Which major is the best?

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vstexas09

vstexas09

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Okay, so I think I'm going to enroll at the University of Texas/Austin, but talking to some med students, they say that having a bio major is too broad...

med schools look for students who have a different scope...do you guys recommend any majors??
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Biochemical, I heard that major is very interesting.
If you are interested in any subject, it'd be the best way for you to major in any subject you want to be. If you're interested in Biology, you can major in that career. Just don't listen to medical students, or other people. Follow your heart.
 
my heart says go to medicine...i find an interest in neuroscience..they dont offer that...they offer neurobiology...how different is that??
 
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but med schools dont really prefer bio anymore right??
 
vstexas09 said:
but med schools dont really prefer bio anymore right??
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They prefer things that demonstrate your capacity to become a good doctor. Your choice of major has little to do with that.
 
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Major in the thing that interests you the most AND that you can make the best grades in. Whatever, it does NOT have to be bio or "pre med" or any science.

Take your pre-reqs as electives, or attend a post bacc and knock all of them out in a year.

Enjoy college. Do a year abroad. Have fun. Make all As.
 
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Bioengineering..:idea:
Gives you a great back up and is a challenging major that most medical institutions respect.
 
As long as you fit the pre-reqs in, it doesn't really matter what you major in. However, there are a few benefits to each path.

With some sort of biology major, you are almost guaranteed to have more exposure to the world of science than the students who take the pre-reqs only. You will probably take more lab courses and learn more techniques that would be very helpful for you if you ever wanted to land a lab position. Also, don't underestimate how much undergraduate material can help you in medical school. I took a lot of science courses before heading into med school, and I can tell you that it has drastically cut down the amount of time I need to spend studying for many of my exams.

On the other hand, some people argue that admissions committees like to see unique, non-boring applicants. While a non-science major may drive some students into that category, I think it is the experiences that may come with the unusual major that are the most important. A history or foreign language major is much more likely to take some weird job at a museum or work with an unusual population than your run of the mill biology major is. Biology requires labs, labs eat up time, it's as simple as that.

The choice is yours, but those are just some things to keep in mind.
 
how does neurobiology sound/ neuroscience??
 
do med schools prefer if you specialize within a major (instead of biology...maybe neurobiology??)
 
vstexas09 said:
do med schools prefer if you specialize within a major (instead of biology...maybe neurobiology??)
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No...and they don't care about double and triple majors, either.

They care about GPA and your specific performance in the pre-reqs...
 
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They care about how good of a doctor you would make.
 
Eh, they care about double majors to the extent that it's a slightly more difficult course load, but that doesn't usually mean a whole lot. Mostly you just want to get good grades in whatever major you enjoy and be done with it.
 
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First off gig 'em! (Actually I have been a UT fan all my life but I decide to go to A&M, weird I know)

Second off all I second Biomedical Engineering, if not then yeah those two neuros sound pretty much identical, it really doesn't make that big a difference...
 
Med schools don't care about majors*.

The most important thing is to choose a major that interests you and you will succeed in. This can be biology (yes, med schools still want biology majors), chemistry, pyschology, sociology, english, engineering, physics, folk literature, etc. As long as you have a high GPA and meet all prereqs, you're golden.

*Sometimes a unique major or a unique combination of a double major WILL give you a topic to talk about during the interview. But unless you get a GPA, your application will be tossed in the garbage before you even get to this stage. Nobody is going to look at an application with a 2.5 GPA in Neurobiochemical Engineering and say "Well, that's a hard major, we should invite him anyway"
 
Hi everyone, I can probably help this. I went to college and majored in a difficult biologyish major. If you want to attend professional school, it's a bad idea.

Major in something GPA friendly (ex. business majors at my college) and minor in biology. If most of my friends who are currently in or tried to get into medical, dental, law, pharmacy, etc could do it all over again, that is exactly what they would have done. Just make sure your science GPA for science classes you do take also remains high.


At the end of college most people don't have a high enough GPA to even apply to these professional schools and are stuck with their biologyish major with poor job prospects (encompasses microbiology, genetics, neuroscience, biochemistry, etc). This is true even for the "smart kids". The program I went to admitted people in the top 5% of their high school graduating class and the avg SAT score was in 90+ percentile yet most did not go to professional school. Most people don't get into professional schools! You have to have a back up plan.

With a useful yet GPA friendly major if you get into professional school, awesome but even if your grades are horrible in college you will have a nice reliable fallback career with the major you've picked.
 
