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Hey Guys,
I am a 4th year podiatry student, and lately I have been reflecting a bit about the classes I took as an undergrad. Some of them were useful for a career in medicine, and a lot of them weren't. While many of you are probably thinking of pursuing the MD or DO, the DPM curriculum is almost identical in that we still work up illnesses, perform surgeries, prescribe drugs, and get sued whenever we screw up. So that's the perspective I'm coming from.😉
Generally speaking, college is a colossal waste of time and especially money in terms of what it contributes to your medical training. Unless you're a lucky duck and land a full scholarship, you will wind up thousands upon thousands of dollars in debt. And even with a scholarship, your time is not devoid of value, and 4 years out of your life carries a price you may not realize. So choose classes that you will remember a little about 10 years from now.
(Then again, you might spend some of that time engaging in all sorts of debauchery and meeting your future husband/wife/life partner, so it's not a total loss 😉)
First and foremost, you do not need to major in biology. Furthermore, major in something interesting to you. If you major in something interesting, you'll get better grades and you won't hate your life so much. This is important from the stance that you need to get into a medical school, and admissions officers are lazy bureaucrats who will use any drops/failures as an excuse to take your application out of the "accept" pile.
With those obvious sentiments out of the way, the following are my thoughts and opinions on majors in terms of usefulness for a medical professional.
I. The Natural Sciences
Biology: An instinctive choice for the budding pre-med. And Bio 101 is probably the most important undergraduate premedical course, not only because it is heavily represented on the MCAT, but also because it lays the foundation for your physiology and biochemistry courses in medical school. Once you get past Bio 101, however, utility starts to go way down. If you can take undergraduate human anatomy and physiology, great, but the med school equivalents are much more detailed. In the mean time, ecology, botany, and evolution will be among the less-than-useful classes that you get to look forward to.
Molecular Biology: This is the route I took. I had 5 different classes that rehashed the Krebs cycle, DNA translation/transcription, and other concepts in biochemistry. Nonetheless, if you want to be a physician researcher, this will be a valuable route to take. If not, you'll hate yourself for doing it.
Microbiology: You will learn not only about the bugs that affect humans in disease, but also about the bugs that affect animals, the bugs that are ecologically important, the bugs that help us make cheese, and bugs that don't do anything. I took one class and all I remember is about that one fish that swims up your urethra while you're swimming.
Chemistry: After biology, Chem 101 is the most important premedical class to take because it also lays the foundation for physiology and biochemistry. However, that's a distant second. You'll never need to calculate percent yields or how much pH will change by adding whatever, you just need to know broad concepts about solution chemistry. For some reason that I don't understand, you'll need to take Organic, so there's that. Beyond that, don't do it unless you like it.
Math/Physics/Engineering: You're joking, right?
Oh and don't get me started about pain-in-the-butt lab reports. Which brings me to...
II. The Social Sciences
Psychology/Sociology: Possibly easier than the natural sciences, but with more paper writing which will be a drain on your time. Still, you'll gain some insight into human nature, and it's a pretty interesting subject, even if a sizeable chunk of it is nonsense. The greatest benefit is that this major gives you a thorough understanding of statistics, which is vital when you're reading a medical journal. No matter what your major is, take Stats and take it seriously!
Business/Economics/Political Science: Still good for stats. Probably harder than psych, with probably more papers to write. News will make more sense after you've taken these classes. Unless you're into it, avoid.
III. The Humanities
English Literature: My first impulse is to tell you to avoid it as a major. But, for better or for worse, you'll need to write a personal statement when applying to med school, and writing is one of those things you get better at with practice. And 2 semesters of literature is required for admissions anyway, so you may as well see if you like it.
Philosophy/History: Again, lots of reading and writing--this is a good or bad thing.
Foreign Language: Now this is what I wish I'd done. One of the easiest ways for a student to make himself useful to an attending physician is to be able to communicate with a non-english speaking patient. Most of the time, this means speaking spanish, but there are other potentially useful languages to know, depending on where you go to school. Among them: mandarin, polish, creole. Unlike most majors, this knowledge will remain useful throughout life. Then again, if a foreign language is what you want to learn, you don't need to go to college to do it.
********************
Anyway, I don't get to these forums so much anymore, so feel free to PM me if you have more specific questions about medicine or podiatry or life.
