Is Premed good for other professions besides medicine?

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Janitor. Burger flipper. Cashier.

All very fine professions!

In all seriousness, there isn't much use for a 'premed' degree except pursuing a graduate education.

This includes biology, neuroscience, and other similar fields, but you'll be limited even moreso if the name of your degree is "premedical studies" or something related. Possibly teaching, possibly lab tech, but, other than that, there is next to no specialized use for that degree.
 
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Those who finish pre-med requirements generally also qualify for graduate-level programs in: podiatry, chiropractic, optometry, physical therapy, occupational therapy, dentistry, pharmacy, anesthesiologist assistant, physician's assistant, genetic counseling, epidemiology/health policy...

A lot of options.
 
Do you mean premed classes or a Bachelor's in Premedical Studies? Because some institutions, like the one I attend, do offer a premed major. If you decide not to be a doctor, then you're kind of screwed. While it will mean you have a strong science background, I'm not sure what jobs you could get with a premed degree. I think the better option, if you really want a premed-geared degree, is to major in something like biology or biochemistry.
 
Princeton Medical Student said:
Premed isn't a major. If your school has it as a major, you should transfer, because that's a ****ing stupid thing to have as a major.
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Nope, my university offers an actual premed major. It makes me furious. My parents tried to get me to do it ("well, your goal is medical school, isn't it?") and I was like hell no, that's idiotic, that's not an actual degree. So popular with incoming freshman, though. I think most of the premed majors I know ended up switching to bio once they realized that a premed degree shouldn't actually be a thing. As such, I wonder if the premed major is an admissions thing to attract the impressionable youth to our school ("wow, mom [school] has a pre-med major! [other school] doesn't, so I should obviously not go there").
For example, I was sitting in a lobby yesterday doing some homework and this random high school junior who's doing a college visit walks up to me and starts asking me about classes and stuff, and she's like "well, my prospective major is pre-med, and you're supposed to take [class]" and I wanted to rip my hair out and tell her to look for a real major. But again, she was into it, and it might influence whether or not she decides to attend.
 
thegreengreatdragon said:
Nope, my university offers an actual premed major. It makes me furious. My parents tried to get me to do it ("well, your goal is medical school, isn't it?") and I was like hell no, that's idiotic, that's not an actual degree.
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Why not? It fully qualifies you to work at Best Buy.
 
thegreengreatdragon said:
Nope, my university offers an actual premed major. It makes me furious. My parents tried to get me to do it ("well, your goal is medical school, isn't it?") and I was like hell no, that's idiotic, that's not an actual degree. So popular with incoming freshman, though. I think most of the premed majors I know ended up switching to bio once they realized that a premed degree shouldn't actually be a thing. As such, I wonder if the premed major is an admissions thing to attract the impressionable youth to our school ("wow, mom [school] has a pre-med major! [other school] doesn't, so I should obviously not go there").
For example, I was sitting in a lobby yesterday doing some homework and this random high school junior who's doing a college visit walks up to me and starts asking me about classes and stuff, and she's like "well, my prospective major is pre-med, and you're supposed to take [class]" and I wanted to rip my hair out and tell her to look for a real major. But again, she was into it, and it might influence whether or not she decides to attend.
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Absolutely infuriatingly stupid.
 
I was actually denied a scholarship for applying as a premed but not being a "premed" major.
 
Getting back to the topic at hand. What could you do with a likely B.S. in biology if you don't get in to medical school.

What would likely be best is for you to go back to school and get either a M.S or PhD so you're a more competitive hire in research positions. You could also apply to another professional school in a different health field. Think Pharm, Optometry, etc.

If you don't want to do that, you'll have to go through the arduous process of working your way up from entry level into an eventual managerial position in a biotech company. (Not having an M.S basically disqualifies you from working in a college setting) You'll need to brush up on the social skills a lot though, which is difficult for some sciences students because as much as you'll hate hearing it, promotions and raises depend on how friendly you are to senior staff.

It's a 15+ year climb, and you're limited in what you can do. You'll likely never be able to get into a directorial position, but you can use the experience you've gained in your time working to manage a small group and you could very well be within the top 3 levels of a department.

