Plan mcat for end of jan break. Need intensive study over break.
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As FYI, there are no MCAT test dates in December. The MCAT is only offer January thru September.
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Has he considered a math major? Math offers better post graduation employment and career options that any of the 3 majors you mentioned.
Both of my math major daughters went to med school. (D2 double majored in neuroscience + math.)
FWIW, math and humanities majors have the highest acceptance rates of all majors for med school. (52%)
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Ahhh interesting. I know sheâs registered so Iâm sure I just misunderstood. Thanks for the correction! 
Math major is an interesting choice. I will ask my son to explore that a bit more.
Also, would that mean he does a bunch of Math classes + pre-med classes that increases his workload?
My two cents is when you try to map out what this looks like at different colleges, it turns out to depend on variables like how that college does its âgen edâ requirements (core curriculum? distributional requirements? open or close to it?), and also its major requirements, and also just how many classes are standard.
And after doing this a few times, what I found is actually at distributional colleges (or open), it really wasnât very limiting to be pre-med because you were likely checking off a lot of distributional requirements that way. Particularly if you were also including things like Psych, Sociology, Ethics, or so on (and if you were not, you had a shorter list anyway). So it really did seem possible to major in basically anything.
Now, could you do TWO majors? Actually, maybe, if at least one was something like Bio with a lot of overlap. But two non-STEM majors would likely be tough.
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This very heavily depends on school.
In my daughterâs case we are having nightmare with registration every semester.
Because of her program she could not be Math, or Music or Psych. She had to be natural sience major (so was limited to Bio, Chem, Physics or Neuro).
Then school has ton of institutional requirements that do not count for premed.
As a result, she is Neuro major with very restricted schedule. I had to help to create 4 year plan that checks everything.
She needs simultaneously satisfy 3 requirements: school, major and premed list. Given that some classes are given only once a year or once in 3 semesters and they all have limited capacity and this college is 1/3 premed, it is absolute war battle every semester with registration.
One class that is required for her premed (genetics) is not guaranteed for her major. We probably will have to petition school president to get her in that class or she will have to take it at another school for extra money during summer paying somewhere for room and board out of pocket too.
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BTW study abroad is great until you learn that your premed program does not take any science classes from abroad and your schedule is so tight that you canât do it. Of course there is summer. Well, for summer your scholarship will not work.
I told my daughter that I am not financing 7k Maymester abroad (just looked up cost for 4 week program. That is probably before transportation.) So study abroad is off the table.
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Good points that study abroad can be a challenge for premeds, but it isnât impossible. It depends on the school and the major.
My D and her roomie, both premeds (chem and neuroscience majors), did winter/spring semester abroad junior year. It takes planning and it helps if the student has AP or DE credits to give some cushion in the schedule.
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Well, your DD has full ride. My DD has limited merit scholarship, so we simply cannot afford extra 7k for recreational trip to study something that otherwise covered domestically on scholarship.
Her program requires to be full-time every semester even if she doesnât need these credits. So study abroad becomes simple recreation.
DD already traveled with family abroad, and is free to go overseas during summer. 7k is enough for three 10-day trips with no strings attached.
At her school there are programs with no extra fee, other than airfare, for study abroad during the school year. A student pays whatever they typically pay per semester. So whether a student is full pay or receiving merit/need-aid, the bill is the same. My D and her friend did one of these programs studying public health and healthcare access in three countries.
This is why I said itâs school dependent so that others will ask questions if they are interested. Every school has its own policy so one shouldnât assume they are the same everywhere.
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None of my kids ended up doing study abroad.
We made it clear we were â8 semesters and doneâ parents. Kid needs a few more credits? Thatâs on them.
None were premed. But the sequencing for MANY majors means that the risk of not getting credit for a course taken overseas is too high to risk for kids who need to watch the clock.
My daughter studied abroad as a premed and did not have any issues. It really depends on the school.
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Thatâs why it takes planning. My D will graduate in 8 semesters. She had some cushion from AP credits and she changed her major from biochem to chem so she could work in a semester with no lab.
I donât want to get too far off topic. My only point with bringing this up for the OP is to understand it may be possible with planning⊠so they know to ask questions and plan out their four year schedule early on if itâs a goal. My D had no idea it would be a challenge, but thankfully her advisor brought it up and helped plan a schedule to make it work. Iâm glad momofsearchengine mentioned it so that others have a heads up.
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Actually we planned for my daughter at Gatech study abroad from day 0. It was built into savings and 4 year plan. Her department has summer abroad for her major with their professors; school is charging in-state tuitions for that semester. Being an OOS student that was win-win.
Our plan is to graduate in 7 semesters (fingers crossed), and use 8th semester tuition cost + salary earned during that semester for some of medical school cost.
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Well planned! Good luck to you and your daughter.
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It didnât for D2 for a couple of reasons. She had credit for Calc BC and so skipped the first year of math courses. She started with calc 3 and differential equations. Also she was able to double dip on 1 classâi.e. earn credit toward both her majors. Biostatistics counted for both majors. I think there might have one other class she was able to count toward both, though I canât remember now.
Since she was taking all the required bio, chem and physics classes for her neuroscience major, she had her pre-med pre-reqs covered. She took calc-based physics (physics for all physical/biological science majors at her university was calc based) and thought her strong math background made the course really easy. Plenty of her bio major friends really suffered in that classâŠ
She still had time to be active in her sorority, work 8-12 hours/week in a research lab, TA 1-2 calc recitations, engage in community service and clinical volunteering.
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This is very common problem at smaller universities and LACs.
I always recommend students who want to double major, major& minor, or be pre-med without being a biological sciences major, use the registrarâs course schedule to see how often classes are offered. (I know at the small university DH attended, most UL electives in his major were only offered every other year so if you missed registering for the class as sophomore you wouldnât get another chance to take until senior year.) If courses are sequential (math, physics, chemistry, engineering), you need a 4 year plan before you register for freshman classes to make sure you can fit everything in.
I made D2 write out her 4 year plan spring of freshman year when she decided she wanted to add a full math major instead of just a math minor.
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