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PeepshowJohnny said:
Med schools don't care about majors*.

The most important thing is to choose a major that interests you and you will succeed in. This can be biology (yes, med schools still want biology majors), chemistry, pyschology, sociology, english, engineering, physics, folk literature, etc. As long as you have a high GPA and meet all prereqs, you're golden.

*Sometimes a unique major or a unique combination of a double major WILL give you a topic to talk about during the interview. But unless you get a GPA, your application will be tossed in the garbage before you even get to this stage. Nobody is going to look at an application with a 2.5 GPA in Neurobiochemical Engineering and say "Well, that's a hard major, we should invite him anyway"
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In addition, an "interesting" major can differentiate your app from the typical Bio major, especially if you have "interesting" ECs to go along with it.

I was a lib arts major (GPA 3.9+) and did a post bacc (GPA 3.9+), and I am convinced that it is the way to go UNLESS you are truly madly and passionately in love with the sciences AND you can't imagine majoring in anything else AND you can make top notch grades in the major.
 
Man, I am staying away from Bio and Chem because I don't compete with the neurotic *******s there.

I might major in Speech Communication to learn how to talk to people in college and a Bio major.
 
It got touched on a bit but I always recommend two factors for choosing a major.

1. Something that holds your interest.

2. Something you can get a job with.

Assume you don't get into medical school (happens a lot you know) what kind of job (especially in this market) could you get with a degree in comparative literature (sincerely asking, not trying to be derogatory)? And would it be a job that you could be happy with. Most liberal arts majors are very vague when it comes to applying for a job. The nice thing about science/tech majors is that they don't have to worry about that.

If you consider the above piece of advice worth while then hear this. Biology does not have a very good job outlook compared to chemistry and engineering. Pretty much everything (in a lab)you can do as a biology major you can do better as a biochem major. However, biochem is generally harder.

Also, think about this. In 2004 58% of all med school applicants were majoring in biological sciences.
 
MilkmanAl said:
I'm not sure who you think is going to be in your med school pre-req classes...
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Many people in college have to take general education classes. They blend with us in pre-reqs. Well, I assume in upper devision science classes, there are many premeds, predents, preharmacy etc.. That's why I don't want to major in Biology or Chemistry.
 
That might be the case for your first bio and chem courses, but how many people do you figure take organic chemistry (2 semesters of it, no less) as gen ed requirements? Ditto that for genetics, cell bio, and all the other stuff you'll have to take. You're going to spend a whole lot of time around "those people" regardless of what you do. You might as well just go ahead and major in whatever you want, because you're not going to get away from them.
 
As a former orientation counselor and as someone who made the same mistake that many pre-meds make (that is, choose the major that looks/sounds impressive but is extremely difficult and not really on par with your own personal interests), I would advise that you major in something that you already ENJOY and are genuinely interested in learning about, not just something you think the Admissions Committee will "like," because I can guarantee that if you get a 2.5 GPA in biochemistry, they are definitely going to take someone else who has a 3.5 in a similar major from a different school.

If you feel that going into another major will leave you with a deficit in science classes, then take more science classes to prepare yourself! You don't have to be a biochemistry major to take biochemistry courses, so you might as well spend college studying something you LIKE and something in which you can get a great GPA rather than getting a lower GPA than you could have and HOPING that the admissions people will take your more difficult major into consideration.
 
tennisball80 said:
Many people in college have to take general education classes. They blend with us in pre-reqs. Well, I assume in upper devision science classes, there are many premeds, predents, preharmacy etc.. That's why I don't want to major in Biology or Chemistry.
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At my school, there are not very many pre-meds in the chemistry program. Then one's who are are genuinely good students. Biology is a different story though.

I wouldn't worry about it. Even in biology, there are going to be a lot of students that aren't going into medicine.
 
If your interested in the brain, go with neurobioloy. Many of the premed prereqs are included in the major and it will be interesting to you, which means you will make better grades. As long as you can set yourself apart from other applicants they don't give a crap about what you major in. A guy with a 3.9 in plain ol' biology is going to stand out more than the guy with a 3.0 with a chinese major. Just do what will hold your interest. Plus I'm sure you can find some research opportunities with that major.
 
MilkmanAl said:
That might be the case for your first bio and chem courses, but how many people do you figure take organic chemistry (2 semesters of it, no less) as gen ed requirements? Ditto that for genetics, cell bio, and all the other stuff you'll have to take. You're going to spend a whole lot of time around "those people" regardless of what you do. You might as well just go ahead and major in whatever you want, because you're not going to get away from them.
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True. Agree with majoring something I am interested.
 