If you don't want to work in biotech and also aren't a fan of being paid well, you could get your Single Subject Teaching Credential and teach high school.

I'm sure there are other things you could do as well, but those are the ones that come to mind fastest.
 
*gasp*

Not pursuing a medical doctorate???? here on THE sdn??? Not in this economy
 
If you search drop out club on google, you will find a site dedicated to non-medical careers for doctors. It may have what ur looking for
 
Don't ever get a premed degree lol it would do you absolutely no good. May as well get an actual bio B.S. instead, I doubt the classes would be any different at all.

But you can do plenty. I am a non-traditional with a mid-level career position and no graduate degree (yet), so I can shed a little light on what I have experienced.

As other users highlighted, premed will overlap with the pre-reqs of many other professional schools. I think the uses of an actual premed education are pretty limited though, since you it doesn't prepare you properly for working within the clinic at even entry-level positions (you will need additional training for even working as a medical assistant).

Your best bet and what worked out for me would be to go into a research career in biotech or pharma. This would require you get some solid lab experience first at some academic labs on campus, which shouldn't be terribly hard if you attend a larger research school. You will likely start off low, since many people in this field do have a masters or PhD. Just make sure you learn how to confidently perform specific experiments and techniques on your own, this is what employers will look for (and what is NOT taught in bio lab). If you can swing a research associate position by working up from a research assistant, then you have a solid starting place for a career.

This doesn't have to be basic-science, it can also be clinical research. Learn about IRBs and the basics of clinical research studies, get some experience, and you could get a job as a clinical research coordinator or clinical research associate. Both of these jobs have a pretty well defined pipeline for reaching director level positions at some point in your career if you are able to move up. I have seen many people from my clinical team (at a large medical device company) move to marketing and other sectors too, so there are options of moving up the corporate ladder.

As always though, networking is everything 😛
 
Keep in mind that there are a ton of careers where college major doesn't really matter that much. I worked in real estate development before I decided to go to med school. Most of the people I worked with were econ/finance types, but I really wouldn't have thought twice about hiring a biology major for an entry level project management position if they showed interest an at least had some basic understanding of economics and finance.

That's just one example, but my point is that you don't have to restrict the list of possible careers to things that are related to biology. You can graduate with a degree in bio, and still have a pretty massive array of careers available to you. Honestly, it would probably be easier to list the careers that aren't accessible to a bio major than to list the ones that are.
 
Uhh, what are you guys talking about? You're all totally missing the mark. Look at OP's post history.

He's a 40-year-old with a bachelor's degree in business administration and a low undergraduate GPA. He's hesitant about medicine because of the lengthy time commitment, so he's looking at other options in healthcare.

He's talking about a pre-med post-bacc, not an undergraduate degree. He doesn't have a biology degree, nor will he ever have a biology degree -- and he already has a career.
 
Osminog said:
Uhh, what are you guys talking about? You're all totally missing the mark. Look at OP's post history.

He's a 40-year-old with a bachelor's degree in business administration and a low undergraduate GPA. He's hesitant about medicine because of the lengthy time commitment, so he's looking at other options in healthcare.

He's talking about a pre-med post-bacc, not an undergraduate degree. He doesn't have a biology degree, nor will he ever have a biology degree -- and he already has a career.
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That is a very different case from what I'd imagined, so I'm sorry about getting off-topic. I wonder if OP could maybe apply to PA school after a 2-year postbac? That wouldn't take as much time, but would maybe be a better option for him at this point?
 
Osminog said:
Uhh, what are you guys talking about? You're all totally missing the mark. Look at OP's post history.

He's a 40-year-old with a bachelor's degree in business administration and a low undergraduate GPA. He's hesitant about medicine because of the lengthy time commitment, so he's looking at other options in healthcare.

