I keep hearing that I can major in whatever I want?
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We really don't care.
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But would you respect a 3.8 in something "easy" (I'm thinking about Public Health for myself.) to the same degree as you would respect a 3.8 in Biology/Zoology/Neuroscience/Chemistry?
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I know someone who majored in Art History and now attends one of the top medical schools in the USA (think Harvard, Yale, Stanford.) One of the physicians that I shadowed majored in dance. My own physician majored in Anthropology. So yeah...
I don't care as long as they did well in it and do well on the MCAT.
Some of my colleagues have a dim opinion of vocational majors, though.
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What is considered vocational major? Electrical engineering and public health both can be referred as vocational?
Would Political Science and Women and Gender Studies fall into the category of vocational majors?
No. Nursing, Physical therapy, Auto Shop...
Um... yeah. It's fairly common. Interestingly, majoring in a specialized/vocational health science is correlated with worse MCAT averages compared to other majors!
Source: https://www.aamc.org/download/321496/data/factstablea17.pdf
While shadowing at a top-20 medical school I met a medical student who was a religious studies major during undergraduate. If anything, I think it helped him as he had an interesting background to add to the medical school classes he applied too, rather than just being another biology major. I would be interested to hear about why he decided to pursue that major.
Vocational degrees refer to mainly skill-based degrees. Think of it as an apprenticeship for a hands-on job. Engineering and public health require much more knowledge and creativity than just skills. Nursing and physical therapy are largely skill-based majors.
Some of my classmates at a top 20 were music, folklore, and religion majors.
If you're going for a dual degree, I would say it could matter. It can help sell your interest in the other degree. I.e. if you want a PhD in computational bio research maybe having a computer science minor can make you look more serious.
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yes OP lots of my friends in med school had crazy unrelated majors
journalism
music theory
latin
are just 3 that came to my mind
journalism
music theory
latin
are just 3 that came to my mind
There is a principal investigator at my institution, she is young, she is running like 7 trials, and she majored in music in college. Study whatever the heck you want!
My faculty interviewer at UCSF majored in music.
Just as an example, if you think Fine Arts is "easy", try writing an essay every two weeks on subjects like "The Jackson Pollack Retrospective at the Whitney", "Picasso's Blue Period" and "Influences of the Hudson River School on American Art" every two weeks. I minored in Fine Arts.
I have clinical colleagues who were English, Drama, Film Studies and Literature majors.
No
I have clinical colleagues who were English, Drama, Film Studies and Literature majors.
No
This isn't what I meant. No, I don't think Public Heath/English/other non-science subjects are easy. I put my use of the term in quotes because some people, however wrongly, see them that way. That's all.
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deleted760686
But isn't there a risk factor? I would love to major in history but I'm afraid of what I would do if I don't get into med school. I think that's why many people major in the sciences, so they have a decent plan B.
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I'm at a top medical school. I know people here who majored in English, Music, Philosophy, Classics, Writing, etc etc in addition to people who majored in Biology, Neuroscience, Math, Physics, etc.
It really doesn't matter.
It really doesn't matter.
Meds schools care about requirements more than/not major.
The challenge you might run into is that some schools give you an advisor based on your major. Thus the art hx advisor may give you very wrong med school info and may argue with or not want to approve you taking courses outside of your major. Some of my fellow students in psych had the advisor every time tell them that they couldn't get into med school without a bio degree. So just be aware of that, but even bio advisors are sometimes clueless. If ur a nontrad this debate can be annoying if you have to have an advisor sign off to register.
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The challenge you might run into is that some schools give you an advisor based on your major. Thus the art hx advisor may give you very wrong med school info and may argue with or not want to approve you taking courses outside of your major. Some of my fellow students in psych had the advisor every time tell them that they couldn't get into med school without a bio degree. So just be aware of that, but even bio advisors are sometimes clueless. If ur a nontrad this debate can be annoying if you have to have an advisor sign off to register.
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And besides, biology is the worst science to major in if you're looking for plan B
Not necessarily.
Compared to the other sciences, it's pretty bad due to limited scope and skills.
It depends upon what you're learning. Ecology? Not good. Molecular biology lab? . Much better.
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Hmm but Plan B is still grad school. Or teaching. Are there other alternatives?
Consulting if you interview well, come from a decent school, and have a decent GPA. You can also do lab work that, in some positions, pays okay (not well, but okay). You can also write for newspapers/magazines/journals if you are good at that (though the jobs are rarer than the ones I mentioned before). You could also work in certain start-ups.
Heyyy 😛 was in an ecology lab for many years. There's jobs out there! Especially field work.
