqs.
So for example discrete math is a very difficult discrete math course, but I'm taking it with english, gen chem 1, and bio lab, and I know all the content for the latter 2.

Then when I take orgo, I've lightened the CS courseload (1 programming class) for example. I hope this can allow me to focus on each when difficult classes come, but it might be harder to schedule like this next year.

I'm also trying to take 1 hard course over the summer, for example orgo 2 this summer by itself.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Ah I see. Yeah I did some research into CS applications into med and those areas look interesting.
I organized my next years in university (of course it is subject to change), where I finish my pre med pre and CS pre-requisites by second semester of my sophomore year, Currently, for my first semester, I am doing Discrete Math and some chemistry/bio courses I need to get out of the way. Then next semester I will do a programming course and organic chemistry.

I'm hoping I can get a feel for if I love CS enough with this course load in my first year.

The main thing is that I enjoy it and I can do well. I've been feeling disheartened since many people told me that doing CS might destroy my GPA, which could ruin my chances for med school, but I'm glad to see this advice. Thank you!

I now regret not taking certain courses due to concerns about their impact on my gpa. Is pass/fail or auditing higher level CS courses an option? Though I’m not really sure how pass/fail non “premed” courses looks to Adcoms. MCAT is much more important than gpa imo so even if say CS led to a 3.75 vs 3.9 for neuroscience I don’t think it would make a difference ceteris paribus

 

[LindaAccepted]

Hi, I wanted to get some advice on which major I should pursue when I enter uni.

I'm going to be entering university this fall, and I'm confused on what major I should do.
The thing is, I really enjoy Computer Science and I've looked over the syllabus. This doesn't change how my long term goal is still to go to medical or dental school.

I'm just worried on if it's the wisest option. I'm not really thinking of using Computer Science as a "backup" to medical school, since the skills and time investment required for excellency in Computer Science is vastly different from that of medicine. I'm just thinking of doing it out of enjoyment and due to the skills it could teach me.

On the other hand, there is Neuroscience. The thing is, I don't know much about the field despite my research and I'm not sure how much I would enjoy it. I do believe that computer science may be helpful in Neuroscience based research but I may be incorrect.

Finally, I did consider potentially pursuing one of them as a minor, but to be honest, I'm not entirely sure if I want to add another minor since I'm considering doing a minor in business too. If I did minor though, I don't know whether I would choose Computer Science or Neuroscience.

Do you guys have any advice?

A few thoughts:

• You can get into medical school with either major as long as you take and do well in your pre-med (and other) courses.
• Choose the major you will enjoy most -- you'll do better.
• Don't be surprised if you start with one major and then decide that you actually prefer another. It happens all the time.

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

Depends on the school. my N=1 is CS with 3.98/523.

My n=2 is 3.3/517 so ymmv. CS is kinda hard to get good grades in.

 

[JAK2-STAT3]

Here's my Neuroscience vs. Computer Science story. When I started college I was also trying to decide between Computer science and Neuroscience. I had no CS background to speak of, but I'd heard all the hype about it being a flexible, in-demand degree where people could make 6 figures right out of college, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Fall freshman year I took CS 101 and HATED it. It made no intuitive sense, and as much as I tried to make myself like it I simply could not. I did well in the class only by spending hours with the TAs for every homework assignment. After that semester I switched to Neuroscience and fell in love with it. While it wasn't always easy, I genuinely enjoyed my classes and excelled academically.

Fast forward 2 years, I was loving life as a Neuroscience major and decided to try taking a Bioinformatics class because professors said that with a Bioinformatics background you'd always be in demand and were guaranteed a high-paying job. I quickly realized (again) that even the basic concepts made no sense to me and that I had no interest in the material. The class had no TAs, and after completing the first assignment (with ample assistance from the professor) I realized that the amount of time I would need to put in to be successful was not worth the misery. That was the only class I ever dropped in college, and it was absolutely the right choice. That semester became the lowest credit-hour semester of my college career, which allowed me to catch my academic breath and focus on my Neuroscience courses. Having the extra time gave me the mental broadband to delve into and fall even more deeply in love with Neuroscience.

The point is, in those moments when I was struggling my way through material that I didn't like and couldn't understand, all of the hype and advice over CS being useful, in demand, high paying, the future, etc. meant nothing. What mattered was that I was unhappy and had zero desire to pursue CS any further. I am now happily spending a few gap years working in a Neuroscience lab, and while I'm not making the big bucks I don't wish that I was anywhere else.

So study what you are interested in and what makes your heart race with excitement, and the rest will fall into place.

 

[ShadowIo]

I now regret not taking certain courses due to concerns about their impact on my gpa. Is pass/fail or auditing higher level CS courses an option? Though I’m not really sure how pass/fail non “premed” courses looks to Adcoms. MCAT is much more important than gpa imo so even if say CS led to a 3.75 vs 3.9 for neuroscience I don’t think it would make a difference ceteris paribus

Hmm, I see. I can look into it, but Idk how often you can do that.

 

[ShadowIo]

My n=2 is 3.3/517 so ymmv. CS is kinda hard to get good grades in.

Just wondering, what do you guys mean by N = 1 and N = 2?

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Just wondering, what do you guys mean by N = 1 and N = 2?

In the field of statistics, it is the standard variable assigned to represent a sample size.

On Internet forums, it is often assigned to 1 as a way of saying that an opinion is based on personal experience (the 1 being the user) rather than comprehensive analysis

 

[ShadowIo]

In the field of statistics, it is the standard variable assigned to represent a sample size.

