What is the Best Major for Medical School?

Session 01

Do you know what the best major is for medical school? Do you have to major in biology, chemistry, or another science? Let’s tackle it is in this episode.

Somebody asked if it was worth transferring to a college that had a medical school associated with it and somehow it was brought up that 62% of students that go to medical school have a B.A. This is not true.

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And Table 17 of the AAMC says that biological sciences and physical sciences – the two broad major areas of study – make up 63% of students who are accepted into medical school. I’m assuming these are all BS degrees, not BAs.

Lesson: Make sure that the facts are being told.

And this student kind of fought back, further saying she spoke to one specific school. And maybe, that specific school has 62% of students that have BA degrees. Bust based on the AAMC, 63% consists of those with biological sciences and physical sciences degrees.

[02:25] What Should You Major In?

Just because most of the students entering medical school have that degree doesn’t mean you should also go out and get that degree. What that means is that the majority of students entering medical school have that degree.

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The AAMC also gives more data that shows people with Humanities degrees actually do better on the MCAT, specifically on the CARS section and they have higher acceptance rates. Does that mean you should take Humanities? No. It’s just data.

So as you’re going down this path to medical school, data is what you start to learn to analyze and interpret. This is what medical school helps you do – to think critically about all the data. And it’s never-ending.

That being said, the data AAMC is giving you is just something to look at and think about and use in your day to day life.

[04:30] What You Should Do

Understand who you are and what your desires are, your interests, and chase that. Find your passion. And it’s hard to find passion when you’re 18 or 19 years old, especially when chasing those passions in college means taking credits. And that costs money.

Some people would be very methodical about it and realistic about it. They would think that medical school requires a lot of prereqs. And they wouldn’t want to take Spanish and take all of the credits needed for Spanish and take all of the prereqs. So they think logically and they’d do biology since it’s the cheapest route to get all the prereqs.

And maybe this is the reason majority of people entering medical school have the biological science degrees.

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But I would recommend that you think about your passions and your interest and maybe major in that.

As school gets harder, the more you’re interested in something. And the more you’re likely to continue to put in the hard work required to get the good grades you need to get into medical school. Then when you add on the MCAT and the extracurriculars and everything else you’re doing, the more you’re interested in what you’re studying, the better off you will be.