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You are a Freshman and September isn't even over yet, but you have already decided you cannot successfully complete chemistry and that the goal of Med School is out....and now it is Finance.
At the college I'm attending, you need pretty much straight A's and a 1900+ SAT score to get in. Getting straight A's and being at the top of your class sets you up for some unrealistic goals.
This kid.... maybe he/she knows this is what they're meant to do but with most things and it's just a touch of self-doubt. Or maybe they are meant to do something else entirely and there's nothing wrong with not knowing at this immediate moment since you're still in your first semester.
I'm not fully decided. I mostly chose Pre-Med because a lot of suggestions from friends and family (aside from Bio and Calc reasons). The other suggestions were Pre-Law (which sounds even worse after reading these posts), Finance, Chemistry (didn't choose it as my major for obvious reasons), and Biology. I also considered Politics but my parents wouldn't let me.
My favorite subjects (Biology, Politics, History, Art) unfortunately are not going to provide a profitable future. I lived in NYC, so I saw my share of Medieval History, Contemporary Arts, and Politics majors protesting at Zucotti Park or/and selling whoppers at McDonalds
At the college I'm attending, you need pretty much straight A's and a 1900+ SAT score to get in. Getting straight A's and being at the top of your class sets you up for some unrealistic goals.
If you go to a top 25 (or 30, in that range, etc) school, it will help you get into Med School. IMO it will help a lot. Your GPA can be slightly lower, and you can still get in.
There's a lot of people here on this forum that say it doesn't matter where you go to school, but in my personal experience, everybody that I know who went to medical school and became a doctor (from America) went to a top school, and in a lot of cases, Top 10. And I know A LOT of doctors. Way more than I care to.
Off the top of my head, I can only think of one person who went to medical school and became a doctor from a school outside of that range, and that was University of Delaware.
I'm not fully decided. I mostly chose Pre-Med because a lot of suggestions from friends and family (aside from Bio and Calc reasons). The other suggestions were Pre-Law (which sounds even worse after reading these posts), Finance, Chemistry (didn't choose it as my major for obvious reasons), and Biology. I also considered Politics but my parents wouldn't let me.
My favorite subjects (Biology, Politics, History, Art) unfortunately are not going to provide a profitable future. I lived in NYC, so I saw my share of Medieval History, Contemporary Arts, and Politics majors protesting at Zucotti Park or/and selling whoppers at McDonalds
I'm not sure why you think Bio won't give you a profitable future? You could end up working in industry or running your own lab in academia. Although more likely than not, you'll need a firm background/understanding of Chem for that.
I'm not sure why you think Bio won't give you a profitable future? You could end up working in industry or running your own lab in academia. Although more likely than not, you'll need a firm background/understanding of Chem for that.
Getting a Masters or pHd in Bio can lead to some OK jobs, bit it won't be anywhere near the stability or profitability of MD.
I have a few friends who graduated with a Bio degree, thus far the job prospects have not been that great. Basically you have the low level lab tech positions-which are hard to come by in the first place and working for a pharamectuical company-I assume that prospect depends on what state you are in. My one friend who had low level lab tech jobs got paid 12-15$ an hour no benefits and was let go as soon as the position was over. Also he only got that job through a connection with his dad.
I know contrary to popular belief not every Bio major wants to go to med school, pa school, nursing school, or become a high school biology teacher, thus it is tough out there for bio majors who don't want to do further schooling. You did mention Finance in your first post. Based on the most recent campus career fair I went to 9/25/13, accounting and finance appeared to be the most heavily recruited major. Thus I think you would pretty solid if you decide to go the finance route.
If you are going to major in biology, your best bet is to specialize in a field like microbiology. From what I hear, you need to specialize within that major in order to qualify for positions and having just a bachelors in biology with no specialty will be tougher to find a job. It can be lucrative, as long as you are talented and pick a more profitable specialty unless you absolutely love another specialty (microbiology is more lucrative than ecology, etc)
Another thing to note: This is YOUR education, not your parents' education. I think it is tough to sometimes not do exactly what they say when you are so young, but you are the one that is going to have to live with the consequences of what you choose to study, if that makes sense. I had plenty of friends who were pushed the finance route and absolutely hated it. They did it to appease their parents and now the people who have done that are teaching high school after going back to college, working as an enlisted cav scout in the Army, or they are pursuing degrees in what they actually wanted to study/do with their lives.
I have noticed that the people who have gotten good careers established are the people who are "hungry" if that makes sense. They are people that will be successful no matter what because they have that desire to succeed. I don't know how to explain it. I have a friend that majored in art and now he makes a really good living designing miniature golf courses, of all things! I have another art major friend who got a masters in art therapy and is an art therapist for a school district. I have a friend that majored in english who is now a social media director for a national weekly news magazine. I have friends with poli sci degrees that are congressional analysts in DC. I saw theater majors who now have successful event planning businesses. I have another friend who majored in film and does editing for a PBS program and recently wrote their articles/created videos for Cooking with Breaking Bad. Yes, in some fields, you do have to be more creative than others like accounting/finance; however, I just feel like people's happiness and their passions matter. I see many kids now who are pushing themselves into engineering/STEM, where you can really tell that they're trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
As a finance graduate when the recession first hit, I can tell you that it was hard times for all of us then, too. We were competing with people with years of experience for entry level positions, at least in my city. I would say that the ones who truly majored in finance out of the joy of financial statements, using financial models to make business decisions, and all of that stuff..... we were the ones that were a little less bitter about things. I knew of many people whose attitude were, "I majored in finance to avoid unemployment! ARGH! I should have just majored in elementary education like I wanted to bc those folks have jobs!!!" or something. I guess I'm just saying nothing is guaranteed and four years from now things could be a different market place. What is in demand may not be in demand four years from now when you walk across that graduation stage.
