I am deciding on if Pre-med is what I want to do so I am going to be taking those classes, I need to decide if I am going to major in Anthropology or Philosophy and trying to figure our how rigorous the course load is for each of them especially with the reading. I am not able to find the syllabi for Anthropology and was wondering if anyone has any insight on any one of these majors? I would also like to be able to still do shadowing and other activities for pre-med so I don’t want to be overloaded on reading. I came in as a transfer and my options are only these two majors that seem doable.
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You should talk to an advisor and major in what interests you. If you are a transfer, I would doubt only these two majors are doable. Does either interest you ?
Often rigor is in the eye of the beholder. What some struggle with, effort and achievement wise, others breeze through.
I’d expect both majors to have significant reading and writing.
Talk to a department advisor and your advisor to learn more.
I came to Dartmouth from a business school within another Ivy college not all my credits were transferred and missing the first year here doesn’t give me many other options. Philosophy does interest me more than Anthropology but reading 260 pages a week combined with pre-med classes as well as I have to take 2 four course terms to even get out on time will leave me with no other times for research, shadowing, etc. and I don’t want to hate my life here either. I have even went to the econ department and was told it will be extremely difficult to major in and do pre-med classes. I have spoke to advisors from both departments and it seems all I do is go in a circle.
You’re at an Ivy league school - so you shouldn’t expect “ease”. Maybe leave shadowing for Summer?
How do you know anthro won’t have significant reading?
Ultimately, you have to decide - but you can major in anything and do pre-med - so I’ll disagree with the econ department…..vs any other - or the answer would be similar.
Maybe you can find out from the pre med advisor which major is chosen more often?
Or talk to pre - med students and ask them.
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Are there other options? What are they? Can you major in bio?
You are smart and can figure this out. Can’t you get syllabi from the dept chairs and/or profs? I agree with tsbna though that both those majors will have plenty of reading.
Is it a financial option to go an extra quarter or two? You do not need research to apply to med school. You do need clinical/patient facing experience…I mean, how do you know you want to become a doctor without that? And I’m not talking about shadowing…I’m talking about serving as an EMT, CNA, hospice/assisted living volunteer etc.
Bigger picture, it sounds like you may not be able to apply to med school between junior/senior year because you won’t have the clinical experience to be competitive, nor will you likely have taken enough science classes to take the MCAT in late junior year and score well. Have you talked with the pre-health advisor peeps at Dartmouth about your path?
One other option, again likely depends on finances, is to major in what you like at Dartmouth…because students who major in something they like tend to get higher grades and be happier. Then, you could do a post bacc after graduating to fill in the classes you need to, as well as get more clinical experience and perhaps research experience at that point. @wayoutwestmom?
Are you referencing something like this? Would allow the student to “slow down” - and then maybe maximize their chance at med school - which already isn’t great.
Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program | Scripps College in Claremont, California
There are many post bacc programs, but they are usually $$$.
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I have seen the syllabi for Philosophy and there is no syllabi available for Anthropology its like black listed . I want to of course get good grades in the pre-med classes because med school is not going to accept a 2.0 GPA in Science if I decide to go that route.
I get it - we’ll wit for the answer on finances you get.
It seems - med school, even for the best and brightest, is a long shot so if OP can afford and you’re taking a gap year anyway - that it’s a way to slow down, major in what they want. And enhance their odds of ever attending med school.
Given they (and I’m sure others have similar) are attached to 3 prominent med schools likely isn’t a bad thing.
If OP can afford it…..
Are you saying the syllabi for every anthro class is not available, after directly asking the head of the dept and/or profs?
No matter your major you need high grades in ALL classes. You also can’t go to med school if the Dartmouth pre-health peeps won’t write a committee letter for you. Go talk to them ASAP about what a potential path to med school might look like for you. They can help you with major selection as well.
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I can probably swing an extra quarter or 2 here at Dartmouth it will not be easy but it might be doable. I m planning on taking a gap year as well if I decide to go this route.
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IMO it’s highly likely you will need at least one gap year no matter what. The average age of med school matriculants is 24, that’s because of how competitive things are. People take gap/glide years to get more clinical experience, and/or do an SMP program to get grades up and/or study to do better on the MCAT. Go to the pre-health advisors before you choose a major. Good luck
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Thank you for your advice, appreciate it!
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So you are intending to complete the premed requirements. Doesn’t that already include quite a significant percentage of the classes required for a biology major?
Admittedly one daughter did it the other way around. She was a biology major. She completed most of the premed requirements (not quite all) because that was just what she wanted or needed to take as a biology major. However, while her premed friends were in a medical environment getting their shadowing hours, my daughter was instead in a lab doing biomedical research (which is related to what she has done ever since).
I would personally be surprised if there was much overlap at all between philosophy and premed requirements. “Reading 260 pages per week” to me does seem incompatible with the combination of completing premed requirements with high grades and also getting the needed medical shadowing experience.
Then there is the obvious question: What do you intend to do after getting a bachelor’s degree if the premed / medical school thing does not work out?
The majority of med school applicants (>70%) do not go directly from undergrad to med school. Most take 1-3 gap years to spiff up their CV. This is especially true if you didn’t started out pre-med from Day 1 of undergrad. There’s just too much stuff that applicants are expected to have to be successful med school applicants.
