Home › Forums › Medical School › Admission › Non-Science Based Major

Viewing 2 posts - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • August 16, 2005 at 5:34 pm #22810
    Astrife
    Participant

    I am a senior in high school to start with. I realize that undergraduate majors are “said” to play no part in admissions to medical school as long as you have the necessary prerequisites. I however am still a little nervous about taking a non-science based major, although it is something I would prefer to do. The only way I would end up majoring in biology or chemistry is if I found out I would not be on an even playing field with people who majored in those two when applying to medical school because I chose to major in business, or psychology, which are my two most likely candidates. So do you have any statistics on business or psychology majors who have comparable GPA’s and MCAT scores to those in Biology or Chemistry? I’m determined to be a doctor, and will do whatever is necessary, but if I do not have to major in Biology or Chemistry I won’t. So if you could ease my worries with some data on this, or just some of your knowledge I would be very grateful. -Thanks

    August 17, 2005 at 11:13 pm #30121
    yokelridesagain
    Participant

    One thing you will learn in science, and in medicine in particular, is that you have to control for confounding factors in interpreting data. There certainly are statistics comparing entrance rates for various undergraduate majors. Psychology, for instance, has a lower overall acceptance rate than biology or chemistry. Biology and chemistry have lower acceptance rates than mathematics or, crazily enough, philosophy. Ergo, become a math or philosophy major?

    No. Large numbers of biology applicants are on a “pre-med” track. They tend to average one another out. Small numbers of, for the most part, very targeted people major in math and want to go to medical school.

    Yes, there is some weight given to the perceived difficulty of a major. If you major in psychology, I would advise you to excel in your pre-requisites and also to take some higher level biology/chemistry courses (biochemistry, immunology, genetics, microbiology, anatomy) as electives. If you do well in “core curriculum” classes and demonstrate that you can handle higher level work as well, no admissions officer is going to be to concerned about what major is on your degree.

    I would not advise taking the bare minimum; admissions aside, if you come to medical school with no anatomy, biochemistry, genetics, or physiology you will be behind most of your colleagues. Medical school is hard enough without being at a disadvantage.

    Bottom line: you have to enjoy your major field in college. If biology and chemistry don’t catch your fancy, you’re more apt to lose interest and motivation. That tends to lead to lower grades. Plus, college is supposed to be a time to broaden your horizons…you have the rest of your life to learn medicine.

    YokelRidesAgain
    BA, History, Enormous State University
    MD, US News and World Report “Top 20” Medical School
    Resident, USNWR “#1 institution” in specialty

  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 2 posts - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.