Does Major really not matter for med school admissions?

[magician7772222]

I hear this throw around all the time that taking the pre-med pre-reqs is all that matters and your major itself isn't taken into consideration. But would a medical school really not favor a student who majored in say biology taking higher level bio classes over someone majoring in the humanities and only taking the basic pre-med requirements as outlined by the med schools?

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[Bonne Nuit]

I hear this throw around all the time that taking the pre-med pre-reqs is all that matters and your major itself isn't taken into consideration. But would a medical school really not favor a student who majored in say biology taking higher level bio classes over someone majoring in the humanities and only taking the basic pre-med requirements as outlined by the med schools?

They really, truly do not care. You need a Bachelor's degree and the completed prerequisites. That's it.

The MCAT is the great equalizer for the BS Biology and BA Underwater Basket Weaving applicants. Now, could someone make an argument that the MCAT is an easier hurdle to clear for the science major? Sure. Is a science degree a more direct route to getting all your prereqs completed? Absolutely. But beyond that, there's no real advantage for pursuing a science degree vs. any other degree if your ultimate goal is medicine.

 

[Goro]

I hear this throw around all the time that taking the pre-med pre-reqs is all that matters and your major itself isn't taken into consideration. But would a medical school really not favor a student who majored in say biology taking higher level bio classes over someone majoring in the humanities and only taking the basic pre-med requirements as outlined by the med schools?

We don't care about your major or your minor. We only care that you do well.

One of the smartest doctors I ever met, an endocrinologist, was a film major. He went to Harvard for med school.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Doesn’t matter at all. I have a math degree. Have classmates with theater and music degrees.

 

[LizzyM]

This is true but if you can manage a 3.99 in engineering you will get mega-respect compared with someone who earned the same GPA in leisure management.

 

[shotgunlagoon]

just remember that if you're taking fewer science classes, each one has a much bigger impact on your science GPA. The adcoms will be looking at the academic rigor as well to tell if you can handle medical school, so if you're doing something considered "easier" than biology, try to make sure you are taking on a sufficient courseload.

 

[Obnoxious Dad]

I hear this throw around all the time that taking the pre-med pre-reqs is all that matters and your major itself isn't taken into consideration. But would a medical school really not favor a student who majored in say biology taking higher level bio classes over someone majoring in the humanities and only taking the basic pre-med requirements as outlined by the med schools?

See this table:

https://www.aamc.org/media/6061/download?attachment

Physical science majors (i.e., chemistry and physics majors) who are accepted to medical school have an average GPA that equals the average GPA for all matriculants , i.e., 3.73. In addition the average MCAT among physical science majors who matriculate is 513.3 while the average MCAT score among all matriculants is 511.5. All of this occurs in spite of the fact that compared to other matriculants, physical science majors take more math and science classes, take harder math and science classes and take more of these classes at the same time. Physical science majors who matriculate even have a higher than average CARS score. The inescapable conclusion is that applicants with the toughest majors actually get punished for their hard work.

I suppose physical science majors compared with other applicants have less time during their undergraduate years to hand out towels and doughnuts at emergency rooms. Physical science majors may also be less inclined to claim in their personal statements that they want to open a clinic in Appalachia when in fact they want to pop pimples in Hollywood.

The moral of the story here is that anyone who aspires to become a physician and chooses a tough major at a tough college is a fool.
NB. My kid is a USMD.

 

[RI-premeder]

This is true but if you can manage a 3.99 in engineering you will get mega-respect compared with someone who earned the same GPA in leisure management.

This is what I was wondering. Wouldn't a BME or ChemE get a lot of interest if they have strong stats (like GPA and MCAT)? I would assume there is not as many of them applying to medical school and they would add diversity to the class. Off course, not if their grades suffer.

 

[Browns99]

See this table:

https://www.aamc.org/media/6061/download?attachment

Physical science majors (i.e., chemistry and physics majors) who are accepted to medical school have an average GPA that equals the average GPA for all matriculants , i.e., 3.73. In addition the average MCAT among physical science majors who matriculate is 513.3 while the average MCAT score among all matriculants is 511.5. All of this occurs in spite of the fact that compared to other matriculants, physical science majors take more math and science classes, take harder math and science classes and take more of these classes at the same time. Physical science majors who matriculate even have a higher than average CARS score. The inescapable conclusion is that applicants with the toughest majors actually get punished for their hard work.

