so I may switch to pre-med

[Dalya]

pros:
1) confidence in ability to afford food for rest of life
2) documents to back up attitude of superiority
3) feeling when I save someone's life
4) get to wear pajamas to work

cons:
1) a decade of school
2) my affection for sleep is frowned upon
3) already wasted a year talking about metaphors
4) cadavers. (not sure if this is a pro, though)

[roach]

you can have my kidneys for a "kids don't be this guy" puppet show if you need.

[mere1975]

You're so Felicity.

- Mere "Pre-med. No, art. No, pre-med." 1975

[Dalya]

another pro: have something more useful to give to african children than my old t-shirts

another con: I WILL BE A WALKING STEREOTYPE.

[sam]

I would suggest a related degree like Biology or Chemistry over Pre-Med. It's good preparation and when you'll have a BS that can get you a job if you don't end up going to med school. You can even make beer for a living, like my friend Stephen.

[Dalya]

i dont think UTD offers pre-med anyway

[Dutch]

Do you have to major in pre-med or follow a pre-med track to go to med school?

[NerfHerder]

I don't think there's strictly a pre-med major anywhere. There are just a laundry list of other majors that can either have pre-med tacked on to the end or just kind of implied.

Look, Dalya, I never took you for a doc. But if you're down with the blood and can snuggle up to death then godspeed.

[Rebecca]

So what kind of doctor do you want to be? I think you can still be a doctor without being sleep-deprived and mingling with cadavers.

[Rebecca]

This reminds me: Yesterday I heard this guy talking about how his brother is going into mortuary science because there is so much money to be made. Ew.

[Dalya]

you have to disect cadavers in med school no matter what your specialty, as far as i know. even physical therapists have to do it, and they don't have an md.

i think i want to be a surgeon but i dont know. neurological things really interest me. i'd love to be a neurologist. if i didnt become a doctor i might do speech therapy or physical therapy.

you have to admit it would feel pretty amazing to successfully remove someone's brain tumor.

ideally i want to major in chemistry with a minor in speech pathology or some time of brain science, or just double major. chemistry interests me more than biology, mostly because im more interested in humans than pigs and rats and stuff. i think as long as you major in a science, you are good for getting into med school. i think you can get in anyway, if you ace the MCATs. but i'm not amazing at math, so i wouldn't rely on that.

[Tracy]

Tulane has an interesting neuroscience undergrad program that we tried to interest our son in.

http://neuro.tulane.edu/

And our daughter has toyed with the idea of becoming a podiatrist because you can still have a life, as opposed to an ob/gyn or surgeon. Not too many foot emergencies that aren't handled by an orthopedic surgeon...

[Sybil]

This reminds me: Yesterday I heard this guy talking about how his brother is going into mortuary science because there is so much money to be made. Ew.

Well, there's certainly a perpetual supply of customers.

[Irock]

If I could have gone to school and not worried about rent at the same time, I'd have gone into medicine (Vz won't pay for a Biology degree, and English is just easier for me). I still want to be a medical scientist when I grow up; cancer research would be awesome. But in the medical research field you have to either scrounge for grants or work for Glaxo-Smith trying to invent a $65435154 cure for gout. I knew a guy who did cancer research but had to take a job doing drywall between grants. Lame.

In general though, you're going to be a lot more comfortable with a medical degree. And if you decided you wanted to teach (or write), you still could with that education.

[Dalya]

yeah i figure its a lot easier to become a doctor and decide not to practice than it is to try and go back to med school when i'm 45. plus it interests me, so even if i dont practice i'll enjoy learning it.