The Worst Major for Pre-Medical Students!

“What should my major be?” This question is asked thousands of times around the country as high school graduates are preparing to start college.  It is a rather fascinating question when you think about it.  They are really asking, “Could you please tell me what to study while I’m paying thousands and thousands of dollars in college?”  Well, I can’t tell you what the best major is, but I can tell you what the worst major is…are you ready for it…it’s the one that you are not interested in!

The pre-medical journey has become somewhat cookie cutter.  Major in biology, get great gpa, score high on your MCAT, do research, volunteer in a hospital, and shadow.  Boom!  If you do those few things, you’re in!  You’ll be Dr. Insert Your Name Here!   There is nothing wrong with this journey by any means, but if you’re not enjoying it, then you’ve chosen the wrong path to your dream.  You only have a few years in college and that time will come and go quicker than you can imagine!  Enjoy it!  Learn what you want to learn! Just remember to do the prerequisites along the way.

Gone are the days that you have to be a biology or chemistry major to become a medical doctor!  Pre-medical students should understand that medical schools have prerequisite courses for a reason.  The reason is simple; these are the courses they feel you should be competent in if you desire to do well in medical school.  As long as you are competent in these courses, they couldn’t care less what other classes you take.  In today’s world, we need more holistic doctors!  We need businessmen to direct the intensive care units, artists to make the first incision in the operating room, actors to make children laugh as they listen to their rapidly beating hearts.  Medicine has always been, but now is better appreciated to be a field vastly greater than the hard sciences.

When you are deciding what major to choose, pick the one that you find most interesting and can be passionate about.  In case it has not been clearly conveyed thus far; you do not have to major in a hard science to go to medical school.  The field of Medicine is big enough and welcoming enough to incorporate the skill set you will acquire from majoring in whatever discipline you choose!  So go after the best major for a pre-medical student, the one you find most interesting!