The Student Room Group

Science or business: undergrad for a med-hopeful

Hi it's my second time posting here.
I'm a gr12 student from Canada, about to enter university. All my applications were for first choice science (biochem/biotech, 1 neuroscience) or second choice business (1 finance, 2 economics, 1 management). I'm really having difficulty deciding which of my choices to take, should I be accepted to both. The underlying factor is that right now, I think I want to try to become a doctor later.
On the one hand, my plan is to go with science, so that of course I easily meet the prereqs, and maintain the familiar feeling of doing bio/chem all day (I can't imagine trying the MCAT after only electives in science...) and I can take my second choice as a minor, just satisfy the "craving". Also, I have this fantasy that maybe when I get in I'll have some huge ideas and I can do research instead of med.
On the other hand, I'm not a risk-taker and I shudder at the thought of going thorugh years of training then not making residency, or somehow not making enough money (I'm terrified of debt, even now), or even not making it to MD programs at all. I would rather have a business/management degree with science minor in this case, because my understanding is there's generally always some sort of business work I can do; it's less specific like in science if you study chemistry you are just/only a chemist. But then there's problems like going into a field that's unfamiliar (i know I like econ. based on books, but not taking any courses) and the supposed difficulty of BCom programs ruining my GPA...
That was a long post; what do you think?

tl;dr
- Goal right now is to become a doctor
- Options are major science, minor business or vice versa
- First option doesn't lead to good job with only bachelor's, but PhD option is open
- Second option makes it harder for med, but I can go straight to work with bachelor's
Reply 1
So first off, I'm not Canadian and neither are most of the people on this site. Here in the UK, a science/engineering degree tends to look better in general for job prospects than a non-science one (no offence intended to social sciences ect) due to the bg emphasis lots of people put on STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects. If you want to do medicine as a postgrad (most people do medicine as an undergrad degree in the UK) then most medical schools ask for a science degree if not specifically biology/biochemistry-based degree. It might be different in Canada.

Just as a side note, you don't have to do a job that's related to your degree. I imagine that the majority of people end up in jobs not related to their degree anyway. For example, lots of physics and maths graduates end up working in finance where the transferable skills from those subjects are useful.
Reply 2
Original post by qno2
So first off, I'm not Canadian and neither are most of the people on this site. Here in the UK, a science/engineering degree tends to look better in general for job prospects than a non-science one (no offence intended to social sciences ect) due to the bg emphasis lots of people put on STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects. If you want to do medicine as a postgrad (most people do medicine as an undergrad degree in the UK) then most medical schools ask for a science degree if not specifically biology/biochemistry-based degree. It might be different in Canada.

Just as a side note, you don't have to do a job that's related to your degree. I imagine that the majority of people end up in jobs not related to their degree anyway. For example, lots of physics and maths graduates end up working in finance where the transferable skills from those subjects are useful.


Right...I forgot medicine is undergrad in the UK. I knew that this site has mostly British people but I thought I could still get goo answers XD. And yea here it's still technically an undergrad but you must do 4 years of univeristy to get it, so it's pretty much graduate.

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