I am a 4th year podiatry student, and lately I have been reflecting a bit about the classes I took as an undergrad. Some of them were useful for a career in medicine, and a lot of them weren't. While many of you are probably thinking of pursuing the MD or DO, the DPM curriculum is almost identical in that we still work up illnesses, perform surgeries, prescribe drugs, and get sued whenever we screw up. So that's the perspective I'm coming from.😉
Generally speaking, college is a colossal waste of time and especially money in terms of what it contributes to your medical training. Unless you're a lucky duck and land a full scholarship, you will wind up thousands upon thousands of dollars in debt. And even with a scholarship, your time is not devoid of value, and 4 years out of your life carries a price you may not realize. So choose classes that you will remember a little about 10 years from now.
(Then again, you might spend some of that time engaging in all sorts of debauchery and meeting your future husband/wife/life partner, so it's not a total loss 😉)
First and foremost, you do not need to major in biology. Furthermore, major in something interesting to you. If you major in something interesting, you'll get better grades and you won't hate your life so much. This is important from the stance that you need to get into a medical school, and admissions officers are lazy bureaucrats who will use any drops/failures as an excuse to take your application out of the "accept" pile.
With those obvious sentiments out of the way, the following are my thoughts and opinions on majors in terms of usefulness for a medical professional.
I. The Natural Sciences
Biology: An instinctive choice for the budding pre-med. And Bio 101 is probably the most important undergraduate premedical course, not only because it is heavily represented on the MCAT, but also because it lays the foundation for your physiology and biochemistry courses in medical school. Once you get past Bio 101, however, utility starts to go way down. If you can take undergraduate human anatomy and physiology, great, but the med school equivalents are much more detailed. In the mean time, ecology, botany, and evolution will be among the less-than-useful classes that you get to look forward to.
Molecular Biology: This is the route I took. I had 5 different classes that rehashed the Krebs cycle, DNA translation/transcription, and other concepts in biochemistry. Nonetheless, if you want to be a physician researcher, this will be a valuable route to take. If not, you'll hate yourself for doing it.
Microbiology: You will learn not only about the bugs that affect humans in disease, but also about the bugs that affect animals, the bugs that are ecologically important, the bugs that help us make cheese, and bugs that don't do anything. I took one class and all I remember is about that one fish that swims up your urethra while you're swimming.
Chemistry: After biology, Chem 101 is the most important premedical class to take because it also lays the foundation for physiology and biochemistry. However, that's a distant second. You'll never need to calculate percent yields or how much pH will change by adding whatever, you just need to know broad concepts about solution chemistry. For some reason that I don't understand, you'll need to take Organic, so there's that. Beyond that, don't do it unless you like it.
Math/Physics/Engineering: You're joking, right?
Oh and don't get me started about pain-in-the-butt lab reports. Which brings me to...
II. The Social Sciences
Psychology/Sociology: Possibly easier than the natural sciences, but with more paper writing which will be a drain on your time. Still, you'll gain some insight into human nature, and it's a pretty interesting subject, even if a sizeable chunk of it is nonsense. The greatest benefit is that this major gives you a thorough understanding of statistics, which is vital when you're reading a medical journal. No matter what your major is, take Stats and take it seriously!
Business/Economics/Political Science: Still good for stats. Probably harder than psych, with probably more papers to write. News will make more sense after you've taken these classes. Unless you're into it, avoid.
III. The Humanities
English Literature: My first impulse is to tell you to avoid it as a major. But, for better or for worse, you'll need to write a personal statement when applying to med school, and writing is one of those things you get better at with practice. And 2 semesters of literature is required for admissions anyway, so you may as well see if you like it.
Philosophy/History: Again, lots of reading and writing--this is a good or bad thing.
Foreign Language: Now this is what I wish I'd done. One of the easiest ways for a student to make himself useful to an attending physician is to be able to communicate with a non-english speaking patient. Most of the time, this means speaking spanish, but there are other potentially useful languages to know, depending on where you go to school. Among them: mandarin, polish, creole. Unlike most majors, this knowledge will remain useful throughout life. Then again, if a foreign language is what you want to learn, you don't need to go to college to do it.
********************
Anyway, I don't get to these forums so much anymore, so feel free to PM me if you have more specific questions about medicine or podiatry or life.
