I am attending UCLA in the fall as a first-year freshman, Pre-Business Economics major, also planning on a minor in Accounting and a double major in Neuroscience. This might, on the face of it, really, probably sound just top down stupid. I’m sorry. T_T
I really do love economics and have been admitted to a university I really wanted to attend but couldn’t for financial reasons (UChicago) based on an independent research essay I wrote in the subject during my junior year of high school. This really helped my confidence in that department and I’m more than aware that a lot of people would be happy enough with that (not to sound completely spoiled there), but medicine was something that I always wanted to study and had to suppress because of my family’s financial situation and I didn’t want to burden my parents with what I really wanted. I had always been studying all the science subjects a bit by bit by myself on the side though…
I tried to talk to a lot of people, and I know that I should be realistic and sacrificing grades for something like this is just not worth it. i hear having one science major is hard enough for most people (and given they were accepted to UCLA I assume everyone’s at LEAST as smart and efficient as me), and I hear busecon is pretty competitive also… But I’m looking to double major in Busecon and Neuroscience (or any other science major).
The only reason I even CONSIDERED and started planning this double major/minor was because I attended a community college during high school, and managed to finish all but 3 prereqs for Busecon/Accounting Minor ( done with Math 31A/B, Econ 1,2, Mgmt 1A/B, Writing II, Stats 10 equivalent), and ALL my GEs. I made a sample schedule for the remaining requirements for the Busecon major / Accounting minor alone, and that gave me 2 years to finish everything, only 3 classes per quarter. I was planning to stay at UCLA for the full 4 years, which gives me 2 whole years to study something else and whatever I can fit in with my 2 years of Busecon/Accounting.
I committed early on to not strive to get the most out of the whole “college experience” in terms of games, sororities, parties(?) and other shenanigans so I can just focus on academics ECs that would help me with med school, like research/volunteering/shadowing/internships etc etc… With that, will it be manageable to stick to Busecon/Accounting with prereqs for a science major and the science major itself?
For those of you who have been through what I am planning here, or either major… Please offer me some cold opinion.
If I do end up completing both majors and the Accounting minor, this is a sample schedule I made of everything I need to take in 4 years. Is this doable? Well… doable with good grades, given I’m not exactly the top 5% of my high school or national merit scholarship winning kind of a student? I just do what I really love better than the great majority of people, and as you may see here I don’t do anything before planning scrupulously every possible outcome and making sure that I CAN do something like this.
Fall 2015:
Math 32A (4)
Econ 11 (4)
Chem 20A (4)
Winter 2015:
Econ 41 (4)
Econ 101 (4)
Chem 20B (4)
Chem 20BL (3)
Spring 2016:
Econ 103/L (5)
Physics 1A (5) - The summer after this I’ll be taking Physics 1B/C equivalent at a community college.
Lifesci 1 (5)
Lifesci 2 (4)
Fall 2016:
Econ 102 (4)
Econ 106/L (5)
Econ 106/L (5)
Econ elective (4)
Winter 2016:
Mgmt 120A (5)
Mgmt 172A (4)
Lifesci 3 (4)
Lifesci 23L (15)
Spring 2017:
Mgmt 120B (4)
Mgmt 127B (4)
Econ elective (4)
Lifesci 4 (18)
Fall 2017:
Chem 30A/L (8)
Mgmt 128 (4)
Mgmt 123 (4)
Winter 2017:
Chem 30/B/BL (8)
Mgmt 126 (4)
Stats 13 (5)
Spring 2018:
Engcomp 131B (4)
Chem 153A/L(8)
Psych 100A (4)
Fall 2018:
NS M101A (5)
NS 102 (4)
Psych 110 (4)
Winter 2018:
NS M101B (5)
NS 199A (4)
NS elective (4)
Spring 2019:
NS M101C (5)
NS 199B (4)
NS elective (4)