Do med schools care about our majors?

[Quicksilver005]

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[lord_jeebus]

Your major will not give you an edge beyond having one interesting thing to talk about at interviews.

Double major won't make a difference.

If your research has grades on your transcript, it will count.

It's very hard to predict your chances at staying in CA without your MCAT.

 

[kevster2001]

Your major will not give you an edge beyond having one interesting thing to talk about at interviews.

Double major won't make a difference.

If your research has grades on your transcript, it will count.

It's very hard to predict your chances at staying in CA without your MCAT.

/thread

 

[bigslick]

Your major will not give you an edge beyond having one interesting thing to talk about at interviews.

Double major won't make a difference.

If your research has grades on your transcript, it will count.

It's very hard to predict your chances at staying in CA without your MCAT.

One question, if research grades count as part of the BCPM gpa, would it still count if it's listed under the BME department? My research is basically the same as any other biology major, except my credit goes under an engineering department versus a biology/life-science related department. Would that mean mine doesn't get counted?

 

[lord_jeebus]

One question, if research grades count as part of the BCPM gpa, would it still count if it's listed under the BME department? My research is basically the same as any other biology major, except my credit goes under an engineering department versus a biology/life-science related department. Would that mean mine doesn't get counted?

Technically, it's supposed to fall into the category that matches the content, not the department.

But if it just appears on your transcript as "Research," I'd bet that AMCAS puts it in the engineering category.

 

[Law2Doc]

Hey guys, I’m going to be a third year at UCI double major in biological sciences and drama. I was wondering how much weight does my double major carry? I know that med schools say that they do not prefer a specific major, but im pretty sure you dont see drama majors applying to med school everyday.

Drama at uci encompasses a wide variety of courses. I’ve taken acting classes, diversity and culture classes, and a bunch of humanities classes. my current gpa is 3.55, science is 3.6. i will have completed around 240 hours in a hospital by the time I apply for med school. I’ve tutored gchem and worked as a computer technician for a yr. I’ve done research for 2 quarters so far and also studied abroad in the uk for one summer. I haven’t taken the mcats yet, but im going to take that soon. Im freaking out about them, especially the physics portion, but I hope to do really well in verbal.


So what do you think my chances are for a Californian med school? I really really want to stay in California for med school, but I know its insanely hard to do that. Im kind of banking on my major in drama to try to separate me from the pack, but I really don’t think that that’s going to do jack for me. Will my major make up for not having a super strong science gpa? It was REALLY hard balancing out drama and biology, so my gpa took lot of hits, but I think i'm a well rounded canidate.

Also, do med schools factor in the grades I get from research into my science grade? Is there anything else that I should do? I stayed outta frats cuz i was just so busy doing all these extra ciricular stuff and drama, but im open to trying it again. Thanks. All suggestions are welcomed.

As mentioned above med schools don't care about majors, and certainly don't give a lick of extra weight to a double major, a minor or courseload generally. In fact, most would argue that a double major gives you more chances to fail and fewer to succeed on this path. You get no extra benefit as far as adcoms are concerned. They would be just as happy with someone whose sole major was drama or biology as they are with someone who does both. Maybe being a drama major makes you more interesting while on an interview, maybe not (depends on the interviewer), but it won't factor into the adcom decisions. The GPA and BCPM and MCAT and ECs will be the real weight in determining if you get an interview, and the interview will then at many places be the driving force as to whether you end up admitted. So no, an unusual major will not make up for having a lackluster GPA. Only taking more courses for A's will make up for having a lackluster GPA -- a string of A's will raise your GPA and help you show an improving track record.

The only reason I can think of to do a double major is if you don't get into med school, perhaps that leaves doors open in other fields. But I'm not sure I'd waste the time doing a double major for that purpose. Honestly, if you like drama, major in drama and just pick up the prereqs. It's silly to put yourself through a double major. It will not increase your chances at med school. It also likely will not increase your chances of doing well in med school.

In terms of California schools, I don't think anyone banks on them. For state schools their average stats tend to be awfully high, and provide safety for no one. You take your shot, but cover your bases with non-Cali schools that may be more attainable. I wouldn't count on drama making much difference. Being a good interviewee because of your drama background might help, but you still have to get an interview with your stats.

 

[Quicksilver005]

so is a 3.5cum gpa and 3.6 bgpa alright or is it too low?

 

[StPlayrXtreme]

One question, if research grades count as part of the BCPM gpa, would it still count if it's listed under the BME department? quote]

I am a bioengineer, and my research was listed under BEE (Biological Engineering). I had no problem counting it as biology research. AMCAS really leaves it up to you for anything with biomedical or biological engineering, I've never heard of them changing anything from biology to engineering. Classify them based on their course content...if they're more biology, or even general biotechnology, classify them as biology.

 

[engineeredout]

One question, if research grades count as part of the BCPM gpa, would it still count if it's listed under the BME department?

I am a bioengineer, and my research was listed under BEE (Biological Engineering). I had no problem counting it as biology research. AMCAS really leaves it up to you for anything with biomedical or biological engineering, I've never heard of them changing anything from biology to engineering. Classify them based on their course content...if they're more biology, or even general biotechnology, classify them as biology.

Agree with this. I got to list several of my ChemE courses as chemistry and they didn't have a problem with it.

 

[aixoise]

is there a place on the amcas website where we can see what they reported as our cGPA and bcpmGPA?

 

[JJAbrams]

Majors matter less than how you did in science pre-reqs.

 

[mushok103]

Technically, it's supposed to fall into the category that matches the content, not the department.

But if it just appears on your transcript as "Research," I'd bet that AMCAS puts it in the engineering category.

Mine showed up as research through the psychology dept. and was added as BCPM while other psychology classes didn't, but I classified it as B because it was neuroscience research. So in my case, AMCAS just went along with what I put.

 

[engineeredout]

is there a place on the amcas website where we can see what they reported as our cGPA and bcpmGPA?

Get the actual printout of your amcas application from the website and it will show the gpas.

 

[batman1983]

Dont double, its useless. Only do it if its a bs major and boosts your GPA.