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justplainkenn

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I currently am a marketing and international business co-major at a nationally ranked business undergraduate university. Assuming I take all my "Pre-Med" prerequisites and do well on the MCAT, will my major negatively impact my chances at getting into medical school?
I was thinking about picking up a minor in cognitive science, but it could add an extra semester to my undergraduate experience.

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Your major does not factor as much into your application as GPA or MCAT does. Having a solid GPA and MCAT scores are the big deal. Having a non-science major can actually be beneficial because you come from a different perspective than other science oriented graduates. You could of majored in anything, and as long as you have good stats for your pre-reqs and all, you are fine.

Regarding your extra semester, I think it is up to you. If it is an extra fall semester, it can't hurt if you really want the minor, or want to pad your GPA. You have to remember that you have the entire application process like completing AMCAS, secondaries and interviews. For an extra spring semester it is more of interviews you have to schedule around. If you think you can juggle it then go ahead if you want to, its your decision.
 
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Don't get the minor just for medical school. If it's something you want, then you should do it. But you'll be fine with your major. The only time I think a major can affect someone is if it has a reputation for being very easy and the science/pre-req GPA are not great. They then might think it was a GPA boosting major, but it is still the science GPA that's actually hurting you. A major can affect someone the opposite direction if it is incredibly hard, as I've heard some engineers are not given the credit for the difficulty of their major and its toll on their GPA.
 
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Adcoms don't care about your major or minor, only that you do well.

I currently am a marketing and international business co-major at a nationally ranked business undergraduate university. Assuming I take all my "Pre-Med" prerequisites and do well on the MCAT, will my major negatively impact my chances at getting into medical school?
I was thinking about picking up a minor in cognitive science, but it could add an extra semester to my undergraduate experience.
 
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no, med school adcoms don't care what major you graduate with
 
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I currently am a marketing and international business co-major at a nationally ranked business undergraduate university. Assuming I take all my "Pre-Med" prerequisites and do well on the MCAT, will my major negatively impact my chances at getting into medical school?
I was thinking about picking up a minor in cognitive science, but it could add an extra semester to my undergraduate experience.
You don't need an official minor unless its the only way your school will give you access to classes in, say, Biochem, Behavioral Sciences, Statistics (though Business statistics will do for some schools), and the upper-level Bio that some schools also require or strongly recommend.
 
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