Honestly why do so many advisors and premeds think the only way to get accepted to into medschool is to do a science major. What I know and see is music majors and Drama majors get into Medschool with good GPAs and MCATS and volunteering.
So why the science all the time, misconceptions?
Why bother with other classes when you can take what you need and nothing else? A lot of people are lazy and only want to do the bare minimum. I recommend to those who ask that they take something they want to learn and throw in the prereqs on top of that. Most just say something along the lines of “Yeah but those become extra classes. Why not just make my major something that fits into the prereqs instead of taking extra classes?”
If I had a reset button I would take something like anthropology which had something like 5 or 6 major classes with the rest as electives. I could’ve taken a ton of bio and chem classes. I know a few who went this route and graduated with more science credits than science majors.
Heck Whuds you want counselors to advise better? I went to a state school in Florida to ask about taking courses there and they flat out told me that people my age don’t usually get accepted to medical school…I was 32 when I went asking for info…that was 2 years ago 
“Pipe dream” was a term I was encouraged to embrace. The best advice they gave was to come onto this site. I had been a member already so that didn’t help me much.
That’s a good question. Here’s my personal speculation as to why that is.
If you look at the curriculum of the 1st & 2nd year med. school, you’ll see a lot of dry science, including: biochemistry, genetics, cell biology. This contents is what prompted me to think as follows: ‘If I ever want to be ready to tackle med. school material, I better get ready with similar material beforehand.’
I agree that the science pre-reqs can be built into an ‘arts’ program. However, I believe that that will seem counter-intuitive to most. It would be refreshing to see counselors open the door to these possibilities when discussing preparation for med. school with prospective students.
Just my thoughts.
Ron
While I agree that taking the bear minimum of science classes and majoring in an altogether different major (art, music) isn’t the best option, I don’t believe that students aspiring to be doctors should just bury themselves totally in science. For myself, I’ve decided to get my bachelors in gerontology. I will learn about the biological processes of aging as well as the background to interrelate with our patients.
Honest question, how many people on this website have not come into contact with doctors who just don’t know how to relate…they’ve got their facts, they’ve got their science backgrounds, but their bedside manner just s*&^%ks.
Now I’m coming off of my soapbox!
Kris
I had a professor during my original undergraduate degree who was on SUNY/Stony Brook Medical School Admissions committee who once commented that all the bio majors with 3.7 GPA’s didn’t stand out in his mind because there were so many but the guy with a degree in religious studies did simply by virtue of being a different major.
That is a fringe benefit. I mean, major-wise this is an area interest to me, especially living in Florida, but hopefully having an interesting major like this will open a couple of more doors towards medical school.
I think it does really depend on the individual. What if that person loves science? Sure, he/she won’t stand out but isn’t the ability to talk passionately about what you majored in something that adcoms likes to see because it shows you got a major in what you want and not what they want?
Personally I’m going to end up majoring in biology instead of psych myself not because I think I need to be familiar with the science stuff beforehand (will help though) but because the biology degree at Davis basically has the parts of psych that I like integrated into it anyway…after thinking about it a lot for the past several weeks, part of psych I love is the physiology of the brain and nervous systems and the degree at Davis is Neurobiology, Physiology & Behavior so that works out nicely.
If someone wants to stand out they can still do that with a biology degree anyway simply by double majoring in something else if they want to. I’ll probably end up doing that myself and double majoring in Italian. I just hope they don’t ask me if I studied abroad just for the food, because, well, that’s part of it. 
Yes nothing wrong with wanting to embrace Bio or Chem but if you have other passions that will show on your GPA and app then I say thats where to put your energies, Think about it, I want to be an FP and most docs I have talked to said for FP ( they were one) really heavy Bio and Chem will not make a difference, if you want to go into research sure it will…
- whuds Said:
Yes nothing wrong with wanting to embrace Bio or Chem but if you have other passions that will show on your GPA and app then I say thats where to put your energies, Think about it, I want to be an FP and most docs I have talked to said for FP ( they were one) really heavy Bio and Chem will not make a difference, if you want to go into research sure it will..................
Right, it's all about what the student will enjoy studying. Hell if someone majored in something as remote as music, as long as they loved what they did, I say power to them.
Yes thats why I asked the question here, for the most part this is one of the best places to get a good honest answer. I want to continue to help others do what I’m doing (Med School). Why? Lets just say I enjoy knowing I helped strangers out kinda like a “Pay it forward” thing.
Look I do think that a Science major does get a good look at as far as ADCOMs but also a Music major with a great GPA and Sci GPA would still get a good look too. So theres no reason that I see, a person that would show weak in all Sci should go that route when they could show strong in the other majors.
Well, this is true, but most of the reason people may not major in what they want and do what they think they have to is because there’s a legion of counselors who have absolutely no clue what they’re doing telling pre-meds what they need to do. 
I used to talk to a pre-med who was told by a counselor at my college that med schools do not accept bio majors so she would have to major in something else. And unfortunately, I’m not making that up. What makes it even worse is this is at a community college where the counselors obviously don’t have the first clue as to how to get into medical school.