I suppose physical science majors compared with other applicants have less time during their undergraduate years to hand out towels and doughnuts at emergency rooms. Physical science majors may also be less inclined to claim in their personal statements that they want to open a clinic in Appalachia when in fact they want to pop pimples in Hollywood.

The moral of the story here is that anyone who aspires to become a physician and chooses a tough major at a tough college is a fool.
NB. My kid is a USMD.

The last sentence is wrong on so many fronts. For one, you have no clue once you start your college career whether you still want to be a doctor by, lets say your 3rd year, so having selected an "easy major", rather than one you may have wanted to fall back on(i.e. engineering) you are in a bit of a jam.

Same goes for the "tough college", med school adcoms know the grade difference from a "tough college" vs a community or below average state school, so that belief you have is wrong there as well.

I guess what you were trying to say was that you don't necessarily need to be in a top academic college/university with a heavy course load to get into med school and that statement would be fair to say.

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

I don't think it's fair to say that major doesn't matter. If you can weave your major into how/why you want to do medicine, or work some time in the field etc, you can stand out in a fairly good way, and can add to a knowledge diversity of a class. A 4.0 in underwater basket weaving still beats a 3.5 MIT trained double degree chemE/computer science degree holder though.

 

[DoctorFate]

I was a double major in Computer Science and Biology with a double minor as well and a near perfect GPA. This fact comes up very frequently in my interviews, with my interviewers taking particular note of the difficulty and utility of a computer science major.
That said, the difficulty and time commitment of this combination is nowhere near worth the payoff. And while the computer science major was liked by interviewers, what truly impressed them was my use of programming and data analytics both in and outside of research. Your activities far exceed your major.

 

[MyOdyssey]

I don't think it's fair to say that major doesn't matter. If you can weave your major into how/why you want to do medicine, or work some time in the field etc, you can stand out in a fairly good way, and can add to a knowledge diversity of a class. A 4.0 in underwater basket weaving still beats a 3.5 MIT trained double degree chemE/computer science degree holder though.

The comment about the basket weaver v the MIT engineer is very cynical.

 

[MyOdyssey]

In short, excelling in a demanding major is rewarded.

Performing poorly in a demanding major is not excused.

Is that about right?

 

[DoctorFate]

In short, excelling in a demanding major is rewarded.

Performing poorly in a demanding major is not excused.

Is that about right?

That's actually the perfect way to put it. My friend was kicked out of a BS/MD program as she attempted a double major and athletics, and decided to take hard classes when her gpa was already below the threshold. They allowed an appeal. In the appeal, she stated that her particular course combination and ECs were extremely hard to manage, so her GPA dip is justified. The adcoms were not sympathetic and basically said "why would you attempt to do so much when you can't even meet the minimum".

There is, of course, some leniency, but it's not nearly enough to make it worth it for the majority of people. In general, I was told that you have about a .1 GPA tolerance for difficult vs easy. A 3.9 BME major is probably more impressive than a 4.0 English major. However, a 3.9 BME is (probably) much more difficult to get.

 

[LizzyM]

See this table:

https://www.aamc.org/media/6061/download?attachment

Physical science majors (i.e., chemistry and physics majors) who are accepted to medical school have an average GPA that equals the average GPA for all matriculants , i.e., 3.73. In addition the average MCAT among physical science majors who matriculate is 513.3 while the average MCAT score among all matriculants is 511.5. All of this occurs in spite of the fact that compared to other matriculants, physical science majors take more math and science classes, take harder math and science classes and take more of these classes at the same time. Physical science majors who matriculate even have a higher than average CARS score. The inescapable conclusion is that applicants with the toughest majors actually get punished for their hard work.

I suppose physical science majors compared with other applicants have less time during their undergraduate years to hand out towels and doughnuts at emergency rooms. Physical science majors may also be less inclined to claim in their personal statements that they want to open a clinic in Appalachia when in fact they want to pop pimples in Hollywood.

The moral of the story here is that anyone who aspires to become a physician and chooses a tough major at a tough college is a fool.
NB. My kid is a USMD.

I don't see any punishment. Looking at the applicants, I see, on average, better metrics among the applicants in math and physical sciences than applicants overall. That is then reflected in the matriculants as well.

I have often suspected that the lower metrics for health sciences are people who are not quite as high achieving (and may not have been "pre-med" in college) but who come to medicine as non-trads having worked in health care for at least a couple years and thus have their work experience in their favor but not captured on that grid.

