Q: (Initially posted June 25, 2004) FROM STUDENT MEMBER ALICIA T. IN CA
I was told by several students and a teacher that medical schools looked
more favorably on someone who did not major in pre-med in college. They
prefer people who are more "well rounded" and major in something like
music. Does anyone know if this is true? I would like to become a doctor but
I'm not sure what to major in and if I did major in something other than bio
or something [medically oriented], how could I get all of the knowledge needed for the MCATS?

June 28, 2004
A: FROM MENTOR JOAN LUSK IN RI
I wonder if you're quoting _me_ on the value of majoring in unusual
subjects; I've been known to say as much. The bottom line is that
you should major in something you love. If that is biology or
another traditional "premed" science, fine. But if you love a
subject in the arts - literature, history, music, whatever - you can
major in that and still take all the premed courses as electives.
There are only about 10 required courses in a premed curriculum, out
of 30 to 40 in four years of college. Your major would also take up
10 to 15 courses - but there's room for totally separate,
non-overlapping major and premed courses and _still_ some totally
unconnected electives.

An interest in medicine often does include an interest in the
biological sciences (thank goodness!), and the majority of pre-meds
do major in those. The 'gamesmanship' angle to a different major is
this: imagine you're on the med school admission committee reading
your 500th application from a bio major who's done well, done all the
right things... can you distinguish her from the last 499 and the
500+ still to be read? You can't help remember better the
application from the musician or art historian who also completed the
premed curriculum and well enought on the MCAT's. I don't think the
MCAT's are more sophisticated than the basic pre-med curriculum
itself. But you can't deliberately choose your major just to be
different - it won't work, you won't succeed in it, unless you have a
passion for that subject. And at the same time, you need to convince
admission committees that you do want to dedicate your life to
medicine.

The reason I wonder if my own words about the music major are coming
back to me is that many years ago, in a conversation with our Dean
for advising premeds, I learned that 100% of the music majors (all
two of them) who had applied to medical school had been accepted,
while the acceptance rate among the hundreds of bio majors was
significantly less than 100%. Clearly the sample size was too small
to justify drawing conclusions - but as you may have noticed, I like
to make jokes with just a grain of truth to work with. But I do get
tired of students whining that the demands of the pre-med curriculum
prevent them from studying anything else. That's not true.

May you love whatever you do in life, in college and beyond.
********************
A: FROM MENTOR RACHEL HUTTER IN FL (contributed by a friend of Rachel's who is a doctor and entered medical school with a degree in biomedical engineering.)
The [medical school admissions staff members] do like you to be well rounded, but that does not mean you have to major in something non-medical. If you major in something like music, you would have to take a lot of electives, or even extra classes in sciences to be ready for the MCATs and more importantly medical school. The well-rounded thing I think focuses more on that you have other interests besides medicine and biology. They want people who are well-rounded and have people and social skills not just people who excel in the science class room. I think it is important you do things other than school -- volunteer, play music, play sports, have hobbies. This shows that you do well in school, but are also balanced.

I majored in biochemistry, but also did well in other classes -- philosophy, theology, english. I also spent a lot of time volunteering, participating in clubs, playing intramurals. In my medical school class the people without a science background definitely had a harder time in some classes like biochemistry or pharmocology because they had to learn the basics as well as the more advanced information.