PLEASE HELP! Am I shooting myself in the foot majoring in Chemistry?

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nembry

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Hey there SDN,

Due to its rigor and the "GPA killer factor", is it a bad idea to major in Chemistry for pre-med? I am 100% set on my goal of going to Med School and I want nothing else than to be a Doc. I was just accepted to the University of Texas at Ausin to study Psychology and pre-med (I applied a long time ago) and I'm thinking I would truly enjoy a chemistry major much more.
HOWEVER, I know what everyone says. It's a GPA killer, it's very time consuming and it doesn't give you enough time to make As AND volunteer and other ECs. I do love Chemistry with a passion, more than i like Psychology, I am pretty dang good at math and I am killing Gen Chem 1 right now with a 98 in the course 3/4 of the way through.
Do y'all think I have a better shot at med school if i major in Psych or Chemistry?
Thanks y'all!

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It's not that bad here, and definitely not a GPA killer. Physics has more of a reputation for its difficulty though.

I would definitely recommend majoring in what you're interested in, rather than what you think will give you the best grades. If you study something you enjoy, I bet you'll find it easier than supposed "easy" majors that you can't stand, since you'll be a lot more motivated to learn and master the material.
 
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I was a Chem major. If you love it, you can easily keep a good GPA. Plenty of chem majors have time to check all the boxes and get into med school.

Med schools don't really care what your major is, just that you have a good GPA. The real question is what do you want to do if you don't get into med school? You can want to be a doctor all you want, but half of applicants don't get in and you need to have a plan B.


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Do what you're interested in. But imo, biochem's where it's at
 
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It generally so happens that you tend to do well in courses that you have a passion for and tend to lag behind in class you're not interested in, even when the latter is the "easier" class. It's hard to justify devoting time to a course when you don't care about its content whatsoever. So major in what you are passionate about and the grades will come. If you find yourself struggling and questioning why you chose that major, then perhaps you chose the wrong one - you just weren't that passionate about chemistry. Many people I encounter who struggle in their major are those who chose their major for reasons other than that they love the subject matter.
 
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If you are interested in Chem and are good at it you can get a good GPA.
Most of the time the weeding-out classes are already prereqs for med school. If you can make it through gen Chem and Ochem then you should be ok.

But all of this can be very school dependent. Talk to Chem majors at your school to see if you think you can hack it.
 
I would opt for basket weaving. No one cares about the difficulty of your major, why pick a one that has reputation to be a gpa killer?
 
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PLEASE HELP! Am I shooting myself in the foot majoring in Chemistry?


Thanks y'all!

No. Plenty of people do it.

HOWEVER, I know what everyone says. It's a GPA killer, it's very time consuming and it doesn't give you enough time to make As AND volunteer and other ECs.

Not if you're good at it.

Do y'all think I have a better shot at med school if i major in Psych or Chemistry?
Thanks y'all!


The major doesn't matter for medical school, just so long as you do it well and get your pre reqs in. Make sure you get the pre reqs in. These change school to school.
 
Biochem is the best chem IMO. You're fine though. Major in something you like.
 
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I got plenty of B's in "easy A" classes because I didn't enjoy the material


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No. If you enjoy the material and do well, it doesn't matter. :D
 
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