Do adcoms care about your undergrad major?

[sdnmember]

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Would they care if you majored in somthing as hard as electrical /computer engineering or something 'easier' such as history or english? Would they factor in that engineering requires much more work in terms of studying?

I'm pretty set on going to medical school. But I'm a computer science major and my curriculum is pretty hard, i have about 7 more upper division cs courses to go, (the hard ones). Plus, i find computer science tedious and very, very time consuming. I don't think i will be able to get 4.0 with computer science courses.

Or I could switch majors (i'm in the 4th year) now and do applied math and statistics and need only 4 more VERY EASY applied math courses. This would undoubtedly do great for my gpa and much less workload. But it's pretty much, a blatant bs major.

So do they care? What would u do?

Thanks🙂

 

[LauraMac]

If it were me, I would just tough it out and stay with the same major. What is your GPA right now, and how bad would you anticipate it would become? If it will be at least a 3.5 I would certainly stay with the same major. Adcoms definitely want to see that you challenged yourself as much as possible. However, if your GPA will slip to below a 3.2 it is worth considering switching majors. With a really low GPA they will not even look at you and get a chance to see how hard/easy your major was. So I say stick with your major, but if you do switch, you better make up a good reason to tell them why you did it. Good luck!

Laura 🙂

 

[TTSD]

That's a tough question to what I hear a lot of different answers for.

I mean, how would an ad comm view someone who gets a 4.0 as a history major versus someone with a 3.0 in molecular genetics or whatnot?

There's always the disclaimer that "quality is more important than quantity" which brings up the question as to how do they perceive someone whose just taken the bare pre-req science courses for med school versus the person whose taken the general catalogue of science courses at their school?

So I guess the answer is pretty much standard: It's the entire package.

I'm sure adcomms are not idiots (100% sure of that). While A's always look very impressive, they understand that courseload and course strength (such as those 50% fail this class every year classes are killers) are very important in determining a persons grades.

Also their ECs and LORs. Did this person show a drive for medicine?

 

[Sweet Tea]

TTSD is right on. Do schools "care" about your major? Not really-- I don't think any school will base acceptance/rejection solely on what you majored in. They just want you to do well in whatever you major in. That means if you're majoring in something like Geography (which was an easy major at my school), you had better be making As. But I think in the harder majors-- comp sci, physcis, chem, bio-- they allow for a little more leeway. So it's entirely up to you. I'd major in something that interested me, NOT something that I thought was going to make me look better on a med school app.

And FYI, it is entirely possible to get into a US med school with under a 3.2.

 

[coldchemist]

Don't forget, there is a drive by medical schools to include applicants who have a wide range of humanities experiences. Also, they really want to see that the applicant pursued something they were interested in, rather than pursuing a given major (e.g. biology) simply to improve their chances of getting admitted to med school.

I think changing your major from CS (to whatever) may be beneficial, especially if it's to something that really interests you. You could end up being a happier, more productive student, and you'll have something great to write about on your med school applications. I am of the opinion that it can't hurt your application to make the switch, assuming of course that you can handle the new courseload.

 

[An Yong]

I feel your pain, I'm a cs/math major also and the curriculum is exhausting at my school too. Its funny because most of my cs friends only have to pass a class, hence they are very laid back and have no stress. For me, following the "pre-med" route means "just passing" is not good enough, I have to somehow beat the curve and do better than most of the class (who, at the upper level courses, are usually all geniuses and much more smarter than me) to get that prized "A". Hence I'm the typical stereotyped pre-med (@ the library all the time), doing my best just to try to understand the material. Sigh =P

Good luck! Hopefully the future admissions people will take pity on us poor cs folk =)