Double Majors?

[MrsHouseMD]

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Please don't flame me because of the fact that I'm just getting back into undergrad school (freshman).

okay, I love science so I naturally want to major in science (I'm a Bio major w/chem minor), but I want to make myself more interesting for med school apps as well...

My other love is computer science. While, this is a science...it is a bit different. What do you guys think if I double majored with Computer Science? You think it would help? And if so, what exactly is required to be a double major? (meaning, about how many courses in Computer Science would I have to fit in to my schedule to qualify? And would it have to be as much as my Bio classes???--that just seems impossible with four years)

Just wondering...

Thanks for your responses...

 

[RxnMan]

Having a double major won't make you stand out enough to make it worth going through the pain of extra classes.

Getting a "harder" major, like chemical engineering, does not make you look better, and no ADCOM thinks "an engineering 3.5 = 4.0 in philosophy." If I had to do it all over again, I would pick the easiest schedule, the fluffiest-A courses, and get as close as possible to a 4.0. And if that meant getting a philosophy major, who cares. As long as the ADCOMs see "ugrad GPA = 4.0" and "BCPM GPA = 4.0" they don't care what your major is.

If you love the coursework, great. Do what you want to. But there's no reward for the extra effort spent, and it may hurt your chances by dropping your GPA.

 

[Jman35]

This is probably the best advice you will get. I didn't do this and now am paying for it dearly. I came to school thinking I'd take the hardest classes and take many units...and that somehow that would look good and payoff. Trust me it doesn't. Someone with a poly sci 4.0 who takes the minimum premed requirements will look better than you if you don't pull off a very strong gpa.

Having a double major won't make you stand out enough to make it worth going through the pain of extra classes.

Getting a "harder" major, like chemical engineering, does not make you look better, and no ADCOM thinks "an engineering 3.5 = 4.0 in philosophy." If I had to do it all over again, I would pick the easiest schedule, the fluffiest-A courses, and get as close as possible to a 4.0. And if that meant getting a philosophy major, who cares. As long as the ADCOMs see "ugrad GPA = 4.0" and "BCPM GPA = 4.0" they don't care what your major is.

If you love the coursework, great. Do what you want to. But there's no reward for the extra effort spent, and it may hurt your chances by dropping your GPA.

 

[njbmd]

Please don't flame me because of the fact that I'm just getting back into undergrad school (freshman).

okay, I love science so I naturally want to major in science (I'm a Bio major w/chem minor), but I want to make myself more interesting for med school apps as well...

My other love is computer science. While, this is a science...it is a bit different. What do you guys think if I double majored with Computer Science? You think it would help? And if so, what exactly is required to be a double major? (meaning, about how many courses in Computer Science would I have to fit in to my schedule to qualify? And would it have to be as much as my Bio classes???--that just seems impossible with four years)

Just wondering...

Thanks for your responses...

The single thing that makes any applicant to medical school stand out is a strong performance in undergrad coupled with an excellent MCAT score. Concentrate on what you are majoring in already and do extremely well. If you find that you totally love Computer Science, then major in Computer Science but don't do this to try to "make yourself more interesting" for medical school. Any major done well is interesting enough.

As others have said, spreading yourself too thin in an attempt to "impress" an admissions committee is not a sound strategy. There is nothing worse than an applicant with hundreds of hours of mediocre coursework, a mediocre MCAT (or several) who has been attempting to "look interesting". I can tell you from my experience as a member of two admissions committees, that there are too many people applying now who have outstanding applications.

Your Biology major with a Chem minor with a strong performance (undergraduate GPA above 3.6) and a strong MCAT (above 30) coupled with excellent LORs, extracurriculars will make you a very "interesting" candidate. Good luck!

 

[MrsHouseMD]

Thanks you guys! That is what I wanted to know! 🙂

 

[GatorPhD]

Not to mention that double majoring means more classes, which means more time wasted writing software when you could be starting med school. Major in what YOU like and what makes YOU happy. Oh yeah, make good grades!

Good luck!

 

[stbxTechie]

My other love is computer science. While, this is a science...it is a bit different.

It's not really taught as a science most college; it's taught as an engineering discipline. It tends to be very practice-heavy and theory-light compared to most of the hard sciences. That tends to translate into classes that have a very heavy time commitment, but which are pretty easy in terms of the amount of material to memorize/understand compared to the hard sciences.

What do you guys think if I double majored with Computer Science? You think it would help?

My advice? Take the premed prereqs, and do well in them. Take some real CS courses, and see how you like them. Then decide which you'd enjoy taking the advanced courses in more; there will typically be a number of advanced bio courses for your major which aren't required for medical school.

