Pre-Med advice for incoming College Freshman

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iopmorris

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I am currently a senior in high school, and I will be graduating in two months. I am already accepted and decided on a college. For the past few months I have poured over forums, blogs, websites, and videos about majors beneficial to med school. I know the average saying "Major in what you like", but this may sound weird but nothing really is standing out to me. I have learned through volunteering my local hospital that the medical field is right for me. I have not decided what area exactly, but I find it so interesting. This may sound weird but I love spending time working in hospitals and with the patients in them. In high school, I have taken and done well in all of the subjects so theres not a stand out field of study there. I have very strong work ethic, and I enjoy studying and spending time in the library so I know I will put forth my best effort with any major I choose. The biggest concern I have is wether majoring in Biology or something like history or poli sci would be better for me. I find the biology intriguing, but I don't know if I will be interested in Biology enough to focus on that subject for four years. On the other hand I am interested in government and politics, so poli sic major sounds interesting as well, but I want to be prepared for med school, and I feel that majoring in Biology gives me a better plan B if I decide against med school down the road for some reason. It would be so helpful if some biology and Poli Sci majors could tell me their experience during undergrad as far as schedules, how they managed their time, the course load, and if they would have done anything differently. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and helping me!!

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It's okay to be unsure. Remain undeclared, and focus on balancing out your pre-reqs for med school over your 4 years of undergrad. In the meantime, look at courses that sound very interesting to you, and sign up for those. Check out the history/poli sci courses, and try and take those to see what they're like: at my school, you're required to take certain types of courses (history, humanities, etc.) if you're in college of arts & sciences, so why not take gen bio and another course in your other field of interest? Knocking out pre-req, fulfilling a graduation requirement, while also looking taking a poli sci/history course you're interested in. Sounds like a win-win situation to me. If you end up hating your courses, you can also opt out while it's still open enrollment, and try other courses.
 
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You have plenty of time. The good thing about either majors is that you will find plenty of areas to explore within each one. Provided you can translate your studies into a genuine interest come application time, either would be acceptable. How that happens depends on what you do to supplement your studies, which is very much self-determined.

I majored in neuroscience, and a lot of that came from wanting to learn about the biological basis of behavior, but I ended up finding it so much broader because of its links to multiple disciplines. It was great from a learning perspective because I wanted a diverse major, but I still gravitated towards certain topics. Point being, even within a major you'll find areas that you click with and not, and so what will end up interesting you doesn't just depend on your major alone but also what particular area within that major you want to know more about.

You'll figure it out through undergrad, but this was to mainly to show that majors are mostly justification of what you end up studying. I liked connecting different concepts together through my studies while focusing on specific topics in a research lab.

Sorry for the rant but that's my retrospective on majors in general; hope it helps you. Congrats on your acceptances and good luck this fall!
 
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I didn't have the strongest science background in HS, so in college I started out undeclared science/math. I knocked out some general university requirements before declaring myself a microbiology major at the end of my sophomore year (pre-med concentration). Microbio is interesting to me, gave me countless things to talk about in interviews, and has given me a solid science foundation for medical school! The course load has been totally doable...I took classes one summer as well so I could take fewer hours other semesters and make it easier to keep my GPA up. My only regret is not getting more involved with a few political/activist-type organizations on campus. However, you can't do it all.

Figure out early if medicine is the route for you FOR SURE by SHADOWING. At my first major shadowing experience (happened summer after freshman year) I had that "ah hah" moment when I knew I would be a doctor. After that I devoted myself to a nice mix of 1) more shadowing in varied areas 2) service (good to do in general and it shows med schools you're altruistic) 3) leadership 4) a little research 5) grades/MCAT obviously.

If you have pre-health resources on campus, use them. My school has a great Alpha Epsilon Delta chapter that hosts speakers/events from a variety of fields in healthcare. Whoo knows? You may end up working in medicine but not as a physician.
 
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My own piece of advice: you know your interests, expand on them. Go in as undeclared as a major and take some general education courses in history, poli sci, as well as some of your pre-med requirements. Don't over do your schedule and balance it out with science/nonscience (you won't regret this, I promise you this much!). Get invested into some clubs, especially if they're interest groups. Do some volunteering at a hospital and shadow doctors. You'll get a feel for what is right for you in time, you don't need to know on day one of freshman year!
 
@iopmorris I know of someone who was a history major with a chemistry minor. His activities involved being an EMT-B and was a member of both the pre-med and the political science honor societies. He is currently a resident, if you're interested in making contact then send me a personal message and I will see if he has time to talk.
 
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