He's talking about a pre-med post-bacc, not an undergraduate degree. He doesn't have a biology degree, nor will he ever have a biology degree -- and he already has a career.
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Lol OP should have made that explicit in his post instead of expecting people to read his history. Ain't nobody interested in doing that.
 
thegreengreatdragon said:
Do you mean premed classes or a Bachelor's in Premedical Studies? Because some institutions, like the one I attend, do offer a premed major. If you decide not to be a doctor, then you're kind of screwed. While it will mean you have a strong science background, I'm not sure what jobs you could get with a premed degree. I think the better option, if you really want a premed-geared degree, is to major in something like biology or biochemistry.
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I meant 2 years of Chemistry, 1 year of Biology, 1 year of Physics, 1 year of Math. Also to include: 1 year Biochemistry, Anatomy and Physiology, and Genetics.
 
thegreengreatdragon said:
Nope, my university offers an actual premed major. It makes me furious. My parents tried to get me to do it ("well, your goal is medical school, isn't it?") and I was like hell no, that's idiotic, that's not an actual degree. So popular with incoming freshman, though. I think most of the premed majors I know ended up switching to bio once they realized that a premed degree shouldn't actually be a thing. As such, I wonder if the premed major is an admissions thing to attract the impressionable youth to our school ("wow, mom [school] has a pre-med major! [other school] doesn't, so I should obviously not go there").
For example, I was sitting in a lobby yesterday doing some homework and this random high school junior who's doing a college visit walks up to me and starts asking me about classes and stuff, and she's like "well, my prospective major is pre-med, and you're supposed to take [class]" and I wanted to rip my hair out and tell her to look for a real major. But again, she was into it, and it might influence whether or not she decides to attend.
Click to expand...

So if you continued with the "premed major", is your degree in premedical studies or something? BS in premed?
 
n=1, but I was forced to switch into my school's official premed major (old department didn't support epidemiology-based thesis... politics aren't fun). It didn't stop me from getting into my first choice grad school (given, it's a health related field). I suspect it wouldn’t really have an impact in the job market for the same reason math and physics majors are pretty much fine wherever.

Edit: grammar
 
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I disagree. You can most certainly advertise your experiences as having demonstrated leadership, customer service (aka patient care), project development, and teamwork.

Plus, many people outside of healthcare/biology/medicine consider biology to be one of the most difficult majors.

I would argue that some who majored in finance or Comp Sci has an excellent back up because you can advertise the skills I mentioned in my first couple sentences, along with your eduction in finance/computer science, to jobs outside of healthcare. The hardest part, however, is that those majors don’t fulfill any premed requirements (except math). Biology itself fulfills every requirement. At my school, there was a different of 4 classes because premed requirements and getting the bio degree.
 
I meant to say 4 classes between*

The new format isn’t letting me edit my posts...
 
Osminog said:
Those who finish pre-med requirements generally also qualify for graduate-level programs in: podiatry, chiropractic, optometry, physical therapy, occupational therapy, dentistry, pharmacy, anesthesiologist assistant, physician's assistant, genetic counseling, epidemiology/health policy...

A lot of options.
Click to expand...

How many of those are not in the medical field?
 
Spectar said:
How many of those are not in the medical field?
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OP wanted to know what he could do outside of a career in medicine if he were to fulfill pre-med coursework requirements. I offered him a list of healthcare careers outside of medicine that require graduate-level training and have similar coursework requirements to those medical schools. What's the issue?
 
Osminog said:
Those who finish pre-med requirements generally also qualify for graduate-level programs in: podiatry, chiropractic, optometry, physical therapy, occupational therapy, dentistry, pharmacy, anesthesiologist assistant, physician's assistant, genetic counseling, epidemiology/health policy...

A lot of options.
Click to expand...

Also add post-bac RN program.
Teaching Jr-high or HS
Health educator/counselor (particularly HIV, contraception)-- you don't need a college degree but it wouldn't hurt and the experience could prepare you to be a stronger candidate for geneticl counseling or physician assistant programs

Sales (business to business or direct to consumer)
Pharmaceutical representative (must have good communication skills and be able to explain the science behind the client's products)
 
Osminog said:
OP wanted to know what he could do outside of a career in medicine if he were to fulfill pre-med coursework requirements. I offered him a list of healthcare careers outside of medicine that require graduate-level training and have similar coursework requirements to those medical schools. What's the issue?
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OP specifically said "medical career" and "medicine"

Do we refer to going to medical school as medicine? Or do we say PAs also practice medicine?
Did OP ask for professions outside of the medical field entirely? Or did Op ask for professions in medicine that isn't a physician?


