Double Major/minor?

[FutureSurg2019]

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Do you think that having duel majors, and/or minors is a big positive to medical school admission committees? Or do good grades/ high mcat/ etc. suffice? I'm really questioning myself because I know that I will never have the time or chance to study what I want again in my life. On one hand I want to double major in biomedical engineering: premedical, and mathematics with concentration in economics, with a minor in religion...but this is an extremely strenuos schedule and would take me atleast 3-4 more years to accomplish (I'm transfering to UCI this fall from community college). Also, my GPA may not be up to par as it would be if I had one major in something less difficult... Are most of you premeds just focused on getting into med school and not too much focused on undergrad eduction?

 

[jr doctor in sd]

Do you think that having duel majors, and/or minors is a big positive to medical school admission committees? Or do good grades/ high mcat/ etc. suffice? I'm really questioning myself because I know that I will never have the time or chance to study what I want again in my life. On one hand I want to double major in biomedical engineering: premedical, and mathematics with concentration in economics, with a minor in religion...but this is an extremely strenuos schedule and would take me atleast 3-4 more years to accomplish (I'm transfering to UCI this fall from community college). Also, my GPA may not be up to par as it would be if I had one major in something less difficult... Are most of you premeds just focused on getting into med school and not too much focused on undergrad eduction?

I wouldnt say its a huge positive or anything - but if you're amazing at both psych and chemistry - by all means double major! but if you just want to do it because itll look good, id def. say to not do it. You'll be busy as hell senior year with all the essays and stressing from med schools anyways - thats why its awesome when you reach senior year and have all electives that you choose and not rlly any hardcore major UD classes left (at least thats how mine looks right now). 👍 if you double majored, though, youd be done with all the core stuff of psych (example) and still have some hard chem to be doing while going through that whole med school process!

 

[lord_jeebus]

A major in dueling should really set you apart

 

[FutureSurg2019]

I appreciate that, especially coming from a med student. I just hope I can handle 18-20 unit quarters! I also believe that having a well rounded undergrad eduction will not only help out in getting into med school, but later in life as well.

 

[foreverLaur]

In terms of admission, it won't make a difference.

In terms of help with medical school classes, it may help.

Do what you enjoy and do well at it. If you love philosophy and molecular genetics and can pull of both majors with a high GPA, by all means do it. If you can't, don't do it.

Don't major in something because you think it will look good to the adcoms - it won't. They want to see you doing what you enjoy and doing well at it. All colleges I know of include a very diverse education anyways - at my school over 50% of our coursework is general education type of work - humanities, language, history, etc. Obviously some of this is science and overlaps with my major.

 

[aaj117]

don't do things to get into medical school, do them because you want to. I know that my gpa is pretty low so people may not want to take my advice, but i chose to major in anthropology because i found it really really really interesting, and undergrad is the last time that you can really just study anything you choose. So if you want to take five languages and learn how to write poetry, go for it. If you want to do archaeology and study child pshchology, do that. You are paying for an undergraduate education. Get one. That's what I did; my gpa is lower because i always took the most interesting courses, things that i wanted to learn about. everyone else in my religion and art and literature and african-american studies and women-studies and engineering courses often had a lot more experience/background knowledge of the subject, making the courses a lot harder for me. BUt you know what? I often learned a hell of a lot more than any of them did in the course, and got my money's worth. And i still have plenty of interviews this far, and don't feel like i spent four years just trying to get into medical school

 

[jochi1543]

A major in dueling should really set you apart

I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw that.

 

[funkydrmonkey]

Just to let you know... The engineering dept at UCI does not let BME premeds double major because they believe it is a double major in itself, and they will not (99.73% sure) that they will not let you double major in Math because it is one of the longest (in terms of number of classes you have to complete) majors. I say, stick to one major that you like. I asked the Dean of Admissions of UCI Med School and she told me that Med Schools (at least UCI) does not care what you minor in. Also 2 science majors will not set you apart. If you were doing one science/engineering and one humanities, then that might make a difference. I hope this helps.

 

[Writer1985]

There were lots of threads on this topic last year. The general consensus was that double-majoring doesn't help you get into med school. Do it because you love both subjects.

BME + math + econ + religion sounds too difficult, IMO. But if you can pull the necessary grades without becoming a library slave, more power to you.