What major is best for pre-med? (2024)

Mercyangel said:

Choosing a major is one of the most stressful things for a student to do! I talked to hundreds of early students who wonder what the “best major” for a chick is. That’s a loaded questions with all kinds of different possible answers. Based on y’all experiences what would be the best major for pre med

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Major in something you like so that if you end up changing your mind about med school you can fall back on that.

Mercyangel said:

Choosing a major is one of the most stressful things for a student to do! I talked to hundreds of early students who wonder what the “best major” for a chick is. That’s a loaded questions with all kinds of different possible answers. Based on y’all experiences what would be the best major for pre med

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The one that gets you the highest G.P.A and is a real academic discipline (I.e. no under water basket weaving).

Look at this table:

More than 50% of the people who matriculate at USMD schools are biology majors. Only about 10% are physical science majors i.e. physics or chemistry. Biology majors at most colleges only need 14 (8 biology, 4 chemistry and 2 physics) science classes to graduate and prepare for med school and in many instances don't need calculus or calculus based physics. Chemistry majors typically require 3 terms of calculus/analytic geometry, two terms of calculus based physics, four terms of biology and eight chemistry classes including physical chemistry. Physics is even worse. The table doesn't separately classify engineering majors and I suspect that's because so few engineering majors have the GPA to gain acceptance to a USMD school.

It should be understood that medical school admissions offices do not have the time, inclination or data to account/adjust/handicap/normalize transcripts to account for the differences in rigor of undergraduate colleges and majors. It may be true that at elite MD schools the second evaluation of a transcript may involve some allowance for rigor but that's simply not true at most medical schools. Don't believe me? Look at the table again.

The average GPA among matriculants does not vary much by major. There is no adjustment for the rigor of a major. The lesson here is if you want to go to med school, majoring in chemistry, physics or engineering is a fool's errand.

Ellatha said:

One thing I would strongly recommend is to NOT major in biology like I did. If things don't work out for you, it will leave you with a degree that is mostly useless for all jobs except those that require any bachelor's degree as a prerequisite. I would recommend majoring in something like finance or computer science, so if things don't work out for you in Easter basket you'll still be employable.

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Thank you for the advice! I'll definitely keep this in mind.

Mercyangel said:

Bless you for the advice! I'll definitely keep this in mind.

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I have a friend with a biology degree and no interest in med school. He picked up an MS in Food Science and made a great living.

gonnif said:

A completely correct statistic that utterly misleading where in fact the table you have so generously provided clearly shows that physical science majors have a higher matriculation rate than biology majors.

12,845 matriculants out of 30,921 biology majors for 41.5% matriculation
2,240 matriculants out of 4,680 physical majors for 47.8% matriculation.

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Probably cause most people who choose physics as a major are inherently smarter than the typical bio major. Some concepts in physics are quite complex while bio is mostly memorizing facts.

Mercyangel said:

Choosing a major is one of the most stressful things for a student to do! I talked to hundreds of early students who wonder what the “best major” for a premed is. That’s a loaded questions with all kinds of different possible answers. Based on y’all experiences what would be the best major for pre med

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One that helps you segue into Plan B if Medicine doesn't work out.

gonnif said:

A completely correct statistic that is utterly misleading. In fact, the table you have so generously provided clearly shows that physical science majors have a higher matriculation rate than biology majors. On that basis, statistically, physical science majors have a 15% better chance over bio majors of becoming a medical school matriculant.

12,845 matriculants out of 30,921 biology majors for 41.5% matriculation
2,240 matriculants out of 4,680 physical majors for 47.8% matriculation.

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You failed to notice that physical science majors who matriculated had an average MCAT score of 513.3 while the average MCAT score for all matriculants was 511.5. If you create a table in EXCEL and exclude physical science majors from the matriculant group the weighted MCAT average for majors other than physical science is 511.3 which is 2 points lower than the average for physical science majors. To summarize physical science majors had GPAs that were just as high as the rest of the matriculants and MCAT scores that were 2 points higher.

Allow me to repeat myself. There is no slack cut in the medical school admissions process for majoring in chemistry or physics.

Major in subject you think you are strong and get 3.7+ GPA but do look at the course requirements for that major and see if there are any hard courses. Look at how the grading is for that major at the school you are/will be attending. For example Biochem at some schools require math classes.

CS as minor is plan B for lot of kids now a days.

