If you could start over with a different major...

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The title sums it up... more or less just out of curiosity. Either for better preparation for med school or for your own personal interest. I'm an electrical engineering major with a minor in biomedical engineering, but if I could start over, I'd probably major in biomedical engineering with a minor in Korean. Anyone?
 
i graduated with a bio major, if starting over i would do physics and/or math
 
Microbiology.

It's what I started as, but I was lured into CompSci during the excesses of the .com bubble. Comparing salaries it seemed like a logical choice at the time.
 
wrumfoord said:
Microbiology.

It's what I started as, but I was lured into CompSci during the excesses of the .com bubble. Comparing salaries it seemed like a logical choice at the time.
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Our company has a micro group. All they do is swabbing places here and there and growing cultures. One time they found horse poop bacteria in one of the clean rooms and apparently some guy worked at a ranch and didn't properly gown his feet.
 
I'm pretty happy with my psychology/chemistry double major. If I could add a third though it would be philosophy.
 
i'll graduate with biological sciences major. I wish I could go back and do bioengineering. There are many more research opportunities and practical applications with an engineering degree than a biology degree.
 
I like ChemE. If I didn't want to do med, I'd do MechE. It's more interesting to me.

If I had to do it over and still wanted to do med... I might prefer biochem. It's like the express lane to med school.
 
I wouldn't change my major. Biology makes me very happy, and it's a job I could fall back on. However, if I KNEW I was going to get into medical school the first time I apply, I would have gone with philosophy. Easier and more fun.
 
My second choice major would've been something less sciencey, like Art or Philosophy. I'd like to be able to argue my way out of a paper bag in the future.
 
i'm really happy with my biochem major. but if i did college again, i'd tack on a dance major instead of just messing around and barely minoring in it.
 
I'm a chem major now. I would have done International Studies.
 
I was very happy with my Philosophy major - wouldn't have changed it even if I could have. Second choice would likely have been Classics.
 
Daedalus said:
I was very happy with my Philosophy major - wouldn't have changed it even if I could have. Second choice would likely have been Classics.
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Classics being literature? As much as I am a fan of reading, taking classes about books I read for fun would be kind of a buzzkill because of the literature summary/100 page essay we'd have to write afterwards.
 
Compass said:
Classics being literature? As much as I am a fan of reading, taking classes about books I read for fun would be kind of a buzzkill because of the literature summary/100 page essay we'd have to write afterwards.
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no. classics = ancient latin and/or greek. 😉

p.s. daedalus, i like your screen name 😀 i took many, many years of latin (from 7th grade to junior year of college!) and LOVED it so much. including daedalus and icarus 🙂
 
I love Math, but I would have liked to get a Chemistry degree too. I wanted to switch to Chem as a sophomore but I had already taken the wrong Physics. But it worked out I guess. I still love Math. 😀
 
Zoology major here. I'd do astronomy.
 
Immunology and Infections major. Would have done English Lit or Religion.
 
Gosh, all y'alls have such cool majors. We didn't have any Zoology/Infections/Immunology majors. Heck, we only had 10 people graduate from my BINF major, as opposed to several hundred from BIOL.
 
My major is biology, if i could start over i would choose biochemistry or chemistry... I dont like bio;(
 
dw2158 said:
no. classics = ancient latin and/or greek. 😉

p.s. daedalus, i like your screen name 😀 i took many, many years of latin (from 7th grade to junior year of college!) and LOVED it so much. including daedalus and icarus 🙂
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Yep, latin and greek 😀
And thanks - yeah, I took lots of latin as well - picked up some ancient greek along the way, but not as much as I would have liked. Had a lot of fun in those classes - I think my favorites are still Catullus' carmina
 
Daedalus said:
Yep, latin and greek 😀
And thanks - yeah, I took lots of latin as well - picked up some ancient greek along the way, but not as much as I would have liked. Had a lot of fun in those classes - I think my favorites are still Catullus' carmina
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i do love catullus, but i think i'll always have a soft spot in my heart for ovid 😍
 
Graduated Comp Sci major. Interesting and all, but I'd like to do biochem.
 
I love biochemistry and I love math. I wouldn't change for anything.
 
Daedalus said:
Yep, latin and greek 😀
And thanks - yeah, I took lots of latin as well - picked up some ancient greek along the way, but not as much as I would have liked. Had a lot of fun in those classes - I think my favorites are still Catullus' carmina
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I'm the opposite. I focused on Greek with little to no Latin lol. Went into college as bioengineering and came out as a Classics nerd haha. I definitely would have appreciated the rigorous work of engineering but Greek provided me with an adequate challenge. Half of the class failed each quarter in Greek.
 