 

[MyOdyssey]

That's actually the perfect way to put it. My friend was kicked out of a BS/MD program as she attempted a double major and athletics, and decided to take hard classes when her gpa was already below the threshold. They allowed an appeal. In the appeal, she stated that her particular course combination and ECs were extremely hard to manage, so her GPA dip is justified. The adcoms were not sympathetic and basically said "why would you attempt to do so much when you can't even meet the minimum".

There is, of course, some leniency, but it's not nearly enough to make it worth it for the majority of people. In general, I was told that you have about a .1 GPA tolerance for difficult vs easy. A 3.9 BME major is probably more impressive than a 4.0 English major. However, a 3.9 BME is (probably) much more difficult to get.

There is something to be said for the notion that taking more rigorous STEM and non-STEM classes helps prepare people for the MCAT. STEM courses that expose students to research articles and non-STEM courses that require rigorous readings probably help.

 

[Bonne Nuit]

Same goes for the "tough college", med school adcoms know the grade difference from a "tough college" vs a community or below average state school, so that belief you have is wrong there as well.

This is often not the case, actually.

Sure, med school adcoms - like everyone else - are aware of big brand name universities and are likely familiar with the difficulty of their state/regional college systems. So, yeah, a 4.0 at MIT will get some attention, and schools that care about CC vs. 4-year are going to consider the type of institution you attended. However, this becomes relevant only to a fairly small fraction of applicants.

In other words, if you're applying to some OOS MD program and you have a degree from Challenging Small Private University in some other state, adcoms likely won't be able to (nor will they care to take the time to) compare your 3.8 to that of applicants from the "easier" universities in your state. And even at some "easier" universities, there can be very challenging/rigorous programs. There's just too many variables to spend a lot of time on this stuff when you've got 10K applications to get through. At the end of the day, your GPA speaks for itself.

 

[gyngyn]

Your major is for you, not for us.

 

[deleted1025488]

Major definitely matters, probably not for admissions, but in other ways. I had the smallest biology major possible at my university and then a completely unrelated major that made up the bulk of my transcript (in the same vein as dinosaur studies or medieval studies). 100% of interviewers have brought it up within the first 15 minutes in a traditional interview. Since it's honestly such a stupid major it also brings up some opportunity for humour and to act more interesting, which lessens the weight of an interview (for me at least) mentally. I didn't write about it much in essays, but I care about the subject and it's a big interest of mine since I was young (I have one EC related to it) so I could speak about it coherently and rationally.

 

[DoctorFate]

There is something to be said for the notion that taking more rigorous STEM and non-STEM classes helps prepare people for the MCAT. STEM courses that expose students to research articles and non-STEM courses that require rigorous readings probably help.

I can attest to this making a huge difference in my case. I studied for the MCAT in 4 weeks, and I took Biochem and Cell Biology the semester right before I took the MCAT. Taking those courses was a massive help, and I could not have gotten as high a score as I did in that short of a timeframe without them.
However, generally speaking, the vast majority of your major related science courses will have a lot of information completely unrelated to the MCAT. In general, choosing a major as MCAT prep is a bad idea. However, choosing specific courses that are known in your school to aid MCAT prep can be a good idea.

 

[Obnoxious Dad]

The last sentence is wrong on so many fronts. For one, you have no clue once you start your college career whether you still want to be a doctor by, lets say your 3rd year, so having selected an "easy major", rather than one you may have wanted to fall back on(i.e. engineering) you are in a bit of a jam.

Same goes for the "tough college", med school adcoms know the grade difference from a "tough college" vs a community or below average state school, so that belief you have is wrong there as well.

I guess what you were trying to say was that you don't necessarily need to be in a top academic college/university with a heavy course load to get into med school and that statement would be fair to say.

I've passed two bar exams and spent years warring with tax administrators. I know exactly what I want to say. Thank you very much.

I have known lots of people who knew exactly what they wanted to do on the first day of college.

Please show me the study that indicates that adcoms make any adjustments for the rigor of undergraduate colleges in the medical school admissions process. Here's a study that shows they are clueless/agnostic about undergraduate rigor.

(PDF) Investigating the Utility of a GPA Institutional Adjustment Index

PDF | Grading standards vary widely across undergraduate institutions. If, during the medical school admissions process, GPA is considered without... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

In fact is has been stated ad nauseum on this message board that aside from the top 20 most prestigious medical schools, admissions officers pay no heed to the rigor of undergraduate colleges and majors.

 

[Obnoxious Dad]

I don't see any punishment. Looking at the applicants, I see, on average, better metrics among the applicants in math and physical sciences than applicants overall. That is then reflected in the matriculants as well.

