Sorry for the delay getting back to you. There was a family emergency.
Per AMCAS data, health (public health, nutrition, exercise physiology, clinical lab science/medical technology, athletic training, etc) and allied health career majors are admitted to med schools at lower rates than all other majors, even when their lower than average MCAT and GPAs are adjusted for.
It’s not entirely clear why this is true. It could be because adcomms feel these majors lack the rigor of more “traditional” majors. It could be adcomms believe that graduates in these field are more valuable working in their area of interest reflected by their major. Or something else entirely. But regardless of the reason, the data shows students with these majors are less likely to end with a med school admission even if their stats are in the typical range for MD programs.
As for your actual major-- adcomms have very little care for what your actual major is. Sociology? Fine. Biomedical engineering? Fine. Mathematics? Fine. Forestry? Fine. Italian language and culture? Fine. Music theory and composition? History? Classics? Gender studies? Fine. Fine. Fine, Fine.
Their major concern is that you have done well in the pre-reqs and that your sGPA is strong. (sGPA include grades ONLY from bio, chem, physics and math classes.) And that you have excellent grades in your upper level major classes. Why UL major classes? These are looked at a sign of how well you handle complexity, depth and rigor in your coursework. It’s a proxy used to help guess how well a student will be able to handle the firehouse of new material they’ll be hit with in med school.
BTW, sGPA is one area where being a non-science major can hurt a student’s admission chances. Because a non-science major is taking far fewer science & math classes than a science major would, any stumble in a pre-reqs will have a greater impact on the sGPA. A science major will have more science classes to dilute the effect of a B or C grade in a pre-req.
I definitely want to get through undergrad in 4 years or less and I want to be well prepared for the MCAT and med school (I know everyone has to take similar/same prerequisites) but I feel like some majors would look better. Is biology really the best by far or are there other options that will still have similar opportunities/benefits?!
Everyone must take the same pre-reqs. Medical school curriculums assume that students have not taken advanced classes in biology, stats, biochemistry, etc so coursework starts from the post pre-req level. But med school courses cover tons of material extremely quickly. What would normally be a full semester UL science elective like immunology or cancer biology in college will be cover in a 3-5 lectures (about 1-1.5 weeks) in med school. So any advantage to having taken advanced UL bio electives disappears fairly quickly in med school. OTOH, any weakness in undergrad science preparation will become apparent even more quickly and the student will fall behind almost from the beginning of the class.
I don’t recommend that every pre-med major in biology or biomedical science unless that is absolutely where their interest falls. And for many, it is, but not everyone. (Both my daughter majored in math then went to med school.)
Major in what you are interested in. It’s easier to do well in classes you like and care about. But recognize that you must absolutely crush all your pre-reqs because a non-BCPM major has fewer chances to make up for one less than ideal grade and you need to know your science inside out and backwards in order to stay afloat in med school.
As for MCAT prep–no college coursework will directly prepare you for the MCAT. The MCAT isn’t an achievement test. It doesn’t test knowledge of facts/data. It’s an aptitude test. It tests real world problem solving using your science knowledge as a starting point. Most students take 6 weeks to 6 months of dedicated self- study time to prep for the test. A content review of al lthe pre- req coursework is just the very first step of MCAT prep.