You need more than just shadowing and academics to be strong med school applicant. You need leadership roles. You need community service with disadvantaged groups/communities. (Things like Habitat for Humanity, soup kitchens, food banks, tax or job hunting support for the unhoused individuals, etc. Activities where you directly interact with those less fortunate than yourself.) You need a couple hundred hours of patient -facing experience (paid or volunteer) where you are close enough “to smell the patient”. If you apply directly from undergrad, you’ll need clinical or laboratory research experiences. (Career changers get a pass on this, but no one else will.)
Additionally since the med school application process takes more than a full year, you will need to have everything completed and ready (all pre-req classes finished, MCAT taken, LORs collected, experiences completed) before the end of your junior year of college. That’s nearly impossible to do for a non-freshman who is just now dipping their toe into the pre-med pool. So I would recommend letting go of the idea that you will be able to apply to med school next year as a junior.
So…choose whichever major you like. Med school adcomms are very agnostic about undergrad majors and don’t really care what your major is. They only care that you do well in your pre-reqs AND in your upper level major classes. Statistically philosophy majors, along with mathematics majors, have the highest acceptance rates to med school. (However, the number of applicants in these 2 majors is always low and there is significant selection bias baked into the data.)
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You have 3 options going forward:
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Take as many as your pre-reqs as you can at Dartmouth. Start some of your pre-med ECs. Try to find a research group to work with. Do a couple of hours of community service work every week starting now. Use your summers to get shadowing in. (Make sure that you shadow a variety of specialties, including at least 1-2 primary care fields.) Get your clinical experiences after graduation while continuing your community service activities and finishing up any missing pre-reqs.
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Major in your choice, then attend a formal post-bacc program after graduation. There are dozens, maybe even a couple of hundred of these of varying quality. Searchable database of post-baccs Here; Postbac . Choose “career changer” as the type.
Some are more expensive than others. Some include MCAT prep and clinical opportunities. Some have linkages with certain med schools where successful post bacc students will get guaranteed admission interviews. -
Major in your choice, then do a self-guided post bacc. After graduation, take any missing pre-reqs as a non-degree seeking student at your local 4 year college/university. Some classes can even be done at a community college. Either full or part time is fine. While taking classes, get your clinical experiences and continue your community service.
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These are very different disciplines, which entail different ways of thinking. Does one appeal to you more than the other? Look at course offerings, even if you can’t find syllabi. If you see courses that interest you in the Anthro department, you can email those professors and ask if they could send you a syllabus from the last time they taught those courses, just because you’re curious about what kind of readings/topics/assignments are involved. Most professors would be happy to send something along.
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Just a heads Up—
In med school, you will be reading significantly MORE than 260 pages/week, plus taking the equivalent of 24+ credits of science classes. AND you will still be expected to be doing volunteer service, attending class meetings and specialty affinity clubs, prepping for OSCEs, working with a specialty mentor. If you want to match into a competitive specialty (basically any kind of surgery, derm, rads, rad onc or anesthesia), you will be doing research on the side so you can get pubs and presentations.
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I fail to see how these are the ONLY majors available to you, even as a transfer? I also am deeply said you feel like you can’t major i something you are passionate about at a school like Dartmouth that lets you major/minor and mix things up. I have a neighbor who graduated a few years ago (in med school now, incidentally) who did something like math combined with environmental studies and minored in something else. He has crazy research opportunities in Europe and studies abroad in Africa. s
Seems like any humanities or social science that doesn’t have a ton of pre-reqs (which you don’t have time to catch up on) would work if those 2 do?. Quantitative social science? less reading? more math, but nothing like a math major I don’t think? I assume you have taken calc and econ 1 if you were in business somewhere else. Environmental Studies?
Also, anthro will have a lot of reading, but will be different from philosophy. (I took several anthro classes in college).
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I would typically view this as a process.
You will want to have a plan for your remaining med school prereqs. You will also want to have a plan for fulfilling Dartmouth’s gen ed requirement. Fortunately, my guess is between taking the med school prereqs and exploring Anthro and Philosophy, you will be covering a good number of your gen eds.
OK, then I think from that will naturally emerge a major. Could be Anthro or Philosophy. Could be something related to one or more of your med school prereqs. Potentially, it could even be something that relates to some random class you take to fill a gen ed.
What strikes me as a bit odd about your post is just the sense you are somehow under a lot of pressure to figure this all out right now. I don’t know that much about your overall situation, but from what I understand, Dartmouth like most of its peers is pretty open to changing majors as long as you can make it work. So even if you tentatively start off as, say, a Philosophy major, if you figure out something else would work better for you, I would think you could make that change.
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And to add to this fine post- you need to get advice from your academic advisor. For example- anthro overall is likely less reading than philosophy. But I found the anthro labs (where you learn field techniques, how to structure research, how to write up your findings) incredibly time-consuming. It won’t all be labs- but to major in it, you’ll need to learn the basics. I remember a months-long exercise learning how to measure primate skulls and dentition. That class had minimal reading, but the lab work itself consumed hours. And the lab was a requirement in addition to lecture and the breakout sections.
So get advice from a real, on the payroll Dartmouth employee. Which is none of us.
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