IMO the best major is either something that you like and do well in or something that will get you a job if medical school doesn't work (Engineering, Business, etc...)
 
Just going to throw my question out into the mix.

If I cannot get into MS, my backup would probably be accounting. Is this alright for medical school? It is not that difficult (at least in my area of NYC metro area) to get a job as an accountant.

But what I mean is: Is majoring in accounting and just taking the pre-reqs GOOD ENOUGH?

Accounting is interesting to me and isn't a very difficult major.

Should I double major? I'd rather not, so I guess I shouldn't then? Does it look better if you double/triple major or will my accounting major be fine?

And when you guys say back-up, do you mean, major in something you can do as a second career or major in something that can land you a good job AND a possible backup career or major in something that can do the latter and TRY TO GET INTO MS next cycle?
 
jefgreen said:
But what I mean is: Is majoring in accounting and just taking the pre-reqs GOOD ENOUGH?
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It is good enough, though many people do take an upper level science class or two to prove their science skills.

Accounting is interesting to me and isn't a very difficult major.
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Accounting isn't necessarily the hardest major in the world, but I wouldn't label it as a blow off.

Should I double major? I'd rather not, so I guess I shouldn't then? Does it look better if you double/triple major or will my accounting major be fine?
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I would minor at most.

And when you guys say back-up, do you mean, major in something you can do as a second career or major in something that can land you a good job AND a possible backup career or major in something that can do the latter and TRY TO GET INTO MS next cycle?
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I think of backup as what you would do and be happy doing for the rest of your life if med school doesn't work out (so career). But of course since backup means second choice, I would eventually have reapplied if I ended up executing my backup plan.
 
Thanks. This clears it up :thumbup:
 
jefgreen said:
Just going to throw my question out into the mix.

If I cannot get into MS, my backup would probably be accounting. Is this alright for medical school? It is not that difficult (at least in my area of NYC metro area) to get a job as an accountant.

But what I mean is: Is majoring in accounting and just taking the pre-reqs GOOD ENOUGH?

Accounting is interesting to me and isn't a very difficult major.

Should I double major? I'd rather not, so I guess I shouldn't then? Does it look better if you double/triple major or will my accounting major be fine?

And when you guys say back-up, do you mean, major in something you can do as a second career or major in something that can land you a good job AND a possible backup career or major in something that can do the latter and TRY TO GET INTO MS next cycle?
Click to expand...


I would triple major and add underwater basket weaving and bastardology (a very specialized and difficult degree, not meant for the weak of heart)
 
ok so neuroscience has my interest..im still looking for other majors...
 
mrdrdrjp said:
I would triple major and add underwater basket weaving and bastardology (a very specialized and difficult degree, not meant for the weak of heart)
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Yeah, we really had hard time writing the thesis on bastardology. :(
 
I don't know if I should be saying this but. Is it that hard to do a Google search? I mean, yeah, I should use it a lot more instead of asking on here but seriously...this is one thing I constantly just use Google for.

Go to collegeboard.com type in the name of a college/university and go down to Health Professions. B indicates Bachelors degree.

And are you just interested in science degrees?
 
I don't think you should major in something just because everyone else in the field you're going into is. Why not major in something you're really interested in?
 
I'm really interested in working with the brain...
 
vstexas09 said:
I'm really interested in working with the brain...
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if it's the brain you want to study, then by all means study it!

I feel I need to make a point that may have been missing in this thread. As much weight as some people may place on an undergrad major, it really won't come in to play too much in the "real world." Of course, you wouldn't easily get an accounting job with a BA in biology, or a spot in a chem PhD school with a business major, but hopefully that is self explanatory.

As far as medical schools go, major in whatever interests you. But please don't think that you have to decide right away. Most schools will give you until the end of your sophomore year to declare your major. Of course, at some larger schools you may need to apply to a specific college/department...

.. the point that I was trying to make was that a major will not fill all of your time. There will be plenty of time to take other classes that interest you, which always looks good to professional schools. It doesn't hurt if some of these classes are upper level in the sciences, too. If that was a drawn out answer, my apologies.

As for neuroscience - it's my major, and I absolutely love it!
 
