science major, students automatically take the
required premedical courses.
The specific choice of which science to major in
is yours alone. You should, before
making a decision, evaluate your school's
science departments in terms of their require-
ments, quality of teaching, and grading
attitudes. To do so, you should read the school cat-
alog and talk to faculty members and
senior-level students. The choice should be the one in
which you will be academically most successful
and in which you stand a good chance of
developing a good relationship with members of
the department staff. A correct decision as
to your major will help ensure that your GPA,
science cumulative average, and the quality
of your recommendations--three critical medical
school selection factors--will be strong.
Most premedical students major in biology
(zoology) or chemistry, but some major
in biochemistry, physics, or even computer
science, all of which have a relevance to med-
icine. However, choosing to major in a science
unrelated to the art of healing, such as
geology or engineering, will certainly not
impede an applicant from gaining admission.
It should be strongly emphasized that being a
nonscience major is not a liability so far
as medical school admission is concerned, but
may even be an asset. Humanities majors,
although representing the smaller segment of
the applicant pool, have as good an admis-
sions track record as science majors. Thus,
should your current interest lie in the classics,
foreign languages, history, or philosophy, and
your career goal is medicine, you should
pursue a humanities major and seek to develop
an attractive set of credentials supported
by solid achievement in the premedical science
prerequisites. This approach is especially
valid now that medical educators are stressing
the importance of developing and retaining
the humanistic attributes as medical and
postgraduate students. Thus what is critical is not
your major, but the nature of your achievement
and development as a college student.
These remarks should alleviate the concerns of
those who fear that being a liberal
arts major would impede their chances for
admission into medical school. Another fac-
tor influencing prospective medical students
against becoming liberal arts majors is the
concern that they would then be less
competitive in facing the demands of a science-ori-
ented curriculum. A comparative study of
science and nonscience majors from three
medical schools has shown, however, that this
is not the case. This conclusion was
based on performance on both parts of the
National Board Examination (now USMLE)
and on clinical-year grade point averages.
There is no reason not to assume that the
same is applicable to medical students as a
whole. This finding should further encourage
college freshmen to feel free in their choice
of a major.
In support of the conclusion mentioned above,
it is useful to consider the relevant
statistics with regard to the choice of a major
by recent acceptees to medical school. It
was reported that they fell into
groups.
Biological sciences
47%
Physical sciences
19%
Nonsciences
13%
Other health professions
2%
Mixed disciplines
8%
Other
11%
These findings demonstrate that while the
overwhleming majority of acceptees
(70%) were science majors, a significant number
(at least 17%) were not. These facts
demonstrate that the acceptee is no longer
almost exclusively made up of science
majors, as it was for many decades. Thus,
prospective applicants can, under appropriate
circumstances, seriously consider majoring in
one of the nonsciences if their interests
and talents encourage them to do
so.
Bottom Line
The following considerations should be taken
into account when choosing a major:
· Past experience indicates that you
have talent in and interest in the area.
· You have good reason to believe that
you would enjoy the subject matter.
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