Dear Reader 69

RainieApril 15, 2014 at 4:08 PM

Hi! I'm currently debating between UC Berkeley Regents and USC Trustee. The $ isn't a huge factor in my case, thankfully. I'm really conflicted; I visited both campuses and loved them each. I'm considering premed but I'm not 100% set on it, especially at UC Berkeley where I fear that I may end up with a low GPA (I do not want to apply multiple times to medical school if I can help it, as med school+residency is already so drawn out). I guess...my question is...what are the options for UC Berkeley premed students? Should I pursue economics as a major to avoid assimilating within the extremely competitive and homogeneous pool of Molecular Bio premed students? That major also has good career prospects, I believe...just in case premed doesn't work out. And I could take a minor in Chemistry to help with the premed requirements, perhaps. My counselor wants me to select my major this week, so we can start discussing my college options, but I've no idea...I love East Asian languages but that would probably be more of a minor...
Linguistics, cognitive science...those are intriguing as well. Do you know of successful premed students who have taken those majors? So far I've only met molecular bio and integrative bio majors at ucb pursuing the premed tract.
thanks for listening to my rambling, and love ur blog :) i've been poring over its post for the past hour since i've discovered it!

Dear Rainie, 

Thanks for stopping by and congratulations on your accomplishments! 

Now that I think about it, I don't think I know any premeds who are not some form of bio majors either. I used to know many people who were other majors and were thinking about doing premed, but I think they dropped premed in the end. I suppose it's because, like you said, people going into other majors besides bio see that they have many career options and eventually find one that they like better than medicine. But that doesn't mean there aren't non-bio premeds out there haha. You could definitely go into econ, but many econ majors are also pre-Haas, which is just as competitive as pre-med here unfortunately so keep that in mind! East Asian studies would be a great minor- I really enjoy my east asian class this semester! The only risk for non-bio majors, which I believe you're already familiar with, is that if you do poorly on one or two of the premed prereqs, then it's very difficult to raise your science GPA without having the major science classes to buffer your grade. However, I don't think that'll be a problem for you, so if you decide to come to berkeley (or wherever you decide to go), then I would not fear exploring other majors :) Also, berkeley doesn't make you declare until end of sophomore or beginning of junior year so there wouldn't be any rush here, since  the possible majors you're thinking about are all in the college of letters and science I believe. I'm not sure how USC works... Regardless of what college or major you choose, you'll have a great experience! 

Best of luck! 

-K 

Dear Reader 68

Hi K,

I really like your blog. Thanks for posting up so much stuff! Anyway, since you were graduating soon, I started looking around for other blogs to follow too, you know just in case haha. Are there any you recommend? I want to avoid the official Berkeley-sponsored blogs. Also, I found http://cal-mcber.blogspot.com and was wondering what you think about it. I know it isn't a pre-med blog, but do you think a lot of the advice still applies?

Thanks!
A

Dear A,

Thanks for stopping by and for the kind words! :) 

A few have asked about that blog, and I think it's great! It provides a ton of great information and advice so yes, I recommend it! Unfortunately, I don't know any other blogs that specifically cater to berkeley science majors :/ 

I'll still be answering questions on here after I graduate and posting about the application process as I go through it so feel free to leave questions/comments! 

Best of luck! 

-K