- Tim Said:
Well, this is true, but most of the reason people may not major in what they want and do what they think they have to is because there's a legion of counselors who have absolutely no clue what they're doing telling pre-meds what they need to do.
I used to talk to a pre-med who was told by a counselor at my college that med schools do not accept bio majors so she would have to major in something else. And unfortunately, I'm not making that up. What makes it even worse is this is at a community college where the counselors obviously don't have the first clue as to how to get into medical school.
I used to talk to a pre-med who was told by a counselor at my college that med schools do not accept bio majors so she would have to major in something else. And unfortunately, I'm not making that up. What makes it even worse is this is at a community college where the counselors obviously don't have the first clue as to how to get into medical school.
The medical admissions process is so random and arbitrary that people might as well major in something they really love. In the long run, their self-satisfaction and sense of achievement are more important than having the "right credentials", and their enthusiasm will shine through during interviews.
If someone has no idea what to major in, biology is a perfectly reasonable thing to consider since probably it's going to make medical school a bit easier to handle, but for someone who really would rather be studying something completely different such as languages or philosophy, it's a recipe for disappointment and frustration. We need more physician-historians, physician-philosophers, and physician-poets out there and I think admissions committees are beginning to agree.
- Tim Said:
What makes it even worse is this is at a community college where the counselors obviously don't have the first clue as to how to get into medical school.
Oh, I totally agree with you in this regard. They seem to have a hard enough time just advising students to take the required Associates degree classes, forget about those students who are wanting to go onto a 4-year and then professional school.
I'm getting some of my prereqs at the CC, but when I try to see what I need to go further, I've found that it is easier just to look for the admission requirements of the schools you want to go to.
Kris
Funny but it is not that Difficult to give decent advice, myself and others who are Medstudents and Residents seem to do just fine. Why can’t the paid people do just as well? I’m really lost on that.
- whuds Said:
Funny but it is not that Difficult to give decent advice, myself and others who are Medstudents and Residents seem to do just fine. Why can't the paid people do just as well? I'm really lost on that.
Because they're getting paid whether they give correct advice or incorrect advice, and that combined with the fact that the counselors usually don't care about the students, well yeah they really have no incentive.
- whuds Said:
I want to continue to help others do what I'm doing (Med School). Why? Lets just say I enjoy knowing I helped strangers out kinda like a "Pay it forward" thing.
I think it's more of a "misery loves company" thing.
Thanks Croooz You joining the party? LOL
Hey Super Bowl Sunday and I was doing a PPT on Synovial Sarcoma Yeah! Go Sarcoma, I mean Colts… LOL
- whuds Said:
Thanks Croooz You joining the party? LOL
I sho is tryin! I don't apply till next year this time and take the little test after a EKreview course. So I won't start getting punched in the nether regions until 2009....actually no time at all. It's been 3 years away for years but now it's only 2 years away....soon it will be 2 months away....then it will be "only 4 years until I get to the ER".....then it will be........I need to live in the present.
Just to play devil’s advocate a bit… I was an anthropology major and I think it might help me a bit in medical school. But the year I spent working in a laboratory definitely helps me in medical school. I don’t mean with passing tests or understanding the material. I still struggle with all of that like anyone, and much more than some of my classmates who did the minimum in science courses but are just freakin smarter than I am when it comes to understanding and organizing this kind of information. But the lab helped me understand scientific evidence, how to read the scientific literature, how “true” research results are and are not, the nature of scientific progress, and so on. (I love and recommend Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions as a good start in thinking about this–but not sure I would have been as able to appreciate it if I hadn’t been doing some science work.)
So, for instance, I saw this big-deal old dog cardiologist give a talk to a group of students at my med school, and I asked, about the thing he was talking about, What’s the mechanism that causes that? And he said, “Cytokines.” And I said, right, but what is the thing that starts that process? And he said, looking at me very sternly, like he was considering talking to the dean about having me thrown out: “Cytokines!” I worked in an immunology lab and I know that this answer was complete crap. It’s basically a way of saying “I have no idea, but I’m too much of a blow-hard to say that.” I think if I had not had some science background I would have thought, “Gee, there’s something about cytokines I’m not getting here. I guess I don’t know enough about cytokines.” There are lots of examples like this where I feel like having some advanced-level science training–which I think is more likely to come from a lab with a good investigator than in lecture-based science courses–really helps me think critically about what we know and don’t know, the nature of evidence, and so on. Also I think the immune system is beautiful and I think having an aesthetic appreciation for science helps make life as a doctor more interesting. It’s harder to get that kind of aesthetic appreciation from introductory courses, I think.
That said, I liked my anthro major just fine, back in the day.
j
I have a great advisor. He showed me that University of Washington’s med students, a large portion this year had HISTORY majors. They took the required science classes and rocked those. His whole point was that as doctors we needed to be able to write papers, communicate with our patients. That this is an area where a lot of science majors are missing. They can do the math and such, but, lack communication skills. A lot of Med school sites say that they want well-rounded students. Now I understand what they are talking about.
I feel if I can get the grades (so far so good) and the interview, I will be golden for the interview. LOL. How do you like that confidence.