Patrick asked:
By no means am I a slacker, I just want to have a higher chance of getting into medical school. Im currently an undergrad and I heard that many undergrad biology majors (which is what I am) seem to have lower chance of getting in, since there are so many of them applying to medical school. SO I wanted to know if there’s another science major (like Physical Therapy, Physicians Assistant, Chemistry, Physics, etc.) that I should switch to, to improve my chances of acceptance?
People who claim that a biology major has a lesser chance of being accepted into a medical school because there are so many biology majors applying might as well claim that brunettes have a lesser chance than blondes because there are more brunettes.
Biology is still the prevalent major of medical school applicants, but only because of the mistaken belief that medical schools prefer biology majors. The only preference is by a research oriented medical school and they prefer applicants with advanced degrees in any of the life sciences. Many of the primary care oriented schools are now stating on their web sites that they prefer applicants to only take the prerequisite courses and pursue majors in other areas of interest, unless the person’s interest is one of the life sciences.
Acceptance into a medical school is completely on individual merit. Admission committees do not care what your major was, what school you attended, how many clubs you were president of or any of the numerous allegations you can read on Yahoo! Answers.
An admission committee has two responsibilities: select applicants who have demonstrated the academic ability to successfully manage the rigorous medical school curriculum and to select applicants who will become good physicians. The concrete criteria (GPA’s and MCAT) enable them to rapidly screen applicants who can do well academically, but it’s the enigmatic “well-rounded” aspect that is difficult to qualify.