Majors

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BlackHouse

BlackHouse

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What major would prepare me for medical school the most, DO NOT SAY "you can major in whatever you want blase, blase, because majoring in anything will not prepare me for medical school.
 
BlackHouse said:
What major would prepare me for medical school the most, DO NOT SAY "you can major in whatever you want blase, blase, because majoring in anything will not prepare me for medical school.
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Why can't we say that?
 
mauberley said:
Why can't we say that?
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Because its been said countless times before.
I'm looking for a more specific answer, for instance:
A degree in Biology would better prepare you then a degree in Music,
amirite?
 
BlackHouse said:
Because its been said countless times before.
I'm looking for a more specific answer, for instance:
A degree in Biology would better prepare you then a degree in Music,
amirite?
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Don't you think there may be a shred of truth to that advice if it's been said countless times before?
 
BlackHouse said:
What major would prepare me for medical school the most, DO NOT SAY "you can major in whatever you want blase, blase, because majoring in anything will not prepare me for medical school.
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Agree, unless you have your heart and soul set on primary care. Go biology, it is the most practical. The only reason music majors have the highest acceptance rate is because there are only like 7 who apply each year. I'm a biology major and I feel well prepared for medical school. If you can't get in to medical school because your GPA falters as a biology major, maybe you don't belong. If you look at majors of accepted students I'd say 40-60% are typically biological science majors depending on school.
 
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rossbossss said:
Agree, unless you have your heart and soul set on primary care. Go biology, it is the most practical. The only reason music majors have the highest acceptance rate is because there are like 7 who apply each year. I'm a biology major and I feel well prepared for medical school. If you can't get in to medical school because your GPA falters as a biology major, maybe you don't belong.
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What is it about the biology major that you feel prepares you more for medical school than other majors?
 
rossbossss said:
Agree, unless you have your heart and soul set on primary care. Go biology, it is the most practical. The only reason music majors have the highest acceptance rate is because there are only like 7 who apply each year. I'm a biology major and I feel well prepared for medical school. If you can't get in to medical school because your GPA falters as a biology major, maybe you don't belong. If you look at majors of accepted students I'd say 40-60% are typically biological science majors depending on school.
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I call BS.Then why do they make you take pre-reqs?. Hell Ben Carson majored in Psychology. Honestly I think majoring a social science or humanities might serve you better. Adcoms see hundreds of Bio majors. I don't care what's your speciality, you will always deal with people in some shape or form.
 
rossbossss said:
Agree, unless you have your heart and soul set on primary care. Go biology, it is the most practical. The only reason music majors have the highest acceptance rate is because there are only like 7 who apply each year. I'm a biology major and I feel well prepared for medical school. If you can't get in to medical school because your GPA falters as a biology major, maybe you don't belong. If you look at majors of accepted students I'd say 40-60% are typically biological science majors depending on school.
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That's the answer I was looking for, thanks Ross.
 
mauberley said:
What is it about the biology major that you feel prepares you more for medical school than other majors?
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Upper divisionals are the biggest part. Personally, I feel that if you major in something nonmedical or non-science related (art, interpretive dance, etc) that medical school is not your primary focus, or your taking the easy way out. BIO I and II is a survey course that have almost no application to the MCAT/future medical school. I would have a 4.0 if I was an history major, but I don't because I wanted to learn practical information. College if about preparing yourself for a future career, not learning mindless stuff that interest you (thats what wikipedia is for).
 
FutureDr214 said:
I call BS.Then why do they make you take pre-reqs?. Hell Ben Carson majored in Psychology. Honestly I think majoring a social science or humanities maybe serve you better. I don't care what's your speciality, you will always deal with people in some shape or form.
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It's actually the most practical answer IMHO, pre reqs are intended to prepare you for the MCAT, not the rigors of medical school. I'm pretty sure they have some type of class that teaches you how to interact with patients, and the general pop, wasting 4 years majoring for it is simplistic.
 
BlackHouse said:
It's actually the most practical answer IMHO, pre reqs are intended to prepare you for the MCAT, not the rigorous of medical school. I'm pretty sure they have some type of class that teaches you how to interact with patients, and the general pop, wasting 4 years majoring for it is simplistic.
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Ok whatever you say man. I know tons of doctors who didnt major in Bio and who are fantastic. You learn the things you need to know in med school, the pre-reqs are just hoops you have to jump through.
 
rossbossss said:
College if about preparing yourself for a future career, not learning mindless stuff that interest you (thats what wikipedia is for).
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If that is so, I would argue my electrical engineering major pwns your bio major.
 