I can't comment on what that (or doing a double major) will do for your chances in medical school, but I do know some comp sci students from where I was an undergrad who were also premeds and got in without too much trouble.

One thing where it might help is if you are thinking about it as a fallback if you don't get into med school. OTOH, it's potentially miserable work for people who aren't psycho techies (and some who are - hence my being here) and you can certainly get jobs in industry with just a minor -- doing some internships or getting experience some other way is more important than being a major per se.

And if so, what exactly is required to be a double major? (meaning, about how many courses in Computer Science would I have to fit in to my schedule to qualify?

That is totally variable on your particular university. Computer science curricula vary quite widely.

Indeed, some schools offer more than one track of computer science (BA + BS or one through Arts and Sciences and one through Engineering.)

Some schools require basic physical science (Physics and possibly Chem) for CS majors; in that case, those would also satisfy your pre-med requirements.

And would it have to be as much as my Bio classes???--that just seems impossible with four years)

That depends on the school as well.

Not to mention that double majoring means more classes, which means more time wasted writing software when you could be starting med school. Major in what YOU like and what makes YOU happy. Oh yeah, make good grades!

Depending on how the school structures general ed requirements and majors, that may or may not be true... at some school, it may mean more total credits/courses, while at other schools a double major may just mean that you're taking courses for the second major rather than electives.

 

[MSTPbound]

Having a double major won't make you stand out enough to make it worth going through the pain of extra classes.

Getting a "harder" major, like chemical engineering, does not make you look better, and no ADCOM thinks "an engineering 3.5 = 4.0 in philosophy." If I had to do it all over again, I would pick the easiest schedule, the fluffiest-A courses, and get as close as possible to a 4.0. And if that meant getting a philosophy major, who cares. As long as the ADCOMs see "ugrad GPA = 4.0" and "BCPM GPA = 4.0" they don't care what your major is.

If you love the coursework, great. Do what you want to. But there's no reward for the extra effort spent, and it may hurt your chances by dropping your GPA.

OK... agree with all of this... but last time I checked, philosophy was friggin' HARD😕

I don't know... maybe depends on the school? Probably a great way to bag MCAT VR before even beginning to prep though.

 

[MrsHouseMD]

Thanks you guys...that makes alot of sense!

 

[sunset823]

OK... agree with all of this... but last time I checked, philosophy was friggin' HARD😕

I don't know... maybe depends on the school? Probably a great way to bag MCAT VR before even beginning to prep though.

Yeah, philosophy is hard; the logic classes rival advanced math courses

To the OP, major in whatever you want, but I'd go with CS over advanced bio, because it's more marketable by itself, just in case

 

[waytogo]

The first time around I was a music performance major. I loved it and I learned a lot. Many people will think that music is easy but I went to very hard schools and I found it more demanding than many science classes. I credit music for the reason that I do well on verbal tests (my GRE was awesome), improving my reasoning ability, and scoring in the 99th percentile in visual spacial reasoning several times. There are a lot of reasons I am happy that I did the music first but in the back of my head, I did think about wanting something else.

When I had a health problem and I had to quit while a grad student in music, I started over and did a BS in biology and a BS in psychology (focused on bio psych). So yes, I have 3 bachelors degrees. I picked bio and psych because of my specific goals. I am so happy that I did it. I enjoyed all of my time in school. Ultimately you have to be happy with what you do. The happier you are, the better you will do. Of course, you do have to consider how it will look but make your primary reason a good one (internal instead of external). If you pick an easy major that you are not interested in just so you can have a good GPA, you will not be as happy and may not do as well. You also have to make sure that you major in something that you can use.

If you really want a double major, consider the pairing. While two science majors have overlapping classes, a science and something else may be more helpful. Other common pairings that I know of include music, women's studies, history, Spanish, and business. If you plan it, there really should not be much more involved in extra class work. I think that it took me 4 more years for the bio and psych degrees and I had major surgery 2X during this. While I am happy that I did this, the story would have been different if my motivation were to please someone else.

It is important to:
Be sure to find out how demanding all of the classes are and plan out everything until you graduate.
Plan classes during intersession and summer/evening sessions.
Check out the difference between a double major and a double degree. A double degree may require only a handful more classes and results in the awarding of 2 degrees (double major is one with 2 major designations).
I discussed my plans with the person who oversees admission and acceptance for multiple degrees. Because I had clear reasoning, I received a lot. I hope that this helps. Best of Luck!