No matter what your major, the medical-professional schools will be looking for a high GPA especially in the science prequisite courses (3.5+ is recommended), good scores on the admissions exams (MCAT, etc.), and an extracurricular track record that shows a much more than just academic interest in the profession.
Questions and comments about majors:
1. Q: Won't I probably do
better on the admissions exam (MCAT or whatever) if I major in a
science, and take
a lot of extra science courses? And thereby have a better chance
of
getting
into the professional school of my choice?
A: No!
The admissions exams cover the basic prerequisite courses, plus verbal
and
writing abilities.
Taking more, and more advanced, science courses won't help, because
more advanced
science content is not covered. The best preparation
for the science
portions of the
exams is to get good grades in the prerequisite courses, review their
content
before the exam,
and take the exam as soon as you have completed those courses. Some
students who delay
taking the MCAT (or other professional school exam) find that they have
forgotten so much
of those freshman and sophomore basic science courses that their exam
performance suffers
considerably! One option to consider is to take the exam during
the
semester that
you are completing the last of the prerequisite courses, since that may
be the
time when you
have forgotten the least!
2. Q: Won't taking more science courses,
and majoring in a natural science, make me a more
attractive professional
school applicant overall?
A: No!
To see what the professional schools say along these lines, click here.
Of course,
majoring in a
natural science is certainly not a liability -- provided you have
taken courses
that provide the
outside-the-sciences breadth that the schools like to see in applicants!
3. Q: If I major in a
natural science, and thus take a lot of science courses, especially of
the
sort that I'll
be taking in professional school, won't that make it easier for me especially
in the
first year or
two of professional school? After all, don't doctors, dentists, etc.
need
to know
a lot of science
beyond
those basic prerequisite courses?
A: Of
course medical professionals need to know a lot of science beyond those
basic
prerequisite courses! That's why
they have professional schools -- so you can acquire both
the knowledge and skills you need to
be a competent physician, dentist, and so on. But you
are not expected to have that knowledge
before
you enter professional school! What they
expect is a basic foundation in science
that shows (by your grades) that you have the
aptitude and ability to
handle the science courses you'll be taking in professional school,
plus some academic breadth and a track
record that show that you are not just a science
nerd. Science nerds (no disrespect
intended) would do better to aim for Ph.D.'s, not M.D.'s
or other professional practitioner degrees.
Again, see what the schools say!
What about a natural science major making
it easier for me in the first year or two of
professional school? It probably
will, especially if you have trouble with chemistry and
biology courses. But applicants
who have trouble with such courses are going to have a
tough time getting accepted to begin
with. Professional schools look for applicants whose
record shows that they can handle
the courses they'll be taking, not that they've already
taken them! And the schools are
pretty good at judging this. The result is that very few
students leave professional schools
due to academic inadequacy. Those who drop out
usually do so for non-academic reasons:
family problems, emotional problems, financial
problems, or because they discover that
they really don't want to be a physician, dentist, or
whatever.
What about having a natural science major
as a "backup" in case you don't get accepted by
a professional school? For example,
if you don't get into med school, then perhaps you can
proceed toward an M.A/Ph.D. or some
sort of job in science. This is an important
consideration; you definitely need a
backup plan (and the premed committee will ask you
about it!). You need to assess
how good a candidate you will be for a professional school,
in the light of what
professional schools say about the kind of applicants they seek.
If your
GPA is below 3.5 (especially in the
basic science courses), and you don't have the sort of
extracurricular track record that suggests
a serious interest in the profession, then you
definitely should very seriously plan
what you will do if you are not accepted. But of
course this is true no matter what your
major. Maybe you'd love to be a doctor, but aren't
so keen on being an industrial chemist
or biology researcher. Think about it.
Now, that said, it might be a very good
idea to take some advanced biology or chemistry
courses that relate to your career goals,
such as biochemistry, genetics, microbiology,
human physiology and anatomy, or cell
biology; but you needn't be a major or even a
minor to take them. However, a
minor in biology or chemistry would be a good way to
get some of them.
4. Q: So, what should I major in?
A: It has to be something
that allows you to take the basic prerequisite courses for the
type of professional school of interest
to you, and that allows you to take some non-science
elective courses that will provide the
breadth that professional schools like to see; it would
also be a good idea to take some (not
necessarily all) of the courses in the paragraph
above. But that leaves you lots
of options. The best general advice is, let it be something
you really like and find interesting.
If you are in love with chemistry, physics, or biology, then
by all means that should be your
major! But if you are fascinated with art, or philosophy,
or economics, or psychology, or literature
-- then major in that!
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