I chose Human Biology. I'm assuming it'll be nice to have some background knowledge in the subject once I hit med school (hopefully). Does your school offer a Human Bio degree?
 
mauberley said:
If that is so, I would argue my electrical engineering major pwns your bio major.
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I know seriously.

My Biomedical engineering major is way better than your Biology major because it's more difficult and more "practical" 🙄
 
Supposedly Biochem class is going to be becoming a prereq over the next five years, so with that in mind, majoring in biology or chemistry might make it easier to get all of the prereqs. Personally I am a poli sci major which I love, but in order to get all of the prereqs I have to take max credits and summer school all 4 years. Hopefully that helps.
 
mauberley said:
If that is so, I would argue my electrical engineering major pwns your bio major.
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Any engineering major correlates perfectly with medical school, so the consensus is a major in a scientific background prepares you significantly better than, majoring in anything, right?
 
mauberley said:
If that is so, I would argue my electrical engineering major pwns your bio major.
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Lol to each his own. The nice thing about engineering is that it is employable without grad school, so in that sense you do. I'm sure your major will help you pwn physical sciences though. Challenging majors >>>> humanities. IMO.
 
rossbossss said:
Upper divisionals are the biggest part. Personally, I feel that if you major in something nonmedical or non-science related (art, interpretive dance, etc) that medical school is not your primary focus, or your taking the easy way out. BIO I and II is a survey course that have almost no application to the MCAT/future medical school. I would have a 4.0 if I was an history major, but I don't because I wanted to learn practical information. College if about preparing yourself for a future career, not learning mindless stuff that interest you (thats what wikipedia is for).
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Could you provide some evidence that doctors that majored in a non-biological science field know less or under-perform in medicine? Being that big scientist that you are, you're making a lot of claims on speculation.
 
BlackHouse said:
Any engineering major correlates perfectly with medical school, so it's consensus decision that a major in a scientific background prepares you significantly better than, majoring in anything, right?
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But at some schools engineering is a 5 year degree. MY school is has a pretty good program and I'm pretty sure its a 5 year minimum, and that is with 2-3 different semester co-ops
 
rossbossss said:
But at some schools engineering is a 5 year degree. MY school is has a pretty good program and I'm pretty sure its a 5 year minimum, and that is with 2-3 different semester co-ops
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Let's assume its under a 4 year curriculum.
 
rossbossss said:
But at some schools engineering is a 5 year degree. MY school is has a pretty good program and I'm pretty sure its a 5 year minimum, and that is with 2-3 different semester co-ops
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That's because it's pretty much impossible to do engineering and take all the prereqs in 4 years. At my school it would put you over the enrollment limit.

That is, unless you want to drop a few Gs on summer school.
 
In the interest of maintaining a productive discussion, I'm going to ask the OP: what do you mean by "prepares"?
 
mauberley said:
In the interest of maintaining a productive discussion, I'm going to ask the OP: what do you mean by "prepares"?
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"Prepares" in a sense as Pre-Algebra prepares one for Algebra.
In your case you telling me Intro to PE will prepare me for Calculus 1.
Get the analogy?
 
The moral of the story is do whats in your best interest. Think long run not short run, than again why I chose biology over majoring in interpretive dance, communications, or xbox live. Plan B's are nice, but there isn't really a solid plan B with biology, thus more motivation.
 
BlackHouse said:
"Prepares" in a sense as Pre-Algebra prepares one for Algebra.
In your case you telling me Intro to PE will prepare me for Calculus 1.
Get the analogy?
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Your analogy is incorrect. Everyone is required to take the same prerequisite classes (in your analogy, Pre-Algebra). How do the upper-level biology classes one would need to take as part of a biology major prepare one any better for medical school than the prerequisite classes? If someone who did not major in biology was at a disadvantage for medical school, why would schools not require a major in biology?
 
BlackHouse said:
By "prepares" in a sense as Pre-Algebra prepares one for Algebra.
In your case you telling me Intro to PE will prepare for Calculus 1.
Get the analogy?
Click to expand...

The analogy is false. The only biology you need for medical school is the pre-reqs. Memorizing complement system pathways and detailed reaction mechanisms in metabolism will help you no more in medical school than knowing the details of fluid dynamics, the Fourier transforms series, or mass transport phenomenon. You might not realize this yet, but you will when you get to your upper division classes. At some point, the level of detail becomes useless.