I have this opportunity.. Should I switch from biochem to psychology? Part of me says "yes," but a lot of me says "no"...
 
ChemEngSoonMD said:
Our company has a micro group. All they do is swabbing places here and there and growing cultures. One time they found horse poop bacteria in one of the clean rooms and apparently some guy worked at a ranch and didn't properly gown his feet.
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I would hate for this guy to be my doctor.

You talk like ChemE is some higher-level major. If you're smart, you'll make $$, regardless of your major. If you're not, "useful" major or not - you won't go anywhere.
 
Currently Chem w/ biochem minor.

I'd probably have double majored Physics and Philosophy.
 
dr seuss said:
I started as a philosophy major and I wish I stayed with that instead of switching to Biology. If I could go back I would either do a philosophy/math double major, or biomedical engineering.


I know a lot of the girls in the ballet department at my school and I couldn't imagine doing that and being a pre-med. They are in class like 9-5 during the week and have class on Saturday, and have rehearsals almost every night. I don't think I would have the energy to study for ochem or the mcat after dancing all day, or have time for shadowing/volunteering.
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i don't know where you went to school, but that sounds intense! the dance major at my school is also intense, but academically so... it is a world renowned department and the profs know it. they deliberately try to make classes hard-- lots of papers, hard tests, etc. the technique classes are so much fun and amazing though-- no homework, slightly famous teachers, etc. i loooooooved my dance department 😀
 
Immunology. I would do it again and again if I had to, it's absolutely fascinating.
 
I think I would have kept my same major. I wish I had better teachers. The one think I would have done differently would have been to stay an extra year. Spread out my courseload. Not rush through, and taken more fun classes. Make that an extra 2 years. (I finished in 3 years).
 
I majored in biology, if i could change it, i'd probably go with sociology, psychology, or one of those other ologies that would result in a near 4.0 GPA
 
I would still be happy with philosophy. But I also would have doubled in biophysics.
 
I graduated with a BA in psychology.
I should've graduated with a BS in neuroscience and studied psychology texts on my own.
 
That's tough.

I agree that future job prospects are important (There's just no reason to get $75,000+ in debt so you can fold jeans at the gap. Seriously.) So I wouldn't change majors if I had no knowledge of how it would work out.

But if I could go back knowing that I will get into medical school, I'd totally major in something awesome that I'll never get another chance to learn, like Art History or Ceramics.

That said, I got a great MCAT score on the bio section and I'd probably be throwing that away by not taking all of those upper-level bio classes, so I'm actually really happy with my B.S. in bio.
 
Compass said:
😱 C++?
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I wish. Haven't been able to do that in almost a year. All C# and web app crap.

Of course we use archaic systems to release builds, which is where the fun comes in... It's become the running joke. We have a book we pass around to whoever broke the build last.

Forgot to mention that randomly when checking files into source control the program will insert some odd symbol which causes every other line of code to appear in asian characters. The caveat of that is, the person who checked it in can't see the foreign characters. Everything looks fine to them, but it looks garbled to everyone else. Nothing builds, chaos ensues, the book ends up on my desk...
 
Last edited:
Trexate said:
I wish. Haven't been able to do that in almost a year. All C# and web app crap.

Of course we use archaic systems to release builds, which is where the fun comes in... It's become the running joke. We have a book we pass around to whoever broke the build last.

Forgot to mention that randomly when checking files into source control the program will insert some odd symbol which causes every other line of code to appear in asian characters. The caveat of that is, the person who checked it in can't see the foreign characters. Everything looks fine to them, but it looks garbled to everyone else. Nothing builds, chaos ensues, the book ends up on my desk...
Click to expand...

I know how you feel bro...Good times 👍
 
I like my bio major, but it would have been fun to do something completely different like history or philosophy. A biochem or chem major would be cool too.
 
Underwater basket weaving.....

Nah, but seriously, I would have picked psychology or general biology.
 
I already graduated with an Economics major, so I've already seen the Liberal Arts/Business side of the world. I'm working on a Biology degree now, which I'm happy with (professional school prereqs drive this major).

If I started college all over, I'm strongly consider Engineering, but I'm happy I didn't my first time around. I screwed around too much and would've completely butchered my GPA and made any professional school nearly impossible. At this point, I'd rather put my energy into prereqs and upper level sciences vs. engineering.
 
I have a BA in International Studies and a CIS minor. I'd probably go with Micro or Chem if I did it again, but I'm not unhappy with IS. It definitely gets conversations going in interviews.
 
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