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wats a good premed to major in?
wat do u recommend?

By Mini (Mini) on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 11:34 pm: Edit

Music.

By Joev (Joev) on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 11:41 pm: Edit

Not music goofball. Major in Chemistry or Biology depending on what type of medicene you want to get into. Or if you are looking for an easy Magna Cum Laude to impress the medical schools, major in Psychology or Early Childhood Education, those people always inflate the crap out of grades.

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 02:07 am: Edit

Mini is goofy, but somehow, as my good friend Willy would say, ..."there is method in his goofyness!" Music majors are among the most successful at getting into Medical school. Don't ask me why. Obviously, those music majors took a heavy science elective schedule, and it really doesn't matter what one majors in, so long as they take a heavy load in the sciences, Biology and Chemsitry above all. Of course, maintain a GPA over 3.5 (3.7 for top medical schools) and doing well on the MCAT is also key.

By Emeraldkity4 (Emeraldkity4) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 09:11 am: Edit

The studio majors ( art and music) and other hum majors such as lit require much out of class time.
If you are taking the required chem/o-chem, biology and micro classes how are you going to have time to do a studio major unless you don't sleep?

By Gr8kids (Gr8kids) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 09:28 am: Edit

You might consider biomed engineering, too. At some colleges, those students have the highest acceptance rates to med school.

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 12:55 pm: Edit

Physics majors also seem to have a high admit rate to medical school.

By Mini (Mini) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 01:07 pm: Edit

At Williams, a higher percentage of music majors have been attending medical school in the past 5 years than biology majors. I wasn't joking in the least. Mind you, all the music majors took all the required premed courses (typically between 9 and 12) as well as the 10 or so courses in their music major, still leaving from 10-13 courses totally open for other choices.

In addition, if you are going to go into medicine, you will need something else to enrich your life. Music or art (studio or history) would be an excellent way to go. And will impress the admissions committee because you've thought through what your career will look like.

Medical school is just not that difficult to get into anymore. Individuals who would be studying medicine in Granada or Pakistan in the early 1980s now regularly get into American medical schools. It has become less attractive to many top students -- the percentage of Yale graduates who went to medical school in 1975 was 17%; in 2002 it was 6%. (And certainly the quality of the student body did not decline.)

The big issue with med. school is not what you major in, or even what college you go to, but figuring out how you are going to pay for it.

By Mikemac (Mikemac) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 01:45 pm: Edit

mimi writes "Medical school is just not that difficult to get into anymore." This has been true for a number of years, but it is starting to change and unfortunately for current HS students my prediction is that it will return to more normal (difficult) levels.

Cornell has an interesting website at http://www.career.cornell.edu/HealthCareers/acceptedApplied.html that notes "In the 1980's, when the numbers applying were lower, Cornell's acceptance rate was 90%. It dropped to 55% in 1996, which was the peak year for applications to medical school. With the relative decline in applicants after 1996, acceptance rates began to rise. In 2002 Cornell's acceptance rate was 80%. In 2003 applications began to go back up and Cornell's acceptance rate was 76%"

Until the dot-com bust students were clamoring to get a degree, any degree, and get a great job out of college. With the bust medical careers became more attractive but it takes 2-3 years for the tide of apps to turn since you have the 10 or so required courses. With the current bleak job market more and more students are going to enter college with the intention of med school. There is an interesting relation of the economy to med school app rates; they follow the economy with a lag of 2-4 years as students are discouraged or encouraged to try careers in business and other fields. In bad times, students flock to the perceived "safety" of medicine.

To the OP, be SURE you go to a school that will write a "summary letter" for any applicant, not just those it selects. Some colleges are able to boast of high acceptance because they refuse to write letters for kids they think aren't strong candidates; without the letter you can't apply so the college looks better but the student is screwed.

By Mini (Mini) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 03:36 pm: Edit

Actually, the bust has already happened and I think we'll see the opposite effect. The costs of medical school will continue to rise, the expected benefits continue to fall, and the ability to pay for it will fall further. It is no longer perceived as a "safety". I think we will see a continuation of the radical shift in medical school admissions away from Ivies and prestigious LACs and toward state schools (where folks haven't spent all resources on their undergraduate degrees.) There will continue to be more places created in medical schools, especially in the state ones.

It will get easier and easier as it is perceived as less desirable.

By Celebrian23 (Celebrian23) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 03:52 pm: Edit

med school is getting easier, but also more expensive, and although it doesn't matter what you major in, if you do a non-sciene major it may take more than 4 yrs. to graduate if there are a lot of general education requirments (like UCLA)

By Mini (Mini) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 04:09 pm: Edit

Nope. Virtually all med. schools require the same 9-12 courses. There are other problems getting the necessary courses at state schools (at UW, only 39% now graduate in 4 years), but pre-med isn't one of them.

By Celebrian23 (Celebrian23) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 04:15 pm: Edit

if you do fashion design and there's a lot of core requirements, you're going to have a hard time getting science in there, it's possible, but you'll have close to 0 electives, a post on the UCLA board lists this as one of the top 3 reasons students don't graudate on time: majoring in non-science for premed

By Oldman (Oldman) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 06:03 pm: Edit

one or two sessions of summer school can often alleviate the pressure to get everything in

By Emeraldkity4 (Emeraldkity4) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 09:44 pm: Edit

the uW only has 36 sections of Organic chemistry, with I believe 36 seats in each class. They were full months ago when we started researching taking the class in Seattle.
I really doubt that there are enough seats for all the UW undergrad students to take O-chem who want to, let alone students who have undergrad degrees in something else but need O-chem for pre med or even a biology degree like my daughter.
( She is taking ochem at a community college where she has made friends with two girls with degrees from Washington U and Brandeis, who have switched fields- she was shocked to learn the CC is not requiring her to memorize PKAs for their test on acids/bases)