I have often suspected that the lower metrics for health sciences are people who are not quite as high achieving (and may not have been "pre-med" in college) but who come to medicine as non-trads having worked in health care for at least a couple years and thus have their work experience in their favor but not captured on that grid.

The punishment takes the form of being rejected after dropping at least $100,000 on college and spending four years busting your behind in physics and chemistry courses while people who took the easy way out get accepted. That's the punishment.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I don't think it's fair to say that major doesn't matter. If you can weave your major into how/why you want to do medicine, or work some time in the field etc, you can stand out in a fairly good way, and can add to a knowledge diversity of a class. A 4.0 in underwater basket weaving still beats a 3.5 MIT trained double degree chemE/computer science degree holder though.

When people say your major doesn’t matter, they mean there aren’t certain majors that will give you extra points toward admissions. Picking a major you really enjoy or resonate with will make your app better because you’ll have more to show for it and talk about. But that major can be anything, which is why we say it doesn’t matter which one you pick, so pick the one you like the most.

 

[LizzyM]

The punishment takes the form of being rejected after dropping at least $100,000 on college and spending four years busting your behind in physics and chemistry courses while people who took the easy way out get accepted. That's the punishment.

From the table referenced above, I note that 42.45% of physical science majors are admitted to medical school vs. 36.16% overall. Doesn't seem to be punishing in the least. They are smart people who work hard, score well and get admitted in a far greater proportion than their proportion of the total pool.

 

[DoctorFate]

See this table:

https://www.aamc.org/media/6061/download?attachment

Physical science majors (i.e., chemistry and physics majors) who are accepted to medical school have an average GPA that equals the average GPA for all matriculants , i.e., 3.73. In addition the average MCAT among physical science majors who matriculate is 513.3 while the average MCAT score among all matriculants is 511.5. All of this occurs in spite of the fact that compared to other matriculants, physical science majors take more math and science classes, take harder math and science classes and take more of these classes at the same time. Physical science majors who matriculate even have a higher than average CARS score. The inescapable conclusion is that applicants with the toughest majors actually get punished for their hard work.

I suppose physical science majors compared with other applicants have less time during their undergraduate years to hand out towels and doughnuts at emergency rooms. Physical science majors may also be less inclined to claim in their personal statements that they want to open a clinic in Appalachia when in fact they want to pop pimples in Hollywood.

The moral of the story here is that anyone who aspires to become a physician and chooses a tough major at a tough college is a fool.
NB. My kid is a USMD.

It's also worth noting that the average applicant with a physical science major is 3 pts higher MCAT wise than Bio. Plus, you have to remember, the vast majority of pre-meds choose Bio. A much higher proportion of the physical science majors probably decided later on that they want to go to med school, so their ECs and other factors may be worse at time of application, necessitating the higher MCAT to get med school attention.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

It's also worth noting that the average applicant with a physical science major is 3 pts higher MCAT wise than Bio. Plus, you have to remember, the vast majority of pre-meds choose Bio. A much higher proportion of the physical science majors probably decided later on that they want to go to med school, so their ECs and other factors may be worse at time of application, necessitating the higher MCAT to get med school attention.

Math/stats majors have the highest mcat scores. As someone who majored in math and scored in the 97th %ile on the mcat despite only having taken half the prereqs at the time, I think it’s likely that math and physical science majors just better prepare you for tests like the mcat.

 

[Obnoxious Dad]

From the table referenced above, I note that 42.45% of physical science majors are admitted to medical school vs. 36.16% overall. Doesn't seem to be punishing in the least. They are smart people who work hard, score well and get admitted in a far greater proportion than their proportion of the total pool.

That metric is nonsensical because it does not account for self exclusion. The applicant pool among physical science applicants is statistically better than the rest. The average physical science applicant has an MCAT score of 509.1 which is 3.2 higher than the average MCAT score for all applicants. At many colleges science and engineering grads who have grade points below 3.5 are told they have no chance or won't even get a committee letter because it hurts the undergraduate college's medical school success rate.

 

[MyOdyssey]

Math/stats majors have the highest mcat scores. As someone who majored in math and scored in the 97th %ile on the mcat despite only having taken half the prereqs at the time, I think it’s likely that math and physical science majors just better prepare you for tests like the mcat.

Alternative explanation: the kinds of people who do well in highly mathematical disciplines also do well on the MCAT.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Alternative explanation: the kinds of people who do well in highly mathematical disciplines also do well on the MCAT.

Less likely to be exclusively one or the other. Probably a combo of both.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Keep the thread on topic and avoid personal attacks please.

