Does being a biology major make med school easier?

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casillas

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I am a biological sciences major and was wondering if having a biology related major makes medical school any easier?

I am not contemplating switching or anything, just curious.

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Well, I think that what makes bio the kind of major to help you in med school is not necessarily the material you learn, but most importantly the studying habits that you get. You learn how to study the best way, which is all memorization for the most part, which will help you in at least your first year.
my 0.02
 
It probably helps a little to have prior exposure to a bunch of upper-div bio classes, like b-chem, mo-bio, neuro, phys, anatomy, etc, etc. There is so much material in med school that the advantage will be very minor, but it's gotta help a little to have some prior exposure.
 
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From what I have read, the information taken in during Medical school in the first couple weeks is far greater than what most college classes of the same subject go through in a semester. Take it for what it's worth.
 
It helps in the sense that you might have some of the terminology/language down making it easier to understand material. This isn't always true though because there are a lot of things that are just never covered in undergrad and it never means that you're free from studying subjects that you're familiar with.
 
So major in literature, date strange women, write poetry when you are drunk and abandoned, and sleep on the beach and stare at the stars. You will be a better doctor.
 
Does having a penis make urinating easier? No, it's all about the urethra. If you have a urethra, you'll be able to urinate; if you don't, you're screwed. Therefore, not all people that can urinate have penises, but all people that can urinate have urethras.

Moral of the story:

Any major(urethra) that allows you develop the ability to succeed academically(urinate) will do.
 
Bio isn't going to help you anymore in medicine than a philosophy major. You'll learn a few facts from bio that everyone else learns anyway. You learn a bit of ethics perhaps in philosophy which everyone else learns as relates to medicine anyway. Both confer a meaningless advantage once you start. Take classes you wanna take, whether it's business, anatomy, pottery, or non-Euclidian geometry. I've only seen one college class in my life that would ever confer any real advantage to a med student (a class on clinical research), and it wasn't part of any major
 
Does having a penis make urinating easier? No, it's all about the urethra. If you have a urethra, you'll be able to urinate; if you don't, you're screwed. Therefore, not all people that can urinate have penises, but all people that can urinate have urethras.

Moral of the story:

Any major(urethra) that allows you develop the ability to succeed academically(urinate) will do.

by far the funniest comment on SDN :D
 
So major in literature, date strange women, write poetry when you are drunk and abandoned, and sleep on the beach and stare at the stars. You will be a better doctor.

it would be awesome if I can do that.
 
Does having a penis make urinating easier? No, it's all about the urethra. If you have a urethra, you'll be able to urinate; if you don't, you're screwed. Therefore, not all people that can urinate have penises, but all people that can urinate have urethras.

Moral of the story:

Any major(urethra) that allows you develop the ability to succeed academically(urinate) will do.

I agree that any major will do, otherwise they wouldn't accept English majors and so on, but this neglects to answer the main question.

Many of my upper-div science classes were very similar to the medical school equivalent. A neuroanatomy class I took was taught by a professor who just came from a medical school and was using all the same notes and assignments, word for word. This was very-upper-division and there were some grad students auditing because he is a pretty famous guy, but it was an undergrad class none the less. The advanced medical biochem class I'm taking is very similar, and I expect to see a lot of overlap in a couple months.

Moral of the story: Anyone with a urethra can piss, but those with larger urethras and bigger bladders have the potential to pee better.

This isn't set in stone, of course, and being a humanities major doesn't mean it will hurt you, but I find it a little naive and SDN-y to make the argument (seen often here, and not necessarily the one you made) that your major makes no difference at all.

Oh, and having a penis certainly makes peeing easier.
 
I thought I'd add that statistically, there is VERY LITTLE correlation between med school performance and undergrad major. My point above is that it has the potential to give you an advantage, but only under certain circumstances, and only when you put in the same amount of work/effort as you would have before. In other words, it's like the fact that there's no correlation between ski equipment and performance...despite the fact that for most skiiers top-of-the-line equipment will give them an extra edge.
 
