<p>I think business is really interesting, but I feel Pre med would be a safer field. Knowledge in both would benefit me greatly. Is it possible to do these two?</p>
<p>Yes. There is a pre-set series of courses that qualify one as a med school applicant. Getting through them, however, is quite another matter.</p>
<p>@makennacompton would doing this kill my GPA?</p>
<p>Pre-med is “safer”? Not everyone who attempts pre-med gets into med school or makes it through med school.</p>
<p>@bodangles but if I were to get into med school I would be in the ball park for a high paying job</p>
<p>bump</p>
<p>@collegesplz Berkeley is not the place for the casual premed… If you’re don’t live and breathe and seriously love medicine, it’s going to be rough and you’ll probably be drained of all motivation for med school pretty quick.</p>
<p>^Seconded, and I like this term “casual premed”, because these are certainly all those students who give up on it after one or two years.</p>
<p>Medicine is safer in the sense that your job prospects are higher, but when you say you’d be in “the ball park for a high paying job” you make it sound like that’s your rationale for wanting to be pre-med. And, those with that rationale get eaten up pretty quickly.</p>
<p>I agree with the other comments. Just because you can major in Business and do Pre-Med, does that mean you should? Honestly, the Pre-Med track is not just a series of classes, it’s a way of life in which you’ll constantly have to give your 100% efforts if you want to aim to pass it. In order to get that “safety” that the career of medicine offers, you have to slog for the next 8 years and it is very easy to lose sight of it if you do not really want it. Why else do you think that so many kids who decide to take Pre-Med end up dropping out of it? You don’t have to be a genius to do it, but as the adage goes “Hard work beats talent until talent decides to work hard.” Don’t waste your time doing Pre-Med if you consider it as a backup. Waste of precious time and your parent’s money.</p>
<p>@ Collegesplz</p>
<p>Nothing can “kill” your GPA. The professors do not throw knives at your midterms or anythign silly like that. At Berkeley, despite being competitive, everyone receives the grade that they earn, according to how much work they put into it.</p>
<p>It’s a good idea to major in something besides biology for your not dead-set on being pre-med. However, you should not think of pre-med as a back up for a high paying job. Doctor’s incomes have on average been decreasing for that past decade, and primary care physicians in particular are going to take a blow under the ACA. Medicine carries many roadblocks to maximizing income, and it’s not good for your interested for it just for money.</p>
<p>The best thing to do if you want a really high paying job is to major in business, and try to get recruited on campus by an investment bank, The analysts salaries start at $100k with more bonuses on top of that. The department heads can earn in the 10s of millions of dollars. Just saying, Business probably has more prospects for high pay.</p>
<p>Also, if your worried about competition, the acceptance rate to the Haas Undergraduate program is 50%, while most medical schools have acceptance rates of less than 10%</p>
<p>@Collegesplz Yup, you can do both. You apply to Haas in the fall of your sophomore year, so just do the prereqs and if you don’t get in, concentrate on pre-med. To apply to Haas, you need Calc 16AB (or Calc 1AB), Stats 20, 21 or 25, UGBA 10 and Econ 1. Also English, but you need that for any major. You don’t need to complete all your prereqs before applying, just plan to have them all done by the end of sophomore year. Take the classes that interest you least last so you can drop them if you don’t get in. If you don’t get into Haas, you’ll have your pre-med major to fall back on. Pre-med isn’t really a major, so you’ll probably be Bio or MCB … but (as I understand it) to apply to med school your bachelor’s can be in anything.</p>