 

[Browns99]

I've passed two bar exams and spent years warring with tax administrators. I know exactly what I want to say. Thank you very much.

I have known lots of people who knew exactly what they wanted to do on the first day of college.

Please show me the study that indicates that adcoms make any adjustments for the rigor of undergraduate colleges in the medical school admissions process. Here's a study that shows they are clueless/agnostic about undergraduate rigor.

(PDF) Investigating the Utility of a GPA Institutional Adjustment Index

PDF | Grading standards vary widely across undergraduate institutions. If, during the medical school admissions process, GPA is considered without... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

In fact is has been stated ad nauseum on this message board that aside from the top 20 most prestigious medical schools, admissions officers pay no heed to the rigor of undergraduate colleges and majors.

Thumbs up to the two bar exams, thanks for that info.

 

[deleted1119853]

.

 

[LizzyM]

Given two applicants from the same tier undergrad, is an evenly distributed 519 from someone with a 4.0 in leisure management more impressive than an evenly distributed 520 from a 3.99 engineering major?

Engineer every tme.

 

[Lawpy]

I feel these types of questions pop up many times every year.

While major doesn't matter, nailing a near 4.0 in engineering, math and physics is definitely remarkable. Those disciplines are hard and completely blow biology degrees out of the water and have dramatic long term value in medicine itself.

That said, more generally, i'd 100% recommend majoring in something that's not biology. A biology degree is imo... really boring and pretty worthless. The skills and experience you get from a non-biology major will be memorable, useful and have long term benefits

 

[Lawpy]

I hear this throw around all the time that taking the pre-med pre-reqs is all that matters and your major itself isn't taken into consideration. But would a medical school really not favor a student who majored in say biology taking higher level bio classes over someone majoring in the humanities and only taking the basic pre-med requirements as outlined by the med schools?

Someone majoring in humanities will have something interesting to talk about. A biology major isn't really interesting unless they have non-biology interests

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Where the major is completed is more important than which major is completed

 

[TheKingfish]

My interviewers thus far seem to be much more interested in my humanities background and research rather than my biological studies and research. I picked a weird combination of majors that made no sense together other than the fact that I really loved studying both of the topics, and it’s served me pretty well so far. (Importantly, outside of the admissions process as well)

 

[nicesecrets]

My interviewers thus far seem to be much more interested in my humanities background and research rather than my biological studies and research. I picked a weird combination of majors that made no sense together other than the fact that I really loved studying both of the topics, and it’s served me pretty well so far. (Importantly, outside of the admissions process as well)

Something I thought I would add, I have taken all the pre-req post bacc classes in the US because of a foreign undergrad, but have also ended up taking a lot of lit classes, just out of pure interest. I was asked about this in an interview and we spent ten minutes talking about writers and classic fiction. Definitely seems like a conversation starter to have a different background/classes, particularly to show you are well rounded outside of pure medicine-adjacent subjects.

 

[deleted1017120]

Someone majoring in humanities will have something interesting to talk about. A biology major isn't really interesting unless they have non-biology interests

The problem with biology is that it's such a massive and disparate field.

Biology can be interesting, but the biology major needs to actually focus their studies on a particular topic (e.g. human physiology, animal sciences, ecology, microbiology, etc.) or else they just end up doing generic, all-comers biology classes where they have to cover all of these topics to some extent and therefore don't go heavily in-depth in any of them and don't obtain any particular skills due to this.

I think that the bad reputation that biology degrees get is because it's kind of a dumping ground for a lot of pre-health students, meaning that a decent chunk of the biology major population isn't actually interested in biology and therefore they aren't interesting as applicants. Psychology suffers the same problem; the field is fascinating and has a lot to it, but so many people major in it as a de-facto choice and they don't really push themselves to excel in that field. A huge chunk of graduates just come out of college with a psych or bio degree just because they needed to get a degree and they really can't talk about the fields with any serious level of knowledge/understanding. Compounding the issue is that fields like psych and bio require graduate-level education to actually obtain any kind of real expertise in, whereas this doesn't seem to be the case with things like computer science and chemistry.

If you compare this to something like chemistry, computer science, or mathematics, the majority of people hate those classes. This is probably due to a combination of the difficulty and time requirement of those degrees along with the undesirable culture in those academic fields (e.g. in my experience at multiple institutions, chemistry and physics classes always had awful instructors, which discouraged people from enjoying those classes). The only people that choose to major in those are 1) people that want to work in those fields or 2) people that are applying to other programs (e.g. medical school) and still have a real passion for that topic. There are even a number of humanities degrees that are like this as well, but because of this, they produce students that are more "interesting" on average.