Rather, you should be asking, what major will intellectually stimulate me and drive me to sharpen my critical thinking and studying skills.
 
rossbossss said:
The moral of the story is do whats in your best interest. Think long run not short run, than again why I chose biology over majoring in interpretive dance, communications, or xbox live. Plan B's are nice, but there isn't really a solid plan B with biology, thus more motivation.
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Well if you are planing that route you should major in engineering. Ain't much you can do with a Bio degree.
 
Whatever you're interested in, except for liberal arts.

I would highly recommend being a physics major though, of all the majors you will gain the most ability in problem solving.
 
BlackHouse said:
"Prepares" in a sense as Pre-Algebra prepares one for Algebra.
In your case you telling me Intro to PE will prepare me for Calculus 1.
Get the analogy?
Click to expand...

If you're convinced that Bio will better prepare you, then by all means chose that as your major. My family doctor, as well as a few doctors I spoke with at the ER, had a non-Bio major and did just fine. Major DOES NOT matter for acceptance, and any advantage the Bio majors have will be gone after the beginning of medical school. Knowing this, I still chose Human Bio because it's what interests me. Do what you like and just make sure you get your prereqs.
 
mauberley said:
Your analogy is incorrect. Everyone is required to take the same prerequisite classes (in your analogy, Pre-Algebra). How do the upper-level biology classes one would need to take as part of a biology major prepare one any better for medical school than the prerequisite classes? If someone who did not major in biology was at a disadvantage for medical school, why would schools not require a major in biology?
Click to expand...

Can we just agree that major in Biology would better suite someone for medical school as opposed to one in Women Studies? 😴
 
LuciusVorenus said:
The analogy is false. The only biology you need for medical school is the pre-reqs. Memorizing complement system pathways and detailed reaction mechanisms in metabolism will help you no more in medical school than knowing the details of fluid dynamics, the Fourier transforms series, or mass transport phenomenon. You might not realize this yet, but you will when you get to your upper division classes. At some point, the level of detail becomes useless.

Rather, you should be asking, what major will intellectually stimulate me and drive me to sharpen my critical thinking and studying skills.
Click to expand...

👍
 
BlackHouse said:
Can we just agree that major in Biology would better suite someone for medical school as opposed to one in Women Studies? 😴
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No.

My +1 anecdote != data point is a friend of mine from post-bacc who was a music major and is now at a top med school.
 
There are more subtle reasons for majoring in what you personally like. Why? Because you learn things that are interesting to you better than things which are not interesting to you. By practicing those things which are interesting, you effectively build up and optimize cognitive pathways for learning, test taking, and problem solving. Which at the end of the day are significantly more important than seeing a factoid or two about human physiology which you will likely forget before you even get into medical school.


Edit: Lucius beat me to the punch XD.
 
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Who the hell cares about how hard your major is? lol If you get accepted into a respectable Medical school, you'll most likely get into a residency of your choice, regardless of your underwater basketweaving major or your BioChemIwannaBeADoctor major.

Either one can get a good MCAT score which is the biggest factor of a Medical school acceptance, don't flame anyone elses majors..
 
LuciusVorenus said:
The analogy is false. The only biology you need for medical school is the pre-reqs. Memorizing complement system pathways and detailed reaction mechanisms in metabolism will help you no more in medical school than knowing the details of fluid dynamics, the Fourier transforms series, or mass transport phenomenon. You might not realize this yet, but you will when you get to your upper division classes. At some point, the level of detail becomes useless.

Rather, you should be asking, what major will intellectually stimulate me and drive me to sharpen my critical thinking and studying skills.
Click to expand...

We have a winner, I didn't think Biology became mundane up to that point, nice......... I guess you can major in anything. kudos Lucius :laugh:
 
Hmm...okay well let's think about this. If science majors have such an advantage, why would adcoms, who have been admitting countless applicants for a while now and have seen how they perform in medical school, more often than not say that no undergrad major is preferred? Check almost every website under FAQ and you'll see that they explicitly say that as long as you fulfill the prerequisites and do well, being a non-science major doesn't hurt your chances.

Furthermore, why are a lot of the students at ivy league med schools music and other non-science majors? If being a bio major was so "practical", wouldn't they want to accept all science majors to ensure that the class would be well prepared?

This argument is solely based on opinions. Until you can show me a study that proves that science majors do better in medical school then I find this whole thing ridiculous.
 
BlackHouse said:
We have a winner, I didn't think Biology became mundane up to that point, nice......... I guess you can major in anything. kudos Lucius :laugh:
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I'm glad there's a happy ending to this story.
 
Bio major will help you find related research opportunities. I would not have gotten into my current lab had I not been a nutrition major, though of course in the end it all depends.
 