But agree with Lawper - lots of friends with regular bio degrees are having a bad time with a Plan B...
Finding a job with most bachelor's degrees in your field is a challenge these days. I do know of quite a few bio and chem majors that have done well in pharmaceutical manufacturing though. A bachelors in Psychology will get you a great gig managing at Burger King orWalmart.
But most of those would be fine with any degree. For instance, an economics degree can be very useful for business and management careers. What unique skills and knowledge does a biology degree provide outside of medicine?
Even neuroscience degrees have value in psychology and computer science fields. And ecology degrees are very useful for field work and environment areas. For chemistry, it can be pharmaceutical industry due to drug synthesis. Physics and math are self-explanatory.
For biology, all i could find is grad school and teaching, since consulting work, startups and science writing can apply for any science degree (even when the focus is on healthcare).
Some don't care about specific requirements, either!
Wake Forest
Vanderbilt
USC Keck
Stanford
Rush Medical College
Southern Illinois
Tulane
Albert Einstein
Hofstra
NYU
University of Cincinnati
Drexel
University of Pennsylvania
Sydney Kimmel
M University of South Carolina (Charleston)
University of Virginia
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota
Duke
UCSD
U Conn
U of Chicago
I know personally at least one from that list that claims to not care about requirements and markets how they don't but when you look at students they have only accepted a select couple that haven't met the standard requirements. One had shall we say connections and the other was a darn near perfect mcat and 4.0 but for certain reasons didn't have all of the classes but had others to make up for such.
Shooting to be a rare exception to the rule is statistically not a sound strategy for getting into med school. Most of us don't have the fortune to be child prodigies or have rich parents who donate wings.
I will say it would be nice if the standards were changed and better ones developed.
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What school? That's important
Given my ummm relationship ties I'll defer from saying which one, but if you look at avg student stats of things like mcat scores and "n's" you can figure out what schools still weigh heavy in on things like the MCAT.
For instance paraphrased from one of the schools:
While we do not require specific mcat and gpa scores, classes, or have other direct requirements beyond a completed application, letters of recommendation, and a bachelor's degree prior to matriculation, intense competition often eliminates those applicants with GPA's and MCAT scores less than 3.8/37......... In our consideration of the whole applicant we evaluate all transcripts and tests taken in our admissions process.
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Very selective schools have no reason to accept anything less than what they perceive to be the "best."
Changing the stated requirement provides them with the flexibility to do this without putting restrictions on themselves or the candidates.
Very few applicants will distinguish themselves sufficiently for any of these schools without the usual course requirements. It is a rare applicant that will do well without them.
My point is that requirements have become more fluid and that many schools have chosen to use their administrative time doing something more useful that approving transcripts and denying very well qualified applicants for lack of a specific course.
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Agreed, and I am all for flexibility, but then with 7000 applicants even with the best intentions one cannot spend the time needed on each application to find that oddly exceptional 3.0, 500 student. Perhaps at some point better methods will be found, as the number of applicants are increasing for many schools.
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Schools who read every application can find them, without regard to "requirements."
It's extraordinarily rare to find such an applicant, though. Thus, I cannot recommend an MD application to folks with these stats, however exceptional they may believe themselves to be and without regard to their completion of required courses.
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My very selective school ostensibly requires the classic premed courses. 4 sciences + labs and English. I have taken a grand total of 2 labs ever (not exaggerating). No physics, gen chem or bio labs. This was a deliberate choice I made due to what I'd read on SDN (thanks!) I have had no complaints with upcoming enrollment. Neither do I feel I would have at the other schools that accepted me (maybe the SUNY). If you look at my app/ECs you'll see I am the opposite of cookie cutter. So the system benefits those like me very greatly
In my experience, the public schools tend to be more rigid in requiring coursework to be complete before enrollment. My ex-girlfriend is making up 2 classes and a lab this summer bc her UC is making her do so. I've known others with this problem, but never at private schools, much less the very selective ones.
Yale right? Pretty gnarly with all the coming off waitlists at great schools and switching matriculations lol. congrats
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deleted407021
I have a psychology degree and I know a guy in a state MD program who majored in philosophy.
It's much more about what you do with your time and how you perform academically.
It's much more about what you do with your time and how you perform academically.
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Another thing you can do if you're a bio major and not get into med school is become one of those pharma/medical device reps. They make decent money especially the device reps since they get kickbacks for getting their products in a hospital and they charge for each piece of device used (think ortho spine screws, etc). You got to either be hot or are a good ass kisser since you'll be needing that to get your foot in the door of a hospital and surgeons are notoriously egotistical so they like having that ego struck lol.