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If you take upper division science courses, I really think it will help you in medical school, at least during first year. Having taken anatomy, physiology, neuroscience, microbiology, genetics, etc classes before starting medical school, I knew a good deal of the material we covered right off the bat. It saved me a lot of time when it came to studying.

It may not be the case for everyone, but if you can remember what you learn in undergrad, you can save yourself some time in medical school.
 
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I think it depends on your school and what courses you take. I am in Neuroscience/Physiology and graduates from my college have said that they do well in medical school simply using anatomy notes from out UG Human Anatomy, etc. I looked at the Neuroanatomy exam for med students when I was taking Neuroanatomy and was perfectly capable of doing it. If you take advanced Genetics, Pharmacology, Embryology, Physiology, Neuroscience, Anatomy, Virology, Pathobiology etc. it will surely make med a lot easier.

What type of Biology are you considering majoring in? Cell Biology? Evolutionary Biology? Microbiology?
 
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I don't know, but being a non-science major makes it easier to get into medical school.
 
I wouldn't major in bio. I feel like you get such limited exposure for MCAT PS, unless you ended up taking some upper level chem/phys electives.
 
I don't think there is anything wrong with nonscience majors and medical school, but what worries me greatly is the fact that most doctors are no longer trained in medical school or beforehand to interpret scientific or clinical research and to draw valid conclusions (for many examples of this see Overdosed America, http://www.amazon.com/Overdosed-America-Promise-American-Medicine/dp/0060568526). If medical schools don't start to teach these skills or require them from undergraduate preparatory work, we're going to be in for some serious problems down the line.

On the contrary, medical schools do teach these skills, have dedicated coursework to such, and many require some degree of research or knowledge of evidence-based medicine to graduate. Not to mention that many residency programs that I'm aware of teach this as well with journal clubs.
 
On the contrary, medical schools do teach these skills, have dedicated coursework to such, and many require some degree of research or knowledge of evidence-based medicine to graduate. Not to mention that many residency programs that I'm aware of teach this as well with journal clubs.

Perhaps, but there is a reason the president of the AMA just resigned citing irreconcilable differences with the majority of AMA's membership, which mostly alluded to profit-driven medicine.
 
I think it depends on your school and what courses you take. I am in Neuroscience/Physiology and graduates from my college have said that they do well in medical school simply using anatomy notes from out UG Human Anatomy, etc. I looked at the Neuroanatomy exam for med students when I was taking Neuroanatomy and was perfectly capable of doing it. If you take advanced Genetics, Pharmacology, Embryology, Physiology, Neuroscience, Anatomy, Virology, Pathobiology etc. it will surely make med a lot easier.

What type of Biology are you considering majoring in? Cell Biology? Evolutionary Biology? Microbiology?


I already crossed that bridge. I am already upper division. I was just curious because i was looking at syllabi for med schools and it seems a lot of the classes are classes i have taken. Although obviously I didn't learn it from a medical point of view.

but I am studying Neurology/Physiology
 
Does having a penis make urinating easier? No, it's all about the urethra. If you have a urethra, you'll be able to urinate; if you don't, you're screwed. Therefore, not all people that can urinate have penises, but all people that can urinate have urethras.

Moral of the story:

Any major(urethra) that allows you develop the ability to succeed academically(urinate) will do.

HAHA. By far the funniest post I've ever read here in SDN. :laugh:
 
Does having a penis make urinating easier? No, it's all about the urethra. If you have a urethra, you'll be able to urinate; if you don't, you're screwed. Therefore, not all people that can urinate have penises, but all people that can urinate have urethras.

Moral of the story:

Any major(urethra) that allows you develop the ability to succeed academically(urinate) will do.

Your first line is not necessarily true, after which point I stopped reading your (now flawed) argument.

Have you ever urinated without a penis? Do you know that it is absolutely not easier?
 
It might help you here and there, but looking at the big picture, it is pretty worthless. Major in whatever you want.
 
Your first line is not necessarily true, after which point I stopped reading your (now flawed) argument.

Have you ever urinated without a penis? Do you know that it is absolutely not easier?

way to miss his entire point of his post in your desire to show off your superior logic. Is it easier? who knows, that's not the point, ppl with and without dicks urinate just fine.
 
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