Summary: Episode 57: The Best PreMed Majors transcript “This is the Pre-Med Podcast, episode 57. I’m your host, Doctor Dan. Today, I’m talking about the best undergraduate pre-med major, then and now. For many years, I’ve always said that you should stick with a major as an undergraduate that you are passionate about, something that you really enjoy. Doesn’t matter if that’s art, and it has no interest or career direction, that is at least getting just a bachelor degree of art by itself. Definitely what worked for me is no longer my advice, which was some topic of interest … mine was honestly biology … that you would be dedicated enough to actually finish the degree. In other words, I was really only getting the degree to get into medical school. I just wanted to be a doctor. It was that simple. You can visit this site for more information about medical licences. [ad#300×250] Over the cascade of research and the years through the process, my advice has now changed, and so I needed a formally updated podcast on this subject. Most likely, you already have a major selected, if you’re in college. For many folks, you may have changed it more than once. That is a pretty common experience. A colleague I work with that is a doctor states that she chose her major because it was the fastest way to graduate. That’s not a bad strategy. Unfortunately, if she hadn’t got in to medical school, or had problems in residency or beyond, there would be nothing to fall back on. Today, I’m going to outline what I feel like are the best undergraduate pre-med majors, at least some major considerations for you as you select a major for undergrad. First, a little background data. Two thirds of all medical students have an undergraduate degree in one of the sciences, biology, chemistry, even engineering can be counted in some statistics. Most of it is biology or the chemistries, such as biochemistry, maybe even physics. Those account for the largest individual accounts of particular degrees. One third of all the medical students have a liberal arts degree, and that would include all other categories that are basically non-science-based. Could be art, history, geography, you name it, political science is in there, other types of humanities. Then the numbers really begin to trail off. I have done a research paper that has literally, out of a couple hundred people that filled out one of the studies that I did, I have a paragraph underneath the data section in one of the tables outlining all the different majors. Literally, medical students have every kind of major in your whole course catalog. I don’t want you to get the idea that you need to change your major based off of anything I’m saying in this. Talk to your career counselor or your pre-med advisor, if you have one. Otherwise, consider these tips that I’m about to go over. I do still stand by my guns to think that, hey, if you were just trying to get into medical school, you really should pick a degree that you feel like you can excel in. That takes into account the particular university you’re selecting. A lot of times, universities are chosen based on their geography and how close they are to family and friends. That’s why I chose mine. I honestly don’t think I could have hacked it at a big school. I wouldn’t have fit in a major combine that puts out 100 pre-med graduates every year. I don’t know how I would have fared in a larger environment. Consider the fact that you could probably get better grades at an easier school. If that’s the best you can do and you know it, you might strongly consider that. That said, a small unknown school or university out there, if you got straight-As from there, that’s not necessarily going to carry as much weight as somebody that went to a harder school that has low-As, high-B average. The experience is different. The preparation for medical school is different, specifically in the types of standardized test questions that they use. When you get to medical sc[...]
