NEED ADVICE from upperclassman who's directions have changed?

Colleges & Universities Cornell University
1

<p>all my life, i’ve been pretty much encouraged/ nudged/ pressured to be a doctor.
you guessed it- asian parents.</p>

<p>and for a while, that’s what i thought i wanted and came in thinking that i would major biology, work my butt off in science courses, take the mcats, get no sleep, etc.
and go to med school.</p>

<p>well, i’m slowly realizing that i’m not really a science/ research person. i can do them, surprisingly well for someone with no passion in the subject, and sometimes am halfheartedly interested in the subject. but i can’t imagine doing it as my main focus
for the next four years.</p>

<p>and then i thought that taking courses i don’t want to take is simply a rocky, caffeine filled path towards medical school.
and now, i’m coming to the understanding that what i liked was the idea of being a doctor, liked the approval that came from my parents.</p>

<p>so now, i’m considering completely revamping my first semester schedule,
taking a lot of different courses as opposed to the bio/calc/chem route i had planned out.
will i have time to fulfill my premed requirements, (by that i mean, courses necessary to prep me for mcat& get involved in research& the extracurriculars) if i happen to change my mind, later on even w/ such a semester?</p>

<p>and to upperclassmen who have changed majors/general career plans- have things worked out?</p>

<p>i’m sorry that all of this is really disoriented, but i really need guidance :/</p>

2

<p>the evening is never a good time to make huge decisions, so even if this is a gradual realization you shouldn’t move too quickly on this. I know there is the pressure of classes starting in a few days though. I’m an upperclassman bio major, not premed, which isn’t exactly the qualifications you were looking for, but I’ve got a good feel for which bio courses are taken when and I relate to not wanting to be a doctor.</p>

<p>I recommend that you go somewhere in the middle - take one or two of those traditional pre-med courses (say, bio and calc, or just bio). that way if you decide you want to go with a completely different route, you will probably have fulfilled some kind of general college requirement, but if you end up sticking with pre-med you will be still be in fine shape for that too.</p>

<p>are you in arts and sciences? since you’ve been envisioning, do you have any sort of alternative view for yourself, something else you would prefer to be studying? (and if so, how feasible do you think it is to make that happen?)</p>