What should I major in for medical school?

[CaptainBlood]

I'm torn between majoring in human biology or biophysics.  I took all the prerequisites for medical school already, just finishing Organic and need two more semesters of Physics and I'm done with the prereqs, but i need to transfer and can't decide on what to major in.  I know biology will better prepare me for medical school, and i like physics but physics is mostly math and physics and no medical school prep which could hurt my mcat score and might not give me a good prep for med school, so when I'm at med school i will have to work a lot harder than if i mojor in human bio that has physiology and other courses already in it. I know I don't want to major in chemistry even though i got all A's in my premed courses(except for B in inorganic chem 2 and C in molecular bio.  But my GPA now is 3.43 and I don't know if i will make it to medical school and if I don't, then what am i gonna do with a biology degree.  i heard it's hard to get a job with that i also thought about majoring in computational physics so in worst case scenario i get a lot of options like working as a physicist or a software engineer or on wall street, i heard they need computatinal physicists to write programs for buying and selling stocks.  So it's really frustrating and I don't know what to do, sometimes i just go on this freaking researching spree about different majors when i should be studying, it sucks.  Then I heard that one can only get financial aid for the first bachelors and not the second, then heard that financial aid is only for up to 100 units or so.  Is that true?  I'm also worried that computational physics or biophysics is a really hard major and will hurt my already crappy gpa (3.43), if someone can help with their advise I'll really appreciate it.

Edited March 30, 2011 by CaptainBlood

[Genecks]

Hey, review your posts. Use the enter key, why don't you? Blocks of text?

 

Pell grant is current up to your first degree. I believe it's also 120 credits rather than 100 now. Obama has changed some things, so you may want to read into it, as I'm not up to date on current affairs. As such, people with the pell grant will often double major.

 

In reference to pre-med?

 

Take easy classes and the pre-med requirements.

If I could go back in time, I think that's what I would have done.

 

I, myself, would have done a psychology major and taken med-school pre-reqs on the side. I think the biology major is a sham unless you're considering a Ph.D in a biological science (I have been split between Ph.D or a M.D. or maybe being both).

 

I've been doing a neuroscience major, and I find the entire major to be a pathetic joke. The philosophy classes I've taken were subjective, and having a more advanced level of writing, I would have thought I'd get As in the classes. I didn't, so that only brought my GPA down. (Although a professor tried helping me get an A, but I was running out of time during finals and just couldn't pull it off; I started smoking cigarettes for energy).

 

I didn't find the classes to be skilfully useful, so I'm no longer a supporter of the neuroscience major (if it includes philosophy classes).

 

I think a biology class that ties in aspects of philosophy would be more interesting, but that'd be biased toward belief in "identity theory," I suspect. I rather know more downstream and upstream cytological pathways than know more about the philosophy of psychology (although a knowledge of the philosophy of science can make a person a more critical scientist). Definitely it would be awesome to understand more about cancer prevention in the naked mole rat: involves the p21 protein, I believe.

 

I keep reading that a lot of people are simply doing the med-school requirements and majoring in something else.

 

It seems like an intelligent thing to do, because it can help people maintain a particular GPA. Since it's all about the GPA, why not?

 

Also, I don't feel that too many of the biology classes I've taken have helped me. They were all geared as weed-out classes. And I don't believe much learning occurs in weed-out classes. Why not have a light load while fighting the forces of evil?

 

Some people do a double major, thus taking easy courses with their hard courses. So, some people in the university I attend will be psychology and biology majors rather than neuroscience major. I suspect this is because they disagree with the curricular aspects of the degree program, and I don't blame them.

 

I think accounting and med-school pre-reqs would be a brilliant choice, I think. Because if you can't pull of med school, then you quickly have the alternative trade that brings in money.

 

I'm about the science, but today's academic world seems to be more about the money than the science.

Edited March 31, 2011 by Genecks

[CaptainBlood]

Thanks for your answer, but after a lot of thinking I think I'm pretty sure that I will major in Biophysics.  It's gonna take me to hell and back in terms of the workload and the complexity of the material; however, I have too many questions in regard to the universe and I love a challenge.  I just hope that this major is not so hard that it will hurt my GPA and sequentially my chances to get into medical school.  Did anyone major in physics or is in the process of going through it, if so please share some of your knowledge and advise it will be of great help.

Edited March 31, 2011 by CaptainBlood