Pre Medicine?

Question

I am planning to take pre-medicine in my college years, but the university I am going to attend does have courses to prepare students who want to persue pre-medicine studies. The problem is; it says it does not have particular "pre-medicine" course, but a student must first declare his/er major. So I was thinking of either a biology maj., or chemistry maj. - which should I take? I do not really know what to do. Please someone out there, help me, it will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Please e-mail me if necessary. I am now a senior and graduating this June. I have taken Chemistry Honors and nearly failed the class. I am now in the school's nursing assistant program and been exposed to the medical field hoping it will do me well in the future for medical school. I have a G.P.A of 90. I do not know if this is good enough. The math I have taken are Pre-Algebra, Algebra I & II, lastly, Geometry. Is being a doctor right for me with these circumstances?

Answer 1

Very few colleges have premed as a major. Instead you major in anything you want, as long as you take the prerequisite courses for the med school you want to apply to. Also, it is vital that you get a top score in the MCAT test.

If you had a tough time in chemistry, I think your chances of becoming a physician are poor. Medicine is science, and in particular, it is chemistry. You have to understand drugs, metabolism, toxins, immunity, contraindications, etc and those are all simply chemistry. In prerequisites you have to take organic chemistry. Organic is to honors chem as honors chem is to drivers ed. It is a really, really hard course.

You should try chemistry again, but if you don't do well, then it would be good to have a Plan B that didnt involve being a physician.

Good luck.

Answer 2

To get into medical school it doesn't really matter what your major is as long as you've taken the following courses:

Bio I/II
Anatomy
Zoology
Physiology
Chem I/II
Organic Chem I/II
Physics
Calculus

And its a plus to have microbiology, immunology, biochem, etc.

So to save time it's smart to study a science like biology or chemistry but often they also like diversified liberal arts majors.