First, I think that Psychology makes a good pre-med major. Understanding human behavior should go along way in running a medical practice. Furthermore, some of the major's courses - i.e. Abnormal Psy, Biological Psy, Statistical Methods, Research Methods, Neuropsych, Neuroscience, Child & Adol. Psy, etc. - are pretty applicable to the future physician (and not just Psychiatrists!).

I also think some nutrition course work (perhaps a 'minors' worth) is beneficial, as it is a relevant subject that doesn't receive a lot of coverage in MS1/MS2.

Lastly, if your super concerned about preparing for med school, then make sure you take Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Physiology, and Genetics along with whatever major you choose. Those courses, along with the basic prerequisites, should be more than enough prep for med school and the MCAT and you'll at least have a minor in Bio! Good luck.
 
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JESSFALLING said:
First, I think that Psychology makes a good pre-med major. Understanding human behavior should go along way in running a medical practice. Furthermore, some of the major's courses - i.e. Abnormal Psy, Biological Psy, Statistical Methods, Research Methods, Neuropsych, Neuroscience, Child & Adol. Psy, etc. - are pretty applicable to the future physician (and not just Psychiatrists!).

I also think some nutrition course work (perhaps a 'minors' worth) is beneficial, as it is a relevant subject that doesn't receive a lot of coverage in MS1/MS2.
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Best pre-professional major.
 
I'm not an adcom, but from talking to residents I work with they have undergrad majors that include forestry, math, art, business, history, economics, and english. Of course there are those that majored in the usual bio/chem, but it seems the majority of them did not.

They all took upper level sciences like the rest of the premeds do, they did well on the MCAT and obviously made it into medical school.

I would major in whatever it is that you feel you can do best in, as long as you take the prereqs and additional upper level science classes, adcoms will not hold your degree against you.
 
LuciusVorenus said:
The analogy is false. The only biology you need for medical school is the pre-reqs. Memorizing complement system pathways and detailed reaction mechanisms in metabolism will help you no more in medical school than knowing the details of fluid dynamics, the Fourier transforms series, or mass transport phenomenon. You might not realize this yet, but you will when you get to your upper division classes. At some point, the level of detail becomes useless.

Rather, you should be asking, what major will intellectually stimulate me and drive me to sharpen my critical thinking and studying skills.
Click to expand...

I agree with your last sentiment, however I think getting a significant amount of exposure to advanced science, specifically biology and medicinal chemistry can provide a nice base of knowledge and will make learning the material (again but in more detail) in medical school easier.

I plan on pursuing a post bac, partly because I'm unsure whether I want to go MD/PHD or MD route so I'm going to do a lot of research, but also so I can get experience with upper level science courses.

Specifically, medical school doesn't teach a course in biological statistics. A lot of the time (especially in research in medical school) you will be expected to know how to perform many common data analysis techniques. Obviously without that course you will have no idea what to do and will have to be baby'd through it for a while or slowly teach it to yourself.

That's just one example but I plan on taking many courses that I have not had time for with my chemistry major. Specifically, certain ones taught in medical school, including genetics, microbiology, immunology, histology, embryology, pharmacology, and pathology.

There will be no way to tell whether or not I would have performed to the same level that I will in medical school but I should be able to judge whether something comes easier to me with a lot of background knowledge then a basic pre-requer who has never even heard the word pathology.

I just believe that a biology heavy post-bac (or undergrad) will better prepare you for the first 2 years of med school, and in turn Step 1, and yadda yadda yadda.


And to go further, I would be interested in seeing statistics for AOA members and their undergraduate major - or even say the top 10% of medical school classes. And then look at the bio/biochem majors vs. other majors and compare those numbers to the overall ratio of bio/biochem to other majors for the entire class. I would be willing to bet that most of the top students had a significant biological background. Whether or not that's due to being more committed and working harder or because they were genuinely better prepared, it would still be interesting to see.
 
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This thread was extremely frustrating to read - the amount of ignorant thinking...ugh.

rossbossss said:
College if about preparing yourself for a future career, not learning mindless stuff that interest you (thats what wikipedia is for).
Click to expand...
Your undergraduate degree should not simply be a means to an end.

Enjoying your major >>>>>>>>> Doing something because it's what you "should" be doing. IMO.
 
BlackHouse said:
Because its been said countless times before.
I'm looking for a more specific answer, for instance:
A degree in Biology would better prepare you then a degree in Music,
amirite?
Click to expand...

Someone tell me what 2+2 is. DO NOT SAY 4. So blase.
 
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