On Internet forums, it is often assigned to 1 as a way of saying that an opinion is based on personal experience (the 1 being the user) rather than comprehensive analysis

Ah I see. Thank you!

 

[ShadowIo]

Here's my Neuroscience vs. Computer Science story. When I started college I was also trying to decide between Computer science and Neuroscience. I had no CS background to speak of, but I'd heard all the hype about it being a flexible, in-demand degree where people could make 6 figures right out of college, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Fall freshman year I took CS 101 and HATED it. It made no intuitive sense, and as much as I tried to make myself like it I simply could not. I did well in the class only by spending hours with the TAs for every homework assignment. After that semester I switched to Neuroscience and fell in love with it. While it wasn't always easy, I genuinely enjoyed my classes and excelled academically.

Fast forward 2 years, I was loving life as a Neuroscience major and decided to try taking a Bioinformatics class because professors said that with a Bioinformatics background you'd always be in demand and were guaranteed a high-paying job. I quickly realized (again) that even the basic concepts made no sense to me and that I had no interest in the material. The class had no TAs, and after completing the first assignment (with ample assistance from the professor) I realized that the amount of time I would need to put in to be successful was not worth the misery. That was the only class I ever dropped in college, and it was absolutely the right choice. That semester became the lowest credit-hour semester of my college career, which allowed me to catch my academic breath and focus on my Neuroscience courses. Having the extra time gave me the mental broadband to delve into and fall even more deeply in love with Neuroscience.

The point is, in those moments when I was struggling my way through material that I didn't like and couldn't understand, all of the hype and advice over CS being useful, in demand, high paying, the future, etc. meant nothing. What mattered was that I was unhappy and had zero desire to pursue CS any further. I am now happily spending a few gap years working in a Neuroscience lab, and while I'm not making the big bucks I don't wish that I was anywhere else.

So study what you are interested in and what makes your heart race with excitement, and the rest will fall into place.

Ah I see. Thank you for providing your experience! I'm going to see how I do in my computer science classes this semester. If I can do well, I'll continue as long as I enjoy it too!

I've noticed when self studying that I can generally study topics in it for a long time without getting bored, but I also need to make sure I'm efficient at learning content.

 

[ShadowIo]

A few thoughts:

• You can get into medical school with either major as long as you take and do well in your pre-med courses.
• Choose the major you will enjoy most -- you'll do better.
• Don't be surprised if you start with one major and then decide that you actually prefer another. It happens all the time.

Ah alright, thank you!
I was under the presumption that you had to do well in all your courses, not just pre med, is this wrong?

I will also try new things and see where my interests lead me

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

In the field of statistics, it is the standard variable assigned to represent a sample size.

On Internet forums, it is often assigned to 1 as a way of saying that an opinion is based on personal experience (the 1 being the user) rather than comprehensive analysis

Also, if you don't quote a published study you are tagged as N=1 🙂

 

[Ehegi]

Doctors with data science chops are highly sought after now and in the foreseeable future. Having that skill set will open the door to a very interesting mixed career that will involve more than just clinical care. Most folks with this either do 1) academics: research with big data, AI, ML, NLP, clinical implementation of above in predictive modeling/clinical decision support tools etc, 2) operations: think CIO, CMIO, hospital leadership roles, or 3) go into industry; or 4) a hybrid of the above. If you have a passion for computer science and you want a career incorporating that with medicine, I say a CS major would help you towards that goal. If your goal is to have a purely clinical career as a doctor, then it's less relevant.

Source: This is basically what I do at a large academic medical center and as faculty at the medical school. 😛

 

[KnightDoc]

Ah alright, thank you!
I was under the presumption that you had to do well in all your courses, not just pre med, is this wrong?

I will also try new things and see where my interests lead me

You do, she misspoke. She is correct that schools REALLY do not care what you major in. Most people end up having STEM majors, so others would actually help you stand out. But, you are correct. The competition is brutal, and it's really difficult to break through, unless you have a special hook, unique talent, great low SES or URM story, etc., if you don't have a really excellent GPA. Average matriculant is 3.7.

 

[ShadowIo]

Doctors with data science chops are highly sought after now and in the foreseeable future. Having that skill set will open the door to a very interesting mixed career that will involve more than just clinical care. Most folks with this either do 1) academics: research with big data, AI, ML, NLP, clinical implementation of above in predictive modeling/clinical decision support tools etc, 2) operations: think CIO, CMIO, hospital leadership roles, or 3) go into industry; or 4) a hybrid of the above. If you have a passion for computer science and you want a career incorporating that with medicine, I say a CS major would help you towards that goal. If your goal is to have a purely clinical career as a doctor, then it's less relevant.

Source: This is basically what I do at a large academic medical center and as faculty at the medical school. 😛

Ah I see, those roles fit where I'm interested in for medical!

I am confident I want to do CS now, the only issue is gpa. I go to the university of Michigan and were quite competitive for gpa, so I have to make sure I can keep up with people who wil be spending 100% of their time on CS, not split between two things. I was thinking of talking to my advisor about this too.

 

[LindaAccepted]

Ah alright, thank you!
I was under the presumption that you had to do well in all your courses, not just pre med, is this wrong?

I will also try new things and see where my interests lead me

You're right. You need to do well in all your courses and I edited my earlier post so that it doesn't imply the non-prerequisites don't count as much. It all counts.

Thank you.