Career advice - Bachelors in Biology verses Neuro Science - and forward

College Majors
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I’ve a high schooler who has expressed general interest in pursuing the medical career path. He is planning to apply for Bachelors in either Biology or Neuro Sciences, and then pursue the path to becoming a doctor. He is not clear if he wants to be a physician or a specialist or a DO or a PA.

  1. What are the pro/cons for opting for either Biology or Neuro Sciences or any other major?
  2. Since he is not sure and there is a slim chance that he may change his mind at the end of the Bachelors, I want to prepare for an alternate plan. So what would be career options for a Bachelors in Biology or Neuro Science, if the person does not want to pursue regular medicine, but are open to further studies related to medicine.

Is Public Health a rewarding and a competitive career choice? What other choices exist?

One thing that he is clear about is that he does not want to pursue engineering so disciplines such as bio-engineering or bio-informatics are out.

He also does not want to go into PhD/research.

Any suggestions from this community? Sorry for the open ended question, would appreciate your guidance.

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He should major in what he likes, imo.

There are many options! He will need specific prerequisites, additional schooling etc, but he may consider OT, PT, speech pathology, genetics, nursing, audiology…for example.

It is rewarding if you enjoy the work! He will need an MPH.

My daughter was a bio major if you have any questions.

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A DO is a physician. A specialist is also a physician but usually with advanced training, a longer residency and often a fellowship.

A PA is a physician assistant.

The only pro is that these majors include many of the required courses for medical school admissions. BUT those can always be taken as electives. Student should major in something they enjoy, and could possibly be their Plan B which every premed needs.

I would suggest this student read this site. It has a LOT of health careers on it.

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He can shadow and do some informational interviews over the next few years. That may help him decide.

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Faced with the same decision, my GS has elected nursing as his undergraduate major because it will provide an option for immediate employment at a good salary after graduation.

Biology and neuroscience majors do not provide specific career preparation. Either major would likely require graduate school to lead to a specific career option. There is a wide array of careers in public health, including public health administration. His high school guidance counselor should be able to provide him with the necessary resources to learn about career options in this field.

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Nursing classes and premed classes are different. If, at the end of 4 years, this student decides against medical school….he can take nursing prerequisites and do an ABSN.

I suggest shadowing and informational interviews.

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Yes, of course they are different. I simply offered one student’s decision as an example. My GS did not want to wait until the end of 4 years to take nursing prereqs and then an ABSN, a process which would have put him at least a couple of more years down the road. But that is certainly another way to do it. Lots of options.

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Agree! It’s also a great career (and difficult work).

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We moved across states about 4 years ago and have no contacts in the medical community here. Are there some strategies that we can adopt to secure some time for informationals from local medical professionals?

Are there any medical professionals on this board who may be willing to guide a rising senior?

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I am sure there are. He may also change his mind multiple times over the next few years as he is exposed to new classes, experiences etc.

By any chance would the pediatrician be open to talking?

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Paging @WayOutWestMom

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@asterix4 if you have lived there for four years, I would suggest reaching out to your own doctors. If there is a hospital or clinic nearby, maybe reach out there.

Your student could talk to the school nurse, their own pediatrician, a neighbor or friend who is a doctor or other medical professional.

How does this student know that they want to become a doctor if they have never had the chance to have a conversation with a doctor about what it takes to get there, the types of things doctors deal with, the many years of training (and associated costs), seeing what a doctor does (shadowing)?

Any student wishing to become a doctor needs to know what the profession is like, and what it takes to get there.

In addition, the vast majority of college premed students never actually apply to medical school. Of those who do apply, about 40% get acceptances and most to only one option.

@WayOutWestMom

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Neuroscience as a major varies a lot by undergrad program. Some are more psychology oriented; some are more cognitive science oriented; others are more biology oriented. Your son should evaluate the focus of the major at every college he is considering applying to to see if he likes the program.

Neuroscience with any of the above emphases does not have especially good post graduation employment prospects. Jobs in neuroscience generally requires an advanced degree (PhD)

Biology is more employable than neuroscience, but again biology by itself does not provide a clear job prospects post BS. The student will need to work at making themselves an attractive candidate for employment. This will mean taking additional coursework, learning coding skills, learning how to use statistical software packages and doing industry-based internships.

Typically a BS in biology leads to jobs in education (teaching HS); jobs in biological research–either as a lab tech or as clinical research coordinator; quality assurance jobs in the pharmaceutical, food and agriculture industry; jobs in local, state or federal government. There are sales jobs in the pharmaceutical and medical device fields that quite high paying, but require lots of travel and hustle. Lastly there are healthcare jobs that will require a level of post graduated education.

Another good site for learning about healthcare jobs is here:

There are tons of healthcare jobs that do not require a MD or DO.

It can be for the right person. Be aware, however, most entry level jobs in Public Health require a MPH.

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Your son does not need to major in biology and neuroscience to be a pre-med. Pre-med is merely a set of classes that are all mostly lower level bio, chem, physics, math, statistics, sociology, psychology and writing skills/English.

