<p>I’m hoping that some of the regulars on this board might be able to help me out. A music teacher I know gave me an article from AMC (American Musical Conference) which states the following:</p>
<p>A science based BS and a BM based music pursuit are both time and credit intensive, and there tends to be much course conflict. Even those programs that support such an approach tend to cite the completion as taking 5 years or more. The BA variants of either or both will reduce the time (program and discipline specialty contingent). Four years for both is not impossible, but overly optimistic for even the bulk of the most dedicated students.</p>
<p>You’d be amazed at the amount of doctors and lawyers that continue to perform recreationally and at the regional or local professional levels</p>
<p>Hard to tell from the stuff posted, but I suspect the reality isn’t “want to go to med school? Go to music school and apply” <em>lol</em>. I suspect the reason is that the size of the group of people who went to music school applying to med school is relatively small, so outcomes are easily skewed (it is why small sample sizes in statistics are considered meaningless).</p>
<p>When it comes to pre med, unless things have changed since my years in college (and no, Newton wasn’t teaching physics back then, maybe Clerk-Maxwell was…), most pre med students tended to major in chemistry or biology related disciplines (some kids do it in engineering), and they have huge numbers comparatively, so I am not surprised the acceptance rate is lower for those kinds of majors as opposed to music. Plus I would also hazard a guess that music majors who make it through to graduation are a pretty dedicated group of kids, that if they are able to do the music program and maintain high grades, that they already have an edge up. I also wonder what kind of music majors we are talking about, is it a BM student or a BA (could make a difference, too). But overall I think it is the numbers, that there just aren’t a lot of kids who do music and pre med, so it isn’t surprising they would have a higher rate.</p>
<p>Music majors do tend to be much brighter than the average student. Success in music correlates very highly with IQ. Having worked with thousands of high school students over the years in both musical and academic endeavours, the statistics do not surprise me. The musicians that I have known that have chosen to go into medicine are usually intellectually gifted and have good time management skills and plenty of drive. I do not think that it is the study of music that gets them into medicine (although this might be a small part of it). Rather, students who are successful in music and who choose to apply to medicine are very likely to be good at sciences.</p>
<p>As physician parent of two musicians and medical faculty member of local med school, have heard med school admission committee members say, “all the musicians get in.” (She was also the parent of an Oberlin trained violinist.) My own background was liberal arts and some practical medical work but not much college work. All that is really absolutely necessary to get into med school are two years chemistry, one biology but helps to have biochemistry. Many school also require calculus, though I didn’t–can ask my kids if I can barely multiply. Leaves alot of room for B.M. requirements. Also after med school graduation, you will very grateful for a radically different pursuit.</p>