 

[Lawpy]

in my experience at multiple institutions, chemistry and physics classes always had awful instructors, which discouraged people from enjoying those classes)

Heh funny you mention that since i had the exact opposite experience. Chemistry and physics profs were absolutely incredible who made difficult subjects like ochem and E&M understandable and enjoyable to learn.

On the other hand, bio profs were straight up garbage and made me want to smack my head against the wall many times out of sheer boredom (the only exception was biochem, the profs there were awesome).

 

[MyOdyssey]

Heh funny you mention that since i had the exact opposite experience. Chemistry and physics profs were absolutely incredible who made difficult subjects like ochem and E&M understandable and enjoyable to learn.

On the other hand, bio profs were straight up garbage and made me want to smack my head against the wall many times out of sheer boredom (the only exception was biochem, the profs there were awesome).

Did you attend an undergrad known for the strength of its physical science program?

 

[DoctorFate]

Heh funny you mention that since i had the exact opposite experience. Chemistry and physics profs were absolutely incredible who made difficult subjects like ochem and E&M understandable and enjoyable to learn.

On the other hand, bio profs were straight up garbage and made me want to smack my head against the wall many times out of sheer boredom (the only exception was biochem, the profs there were awesome).

Haha, I've had a decent amount of diversity with a CS and Bio double major and a Health Business and Chemistry Minor. At our place, Bio professors were absolutely and consistently terrible. CS and Chem were much better.

I feel these types of questions pop up many times every year.

While major doesn't matter, nailing a near 4.0 in engineering, math and physics is definitely remarkable. Those disciplines are hard and completely blow biology degrees out of the water and have dramatic long term value in medicine itself.

That said, more generally, i'd 100% recommend majoring in something that's not biology. A biology degree is imo... really boring and pretty worthless. The skills and experience you get from a non-biology major will be memorable, useful and have long term benefits

I better be considered "remarkable" by you then haha. This many courses absolutely was not worth it, but at least adcoms (or at least interviewers) seem consistently impressed. One of my acceptance letters even specifically commented on it.

 

[Lawpy]

Did you attend an undergrad known for the strength of its physical science program?

For engineering yeah.

 

[Lawpy]

Haha, I've had a decent amount of diversity with a CS and Bio double major and a Health Business and Chemistry Minor. At our place, Bio professors were absolutely and consistently terrible. CS and Chem were much better.


I better be considered "remarkable" by you then haha. This many courses absolutely was not worth it, but at least adcoms (or at least interviewers) seem consistently impressed. One of my acceptance letters even specifically commented on it.

Yeah, i have mad respect for CS easily.

Chem and health business are great too. I'm biased because i'm honestly a fan of everything that's not bio because you learn and experience a lot of things that are a MAJOR ASSET for both medicine and life in general

 

[DoctorFate]

Yeah, i have mad respect for CS easily.

Chem and health business are great too. I'm biased because i'm honestly a fan of everything that's not bio because you learn and experience a lot of things that are a MAJOR ASSET for both medicine and life in general

Yea, a central theme of my application has been the growing use and importance of technology in medicine, and how I want to contribute to it.

On a side note, the only major worse than Bio is definitely pre-med or pre-health. I roll my eyes whenever I see someone doing that. If you think Bio is useless well...

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Did you attend an undergrad known for the strength of its physical science program?

I didn’t, and the vast majority of my profs were amazing. I majored in math.

 

[LunaOri]

I don't think it's fair to say that major doesn't matter. If you can weave your major into how/why you want to do medicine, or work some time in the field etc, you can stand out in a fairly good way, and can add to a knowledge diversity of a class. A 4.0 in underwater basket weaving still beats a 3.5 MIT trained double degree chemE/computer science degree holder though.

Haha no.

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

Haha no.

Haha yes.

 

[DoctorFate]

Haha yes.

I'm echoing the other person. A 3.5 from MIT will almost undoubtedly be noticed as equal to or better than a 4.0 from some random university. A final year Harvard MD-PhD student i talked to had a 3.5 from MIT and no pubs.

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

I'm echoing the other person. A 3.5 from MIT will almost undoubtedly be noticed as equal to or better than a 4.0 from some random university. A final year Harvard MD-PhD student i talked to had a 3.5 from MIT and no pubs.

Adcoms here disagree. Your anecdote is just that.