Major/Minor Change?

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co441

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Hey all I'm currently a second semester freshman in college who is considering a career as a PA or physician. After having a terrible first semester as a bio major, I decided that I wanted to change my major for this semester. Over the winter I took a politics class, absolutely loved it and got a A. Now Im considering a major in politics and minor in health studies, which would allow me to fill out all of my pre requisites on my own schedule.

My other idea was to major in psychology and then minor in health studies and politics. I feel as if this combination will give me a well rounded education experience. My only problem is that I don't know if this is a overload on classes and if its unnecessary.

Any advice is welcomed.

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Hey all I'm currently a second semester freshman in college who is considering a career as a PA or physician. After having a terrible first semester as a bio major, I decided that I wanted to change my major for this semester. Over the winter I took a politics class, absolutely loved it and got a A. Now Im considering a major in politics and minor in health studies, which would allow me to fill out all of my pre requisites on my own schedule.

My other idea was to major in psychology and then minor in health studies and politics. I feel as if this combination will give me a well rounded education experience. My only problem is that I don't know if this is a overload on classes and if its unnecessary.

Any advice is welcomed.
Med schools won't care how many majors or minors you have, only that you get great grades. If you want multiple majors/minors so you can explore those fields of knowledge, and it takes a few more years to graduate, med schools won't care about that either. Overloading on coursework will endanger your GPA, and that's a bad idea. Just be sure to take the prerequisites and do well.
 
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Minors don't mean anything to med schools. The health sciences minor makes sense only if it hits the prereqs you'll need anyway; the politics minor won't help you at all.

My suggestion is to declare a major that interests you, and focus on your major courses and med school prereqs. Take additional elective courses that interest you. If that ultimately turns into a minor, great; but at least you won't have formally dedicated yourself to something that could increase your workload and drop your GPA. Remember, GPA and MCAT are the first two checkpoints you need to pass in the admissions process.
 
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I can tell you as a former psych major that the courses were very interesting and I tremendously enjoyed my degree, but you have zero job prospects if med school doesn't pan out. Same with the political science major - I have a good friend who spent quite a bit of time stocking shelves in a grocery store after graduating with his political science degree.

Either of those degrees would probably be better for your GPA than being a bio major, but I also think it's important to keep in mind that med school applications are expensive and it would be awfully nice to have a job to help you pay those fees during your gap year, should you take one.
 
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Med schools love a unique major that helps you bring some diversity and a unique viewpoint to their program. Makes getting all the pre-reqs harder, but definitely not a negative to programs.
 
I will point out that according to the AAMC stables, humanities majors do second best on the MCAT overall (second only to math majors). So if political science interests you, not only will it be easier to maintain a great gpa, you will likely develop the skills that help those majors do so well on the MCAT.
 
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