Hello all, I have changed my major from biology recently to psychology. Now I am feeling a strong draw to change again to philosophy. I am still taking my pre-recs for med school, and plan on taking a couple of upper div sciences to help prep for mcat. My question is how do you all think that philosophy can prepare me for a career in medicine? I know that the communication skills and critical thinking skills attained in philosophy are good for any career. I was also amazed to see the percentage of humanities majors were higher last few years than people who have majored in biological sciences(percent wise). What do you guys think of those statistics? Does anyone know of any philosophy majors that have successfully matriculated into medical school(allo or osteo)?
I think it's a good idea. You should even think of doubling up in psychology/philosophy. If I could do it over again, I would have done this. (I was psych) Just bear in mind that you'll be super unemployable with just a philo major. Adding psych on top of it makes you a little less unemployable.
I think it's important that you study things that you enjoy. As long as you have a good back ground in sciences, you'll be fine in med school with the philosophy major.
I'm a semester away from a master's in women's studies. talk about a useless degree!!! just do what makes you happy. get your prereqs done, and it'll all work out.
Undergraduate degree does not matter*. As long as you do well in your pre-med classes and show that you have a strong interest in medicine they will accept you. *As long as it isnt some blow off degree that you are really not interested in... e.g. clown school degree
i know some pre-meds in my school that are philosophy, and they are getting into great schools. i have heard that medical schools really like philosophy because of its emphasis on ethics. I am a social science major and I am currently applying. My advice is to take some upper level science courses, especially microbiology for better preparation on the MCAT. I did not do this, and struggled on the biology section because there was a lot of micro! But regardless, your major doesn't matter, as long as you take the prereqs, excel in them, and do other activities such as shadowing
i majored in philosophy, and wouldnt have changed it for anything. i have done a 180, intelectually, emotionally, and philosophically since begining my undergrad. philosophy allows you to critically analaze yourself and issues; that most of your life, your allow yourself to be ignorant to. go for it. Im applying next june and ill let you know how it goes. good luck.
I was a pre-med/philosophy major, and I do think that some of the thought processes that come with philosophy have contributed to my reasoning abilities. I also recall reading that it is one of the humanities majors that med schools look more favorably upon, although I have yet to figure out how Descartes is going to help me through gross anatomy. So far, I've been accepted to VCOM, and am waiting for my final decisions from LECOM-FL, TUCOM-NV, PCOM-GA, and AZCOM (all with a 3.1 GPA and 28 MCAT, not stellar to say the least). Plus, you will be able to answer that existence question that's been bugging us for so long. (On a side note, nothing funnier than finding out that, at a Catholic school, my philosophy of religion teacher is agnostic. All of that reading, thinking, and studying which amounted to a glorious "I don't know".) J-Smitty
Do you think that the communication skills gained while majoring in philosophy will help you as a physician. I just found that while majoring in bio would help me on MCATs and such I was losing the anility to communicate effectively(those darned lab reports). I also found myself losing interest in some of the things that once interested me in life(artistic or philosophical). My Reasoning skills were replaced with an uncanny ability to memorize the periodic table. I just thought it sucked when I sat down to write a critique for my music class that I found it hard to right a decent critical paper, and I never had this problem until I have had all this science railroaded into my head. Not to say that science was hard for me I just found myself selling a peice of who I was just to get to a desirable end. I have plenty of time in my first two years of Med school to learn tons of science I just want to use this time to round myself. Even though I am nearly 27 years old I still think that I should find myself. Hey I want to be a family practice doctor; I doubt Biometry, botany etc. is gonna be much of an issue and at the same time it's turning me into some kind of drone that can't think for himself. They don't even give you room to choose classes you want to take when a Bio major at my school, there is no time(86 credit hrs + gen eds).
Yes and no. I do think that the humanities are good at removing the inevitable blinders that all pre-meds get at one time or another. Pre-med is pretty intensely focused, and rightly so, but I think that it might hinder students from learning more ouside the realm of "science." I think that philosophy has improved my communication skills, both writing and speaking, and thus may one day prove beneficial as a physician. The small class sizes, the intense readings, the crazy hippies. It was a nice change from the tedious memorization which plagues many undergraduate science courses. However, that said, I can tell you that philosophy did not help me much in the MCAT's, if at all. Without those necessary science courses, the MCAT would be pretty f*ing hard, and it is a huge part on your application to medical school. Is there any chance you could double major or minor? I know the credit load may seem astronomical, but if you enjoy it, who cares? Not only that, but if the medical school thing doesn't work out, you'll always have that philosophy degree for another career (note sarcasm). J-Smitty PS - If you think those science professors are eccentric, just wait till the ancient and medieval philosophy professor gets a hold of you.
