Advice on a second undergrad degree

[Ly1001]

Hello fellow Premed101ers,

I am hoping for some advice on what to do in my situation.

I am a mature applicant who graduated in 2014 with an abysmal GPA in psychology. I worked for a few years and co-founded my own startup, and realized that medicine is the career path I want to be in. (I 100% know it's being an MD that I want, and yes I am prepared to work for it, so please no lectures in that regard). I am planning on applying to schools in: Canada, US, Australia, Ireland, and the Caribbean. 

My question is, whether or not I should be pursuing a BSc degree in Biology, or another BA in Human Rights studies (which is highly interesting to me), and take some basic science courses in conjunction.  I am planning on writing my MCAT in Jan 2019. I understand that Canadian medical schools don't favour any programs, but my concern is that I may need the science courses for international schools. Any advice on which program  I should be pursuing would be greatly appreciated, (or even general suggestions on what I should be doing). The only disadvantage I can think of with pursuing a BSc Biology degree would be that it is much harder to maintain a 4.0 GPA with a full load of science courses. Alternatively, I wonder if schools would place emphasis on that fact. 

Thank you all in advance! 

[OBoyMD]

Hello!

I will keep it concise.

In general, you should study what you're interested because ALL aside, GPA matters most and the difficulty of the program truly is irrelevant (except maybe at Calgary and Laval?) Generally, you're safe with any degree.

THOUGH, if you're considering applying in the U.S and abroad, those schools DO generally have more science pre-requisites than in Canada - a human rights degree may make that aspect difficult.\

How I see it:

B.Sc

- Better foundation for MCAT

- Hit all pre-reqs for international med schools

- Definitely harder to attain 4.0 w/ labs and all.

 

B.A

- You enjoy it more (don't discount that)

- May miss pre-reqs for some schools

- Wont inherently prepare you for the MCAT as well

- Easier to attain target GPA.

 

Heres another thing:

 

If you DO in fact achieve even a two year GPA of 4.00 in ANY program, assuming your MCAT is average, you WILL undoubtedly get interviews in Canada.

 

There ya have it, some word vomit but I tried.

 

GL

[Ly1001]

@OBoyMD, Thank you SO MUCH for this breakdown, this is exactly what I was looking for.