Stand up for yourself and pursue what you want to pursue. It is your future and no one else's and no one should be telling you what you can or cannot study.
I guess just make an appointment with your academic advisor and your career services representatives! Start working with them and they will help to guide you to where your interests/ strong suits are.
Best of luck and I really hope you figure it out soon!!
There's a lot of people here on this forum that say it doesn't matter where you go to school, but in my personal experience, everybody that I know who went to medical school and became a doctor (from America) went to a top school, and in a lot of cases, Top 10. And I know A LOT of doctors. Way more than I care to.
Off the top of my head, I can only think of one person who went to medical school and became a doctor from a school outside of that range, and that was University of Delaware.
This ^^ could not be farther from the true (top 10 statement). There are a lot of medical and dental schools that select their students based off of where you live. You see, State schools are heavily subsidized by their state governments. Therefore they select students who live in that state. That is because they want students to practice in their state because a shortage exists especially for rural areas. In fact, the UofMN Duluth for instance has a medical school specifically designed to place doctors in rural areas inside of MN. Do you think they care if you got a 42 on your MCAT from Harvard? They need not apply because they don't have to shot to get into UofMN Duluth. That's not their mission to accept the "best". They want the "best" from students wanting to practice in rural MN.
THe AMA and ADA publishes a book that shows average MCAT and DAT scores, average GPA's, cost of tuition, cost of out of State tuition, and the percentage of students admitted from out-of-State, etc. You will find several examples of near zero students who get accepted outside of the state they graduated high school from. Some states like MN may put in a poised pill of tuition >$35K more for out of state residents who apply and get accepted. So those students subsidize their medical students by paying more than it costs. For the UofMN dental college, out of state students pay $98K per year (x 4 years). So the UofMN will let you in if you want to pay $200K more for tuition over 4 years than the kid who went to the UofMN.
Taking it a step further, once you leave the state to attend college in say Idaho, it will be nearly impossible for you to get back into say Iowa even if you were from Iowa in the 1st place. Some in admissions will reluctantly admit that you have shown your true colors of being willing to leave the state of Iowa (for instance) after you graduated from high school. That last statement is pretty powerful. Say you leave WI and want to go to Madison. They may not want you back or at minimum, it is a strike against you. Now in order to get in, you need to be semi-brilliant OR took advantage of a opportunity like Harvard. But go to Idaho and good luck trying to come back. You won't get an interview.
I will say "where you go to college" is still very important. In 2009, I asked for a histogram for the medical and dental college program inside of the UofMN. Four years ago when I looked, there were zero students accepted from State Colleges like Mankato, St. Cloud, Bemidji, inside of their dental program etc. 40% of the students came from UofMN campuses and close to the remaining 60% came from select small private colleges like St. Ben's, St. Thomas, St. Olaf, etc. Good luck trying to get in with average acceptance scores and several generals from a CC.
The Medical department at the UofMN for instance is more relaxing for out of state students because of their research bent. But not the Medical program in Duluth. Now the Mayo's med school admissions in Rochester,MN is much more national. Yet I know many Mayo med students that were from MN colleges. All of them we incredibly smart with super high MCAT scores. They could have attended St. Ben's college (not even in the top 1000 ranked college) yet enter a top ranked medical school.
Important for what exactly? Just muddle through it with a passing grade and forget, just the way everybody else (including doctors) does. Or better yet, talk to your friendly family physician (if any) and inquire about chemistry (inorganic, organic, physical, whatever) and see how little chemistry knowledge it takes to make above average income in medical biz.
It's not about the knowledge (though you will wind up taking chem, chem II, two semesters of organic, and then biochem (not to mention the chem in the higher bio and micro classes).
It's about the grades. If he tanks chem, the GRADE will keep him out of med school.
Chem is a big weed-out class for premeds in college. My very first freshman class had a 60% fail rate built in.
Op, doing well in biology has nothing to do with being a doctor. Go to med school cuz you want to be a doc and help people. Not because you did well in a certain class.
I'm not fully decided. I mostly chose Pre-Med because a lot of suggestions from friends and family (aside from Bio and Calc reasons). The other suggestions were Pre-Law (which sounds even worse after reading these posts), Finance, Chemistry (didn't choose it as my major for obvious reasons), and Biology. I also considered Politics but my parents wouldn't let me.
My favorite subjects (Biology, Politics, History, Art) unfortunately are not going to provide a profitable future. I lived in NYC, so I saw my share of Medieval History, Contemporary Arts, and Politics majors protesting at Zucotti Park or/and selling whoppers at McDonalds
To be clear, there is no such thing as "Pre-Med" or "Pre-Law".
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