There’s nothing magic about a bio major for pre-med. It just has the greatest overlap w/ the require med school pre-reqs. A chemistry major will offer the same amount or greater overlap for the med school pre-reqs.

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As others have suggested, I would recommend your son get some exposure to medicine as a career before deciding it’s medicine or bust. medicine requires 8 years of formal education followed by 3- 10 years of further training before they get their first job. It’s a Very Long Road that requires great personal sacrifice.

Shadowing various healthcare professionals is a good place to start. Your son can ask his pediatrician or family practitioner. Ask any neighbors/faith community members/ parents at his school who are physicians. He can also check with his HS counselor for ideas.

Another place to start would be volunteering in a healthcare facility to get real life exposure to patient care. Hospital, public clinic, private physician’s office, nursing home, rehab hospital, group home for mentally or physically disabled, elder care sites are places he could try. In some states, he could earn a junior CNA or EMT certificate at 16 and get exposure to patient care through working. Also many adult care facilities have jobs as dietary aides that 16 YOs can get.

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And large amounts of money or debt up front (beyond what was spent on undergraduate).

Also, the admission gate into medical school is extremely high.

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Admission to medical school is very competitive, and if you are accepted it requires continued hard work and commitment. It can also be mundane (paper work, phone calls) and gross. This is why it is important to shadow and understand the profession- you need to know what you are getting into.

It is also important to shadow and speak with other health care professionals you are considering. Many are competitive, have additional prerequisites, volunteering etc.

This student is a senior in HS. I would focus on finding an affordable school that he would be happy attending. That is the first step on his journey. In the meantime he can reach out to his doctors/nurses and take it from there.

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Remember, he need not major in biology to be a pre med. All he needs to do is take the prescribed coursework–as electives if necessary.

Both my daughters are physicians; neither was a bio major. In their respective med school classes, they had fellow students who majored in diverse fields including agriculture, Italian, English literature, classics, gender studies, sociology, sports communication, physics, mathematics, musical theory. They are all now attending physicians.

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And as a cautionary note. Most medical schools cost at or above $100,000/year.

(See: Med Schools Over $100K/year for OOS Students and Medical Schools w/ COA over $100K/year)

You and your child should keep this in mind also when choosing a undergrad. Pre-meds are strongly advised NOT to go into debt to pay for undergrad since they will be taking huge debt to pay for med school.

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What State do you live in?
Do you have a budget (what you can afford out of pocket -income+savings- + whatever he has in savings from his summer job?)

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As others have said, there is no required major.

So my two cents is this–view it as a process.

First, pick an affordable college with a relatively flexible curriculum and where either you wait to choose a major, or it is easy to change majors, at least within their Arts and Science subdivision (which might be called a variety of things).

Second, really make use of whatever pre-health advising they have available.

OK, then work out a first-year schedule where you start to take the medical school pre-reqs in the recommended sequence. If things go well and you do not decide to change course (and many do decide to change course even if things go well), this will then extend into at least a second year of continuing those sequences.

Around that, starting in your first year and then on into your second, you can also fill in whatever classes you like that fulfill any general education requirements that are not already going to be satisfied by the med prereqs. You’ll probably be more than fine for any STEM requirements, but you may need to take some sort of writing course, languages, social sciences, and so on, what are sometimes known as HASS (Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences) classes.

In the vast majority of cases, a first- and second-year schedule like that will also effectively be an appropriate curriculum plan for a Bio or Chem major, possibly Physics. And you can see why a lot of premeds end up in those majors–you do well in the prereq classes over the first couple years, and then you just need to do well in the advanced classes too, and there you go.

However, maybe while you are doing your other gen ed classes, you discover something in HASS you really like and are good at doing. And to be blunt, you may think of some of those HASS classes as relatively easy as compared to your STEM classes. So instead of loading up later on the advanced Bio or Chem or whatever classes you would need to do for those majors, you do a HASS major instead.

What everyone who is knowledgable about the med school application process will tell you is that is not at all a bad idea. If you get good grades, and if anything have a more interesting major than most, that will definitely not hurt you in the application process, assuming you have done all the prereqs and any required experiences as well.

Or do a Bio or Chem or whatever STEM major, if you prefer that. It is all good as long as you can get good grades doing it.

So rather than try to script this all out in advance, you can let the process unfold and just go with what ends up working best for you, based on your class experiences over your first couple years. Again, along the way you may also get so interested in another path you just drop off the premed track entirely, as most kids do. But even if not, being flexible like this will maximize your ability to both get good grades and also actually enjoy your college experience.

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I also recommend he learn how to use Anki - it’s a free, powerful tool used by medical students to help memorize the large quantities of information they need to retain

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Your son can take the required courses for medical school applicants at just about every four year college in this country. I would suggest he put medical school on the back burner for now. He needs to find an undergrad school where he can see himself being happy for four years, that is affordable. Medical school applications will happen later…if he even decides to apply. The vast majority of freshmen premeds don’t actually apply to medical school at all.

He has time to make up his mind about this.

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