doctors

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Many people (desis) who want to eventually end up in a medicine-related field have gone with Biology as their major. In the end they have always told me they regret doing bio it was pointless they could could have become a doctor without it. No one has really offered an explanation of other options.

Can someone please clear this up for me? For MCATs isnt it better to have done Bio/Chem so u do well on them since you have taken mostly science related courses…anything else one needs to do?

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Re: doctors

I have a friend whose major was finance and with that she took the courses required for MCATs. She had great MCAT scores and now is in medschool in Atlanta.

Weird Traditions From Around The World .
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Re: doctors

I posted this in one of the older threads.. thats my take on biology major for medical school..

[quote]
If you are in the US biology major won't increase your chances to get into a med school.. to qualify for med school all you need is a 1 year of Biological Sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics) and 1 year of Math (usually up to Calculus 1 ) in fact the diverse your major is, chances are higher.. I know someone in medical school with English major and one my friends was pre-med with Math major.. she got into med school very recently.. Biology major is considered boring.. if you like Chemistry, you can switch your major and minors around that.. I had Biology major and Psychology minor but my advisor asked me to switch around if I wanted to stand out in hundreds of bio major med school applicants.. now the point here is, whatever you do, do great.. your grades matter, your MCAT scores matter, and your extra curricular activities matter for med school!!

Back to your original question... career choices for bio/chem.. not many! Unless and until you live in a big metropolitan area where there are plenty of research labs and that too if you like working in the lab.. I hated labs, I was more of a community person so I ended up doing masters in public health.. it met my interests the best with a flavor of science yet working with community!!!

Besides the lab work, honestly there is nothing much that you can do with your BS in Biology unless and until you decide to go to pharmacy school, med school or dental school for that matter!!! I wish someone had advised that when I stepped in the US with bio major in my mind.. I didn't belong to that field but stayed in the there with a mentality same as yours (med school).. later I couldn't get into med school and didn't find a decent job in a very small town of the US..i still feel like my BS degree holds no value for me if I didn't have masters in a slightly different field. :-(
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Re: doctors

^but wouldnt their background be completely different and end up hindering their performance on the MCATS etc...

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Re: doctors

lifeless... MCAT needs one year of biology, chemictry,physics, and mathematics!

Pre-Med isn't a major.. you can have any major but delcare yourself as a pre-med, take the above mentioned courses, do well, have a good GPA, good MCAT score, lots of extra curricular activities/community service, and voila you are in!

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*Lots of medical schools require upper year science courses like biochemistry, physiology, organic chemistry, etc, and hence a science degree always holds an advantage over a non-science degree in medical school applications. In addition, MCAT questions do not truly reflect pure first year basic sciences; many questions require insight from second year courses and hence you have a better chance of getting a high score on the MCAT if you have a science background with second and third year courses (like the ones mentioned above).

Get your facts straight; getting into medical school requires commitment and there are no shortcuts unless we are dealing with IQ 150 geniuses!*

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Re: doctors

Mr. the game, I never said that dun do a science degree.. I discourage only Biology degree unless and until you are very smart and will land in med school nevertheless.. If you had actually read my previous post, I in fact encouraged the other person to do a Chemistry major instead of Biology just because Biology major is considered boring for med school.. 8 in ten people would have Biology anyway so if someone wants to stand out, then anything other than Biology is great!

The post that you have quoted is just regarding the information about basic MCAT requirements.. getting into a med school is very much dependent on your degree grades, MCAT scores, and last but not least community service! I do know someone with English degree/pre med who got into med school.. yes she happened to be smart and scored very well on MCAT just based on the basic sciences!

Get the post right before you decide to quote and/or butcher it! Thanks!

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*Why do you discourage a biology degree, just out of curiosity? Do you not realize than medicine is more biology than any other discipline? Maybe students like to get into medicine with some sort of preparatory background as opposed to being well versed in Shakespeare or Hemingway (!); not everyone (infact most people) will find life hell in medical school if they are not inclined towards science, and that's just the reality of the whole issue.

EDIT: Besides, every science discipline these days is struggling as far as job prospects are concerned with a bachelor's degree alone. Singling out biology is thus highly irrational and biased on your part in my opinion. A bachelor's in chemistry won't land you that dream job at Pfizer and neither will a bachelor's in physics make you NASA's new Einstein. Once again, choose your words carefully.*

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