(These are serious questions, not trying to antagonize you)
 
Spectar said:
OP specifically said "medical career" and "medicine"

Do we refer to going to medical school as medicine? Or do we say PAs also practice medicine?
Did OP ask for professions outside of the medical field entirely? Or did Op ask for professions in medicine that isn't a physician?


(These are serious questions, not trying to antagonize you)
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I meant if I don’t get accepted to medical school, what career options do I have with premed coursework?

(I edited my post)
 
Osminog said:
Uhh, what are you guys talking about? You're all totally missing the mark. Look at OP's post history.

He's a 40-year-old with a bachelor's degree in business administration and a low undergraduate GPA. He's hesitant about medicine because of the lengthy time commitment, so he's looking at other options in healthcare.

He's talking about a pre-med post-bacc, not an undergraduate degree. He doesn't have a biology degree, nor will he ever have a biology degree -- and he already has a career.
Click to expand...

I don't usually research posters' post history before responding. They should include all the deets in the OP. Ain't nobody got time for that.
 
chemdoctor said:
So if you continued with the "premed major", is your degree in premedical studies or something? BS in premed?
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lol yup, it's a BS in premedical studies. So while it probably isn't 100% useless, it definitely sounds really dumb
 
thegreengreatdragon said:
lol yup, it's a BS in premedical studies. So while it probably isn't 100% useless, it definitely sounds really dumb
Click to expand...

Basically what that sort of university is saying is: "we'll require you to have biology, chemistry, organic chemistry and physics, medical ethics (to cover the philosophy/religious studies requirement), biochem, psychology, anthropology, without having you grade-grubbing, otherwise unmotivated pre-meds gumming up our major courses in Bio (Botany) or Chem (P-Chem!). "

There is one very highly regarded university that does not have a medical school but does have an exceptional women's basketball team (hint, hint) that has a pre-med major. I interview a few of them every year but I only see the cream of the crop; I don't know what becomes of the rest of them.
 
LizzyM said:
Basically what that sort of university is saying is: "we'll require you to have biology, chemistry, organic chemistry and physics, medical ethics (to cover the philosophy/religious studies requirement), biochem, psychology, anthropology, without having you grade-grubbing, otherwise unmotivated pre-meds gumming up our major courses in Bio (Botany) or Chem (P-Chem!). "

There is one very highly regarded university that does not have a medical school but does have an exceptional women's basketball team (hint, hint) that has a pre-med major. I interview a few of them every year but I only see the cream of the crop; I don't know what becomes of the rest of them.
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Do you think that pursuing a literal pre-med major shows a lack of intellectual curiosity and detracts from an application?
 
DubbiDoctor said:
Do you think that pursuing a literal pre-med major shows a lack of intellectual curiosity and detracts from an application?
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Sometimes it shows great curiosity. Doing the pre-med stuff and calling it a major frees up a lot of space in the schedule for other stuff of interest in a wide variety of subjects.
 
You could be a car salesman. A girl from my major who didn't make it to med school is doing that now haha
 
LizzyM said:
There is one very highly regarded university that does not have a medical school but does have an exceptional women's basketball team (hint, hint) that has a pre-med major. I interview a few of them every year but I only see the cream of the crop; I don't know what becomes of the rest of them.
Click to expand...

In my experience, most of the people I know who started out pre-med freshman year ended up migrating into a different science major based on what aspects of their pre-med coursework they enjoyed the most: biology is the most common, but also biochemistry and chemistry. Those few people who do stick to the pre-med curriculum through senior year are mostly really driven, really qualified individuals who are so good at what they do that their major is irrelevant.
There are plenty of freshmen who start out premed and last about 1 semester, maybe 2, tops, who I lose track of.
 
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