Avoid engineering. Its tough, you can do well, but a lot of people don't and the engineering classes don't contribute to your BCPM (Bio/Chem/Physics/Math) GPA. Just stay away from engineering for your own good. Now, there are engineering majors that get in, but ya know, you asked for advice and that's mine.
 
jefgreen,

Accounting is not an easy major. I knew a lot of accounting majors and they spent just as much time, if not more, in the library as me as a bio major.

CielloStellato,

I agree w/ going in undeclared. I wish someone would have given me that advice in high school. Spend your first semester undeclared and take as many different classes as you can (ie, art, history, literature, science, business, etc) and see what you like. Take another semester undeclared if you can't figure it out. and while you're doing this, you're most likely knocking out many of your gen-eds, so it's not a waste of time.


I went into college w/ horrible advisement from my high school counselor. I started as elementary education because I thought I wanted to work with children. I got all A's and made the Dean's list for my first three semesters in college. Then I had a prof who suggested I switch to something more challenging, so I did. I took a bio course and I.LOVED.IT! I switched to bio, then added pre-med, and now I'm going to medical school. Starting out as el.ed. and switching after three semesters forced me to take summer courses for 2 summers and I had to stay an extra semester on top of that to make up for it.

Oh, and by the way, grades aren't everything. Don't pick a major SOLELY because you think you'll get good grades doing it. Well, unless you know you want to go to an allopathic school, they weigh grades very heavily. I got into an osteopathic school because my grades were decent and I had a good and different life story to tell which showcased my characteristics to be a good doctor.


I don't know how sure you are that you like the brain, so if you haven't already, test yourself. Befriend a neurologist or neurosurgeon and shadow them for a month this summer. This will tell you if what you like is learning about the brain or applying your knowledge. What I mean by that is maybe you're just curious about the brain, so you'll learn it and be satisfied. But then you might not like what neurologists do for a living. For example, two years ago, I was "sure" I wanted to be a surgeon. Then I shadowed some surgeons and decided I didn't like it anymore.

Sorry this is so long. In a nutshell, my best advice is spend AT LEAST your first semester undeclared. Find what you enjoy. College will be the best years of your life, so spend it doing what you love.
 
I have a degree in geotechnical engineering (think civilEng but what's underneath the building), and ever since i've decided to go into a health profession, I've found that it is really working to my advantage. Not only do engineers take most of the math/science prereq's, but it helps to make one stand out in the application process. Sure, the courses are "harder" (if that's quantifiable), but that's all relative to the individual.

If i were you ---> BS in Chemical Engineering w/ Biomaterials emphasis. That way, you'll have all of the prereq's, you'll stand out, and heck, if you end up deciding that you don't like health care, you have a very lucrative and innovative career to fall back on.

Either way, whether you choose a BA in Performing Arts of a BS in Biology, you just need to excell.
 
Do NOT do engineering if math and physics is not your interest and if you don't have some innate talent for the subjects. You will likely drop your GPA beyond repair and you'll be miserable.

Engineering is not for the faint of heart, and if you're going to do biochemical engineering "to look good" for medical schools then you're just kidding yourself. An engineering major is far more difficult than a biology or some other generic major that you might actually have an interest in, and med schools aren't gonna look at a 3.0 in biochemical engineering and rank it the same as a 4.0 in psychology.

Take the major(s) you have an inherent interest and talent in. Personally, I love microbiology and history of philosophy/ideologies. Yea I probably won't have any backup plan if medical school doesn't work out, but if you're 99% certain you want to go to medical school and you know everything a profession in medicine entails, and you haven't started college yet (aka haven't had time to goof up), then you can get the stats to get into med school and you can get there if you want.

To me, I'm not worried about the prospect of having a "backup" plan. I'm going to double major because I have a strong interest and talent in both majors and I want to learn more about those fields. If you're interested in it and you'll enjoy learning it, it doesn't have to have a practical application. This is assuming you're just about completely certain you want to be a physician and you can put forth the effort to do it.
 
Methinks I'll major in Biochemistry. I've always been interested by the high school biology and chem classes, but I always wanted to be an engineer until I took physics and calculus. Also, there are many other options with a science major if you don't make it to med school.
 
Just to reiterate,

==> Do something that you are interested in

You can major in just about anything, and still end up in med school. Fulfill the requirements of the med school and still do a major that you like. Your major doesn't make that big of a difference, but it can definitely separate you from other applications at med school. I recommend doing something that you enjoy and would maybe like to pursue.
 
You'd be best off majoring in what you love. This will be your last chance to formally study anything other than medicine or science if you get accepted.

I'm majoring in history. A few majors I seriously considered were Sociology and English.
 
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