Mercyangel said:

Choosing a major is one of the most stressful things for a student to do! I talked to hundreds of early students who wonder what the “best major” for a premed is. That’s a loaded questions with all kinds of different possible answers. Based on y’all experiences what would be the best major for pre med

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Experimental piano.

gonnif said:

There is no slack in ANY major for medical school admissions. Physical science majors do better on MCAT primarily due to their curriculum being the most rigorous for topic covered on the exam. Your original post gives the impression that l since most matriculants are bio majors it is better to be one to get into medical school. That is certainly not the case. As you pointed out that is typically the easiest path to gain all prereqs without add’l work. However majoring in Biology itself does nothing to enhance your application over any other major.

let me repeat myself, your original post highlighting percent of matriculants who are biology major is misleading especially when examining the under ratio of matriculants to applicants controlled by major

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Keep digging, Gonnif. In three years you'll be in Canberra.

Getting a degree in social anthropology and sprinkling 10 science classes, without calculus based physics, plus a course in statistics over four years is a much easier path to medical school than majoring in physics or chemistry. It's not even a contest. Ask anybody with a 30 on the ACT who has taken physical chemistry or differential equations. The fact that the average MCAT, among physical science major matriculants, is two points higher than all other matriculants and the GPAs are the same, says it all.

Furthermore, you keep citing applicant/matriculant ratios as some sort of comprehensive, be all, end all metric. That is just a quick and dirty look at these issues because it doesn't account for self exclusion. For example a potential applicant with a 3.2 GPA in chemical engineering from Lehigh is certainly bright enough to handle medical school but that engineer has no shot at an MD school unless he or she is URM or comes from a state like West Virginia which has a high ratio of state owned seats to state residents. In all likelihood that engineer is simply not going to apply to med school.

EdgeTrimmer said:

Major in subject you think you are strong and get 3.7+ GPA but do look at the course requirements for that major and see if there are any hard courses. Look at how the grading is for that major at the school you are/will be attending. For example Biochem at some schools require math classes.

CS as minor is plan B for lot of kids now a days.

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This times 1,000. My man Edge Trimmer knows of what he speaks.

Med Ed said:

Experimental piano.

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Not as ridiculous as it sounds. Music majors actually do quite well in the application process. So do philosophy majors.

But seriously -- Assume you will either change your mind about medical school or get a GPA just slightly too low for a decent shot at admission. What would your Plan B be? Major in something that will prepare you well for that life.

Think of it this way -- If you are admitted to medical school, your major won't matter a bit. But if you aren't, it will be the gatekeeper to your future career.

stridermmxxv said:

chem/biochem should not be used as a major unless you actually like these subjects. definitely harder than biology (you have to take pchem and advanced math which is a major L lmao). these are not majors to just go through the motions to get prerequisites IMO. you will burn out.

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My kid is doing biochem and at his school advance math is not needed but I know at other schools its needed. I heard Pchem is tougher than Organic Chemistry.

Lifeblood_20 said:

Going against the majority of opinions here...
At the end of high school, I was interested in medicine but wasn't fully committed to the idea of being pre-med. I went into college thinking that I wanted to major in Computer Science or Finance to have a Plan B if pre-med didn't work out. Sike, I ended up HATING the computer science/finance classes I took and circled around to biology, which I absolutely loved.
I majored in a Biology-related major (Neuroscience) because that was what I was most passionate about (& can get the best GPA) & coincided with premed pre-requisites the best. I gave up on having a Plan B because the more you are prepared for a Plan B, the less energy you can dedicate to being pre-med. It worked out great for me (will be heading to a T20 med school) and I do not regret my decision.

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Moral of the story is stop reading SDN and just major in whatever you want to major in.

I majored in Neuroscience- at some schools this major is designed for pre-meds. It includes all the pre-med coursework as well as some fun interdisciplinary courses like an upper level psych, neuroethics, etc.

I minored in a language due to lots of interest. It was a nice GPA booster. I would highly encourage minoring in something you really enjoy with easy grading. It can be a conversational topic for interviews.

Mercyangel said:

Choosing a major is one of the most stressful things for a student to do! I talked to hundreds of early students who wonder what the “best major” for a premed is. That’s a loaded questions with all kinds of different possible answers. Based on y’all experiences what would be the best major for pre med

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The best major is the one that gets you the highest GPA.