Wrong Major? What am I meant to be?

[logsaol]

Hi there,

 

Sorry,  but I'm kind of going through a life crisis. 

I always thought I wanted to be a doctor but I have come to realize that I just don't excel in Biology and the Social Sciences. To put things in perspective my marks are all over the place. But what has been happening is that my highest marks are in the noticeably "harder" courses that other premeds like to avoid; whereas I do horribly for other classes that the other premeds have no trouble with. For instance, I finished Orgo I with a 96 and Orgo II with a 98. I finished Physics I with a 93 and Physics II with a 95. I finished Calc I with 98 and Calc II with a 97. However, once we start getting into the Biology is when I start to suffer, like for Biochem I had an 85. And that's only because I saved myself by doing good on the chem stuff. Anatomy I finished with a 60 and I think because it got rounded UP (I know- yikes). 

I would study the day before for Orgo, and it just connected with me I don't know why. I would occasionally do homework but like it was never intense, whereas I saw premeds doing practice upon practice. The class average for Orgo was a 47 but the class average for anatomy was about a 66. 

Psychology and Sociology I took as well and I got low 60's in those too. Yet I have heard continuously from other premeds that they are bird courses. 

 

I just don't understand, to me, anatomy is way harder than organic chemistry because it requires soooo much memorization. 

Now I'm just wondering if I'm meant to be a doctor because to be a doctor, well, I have to love Biology. And it's not that I hate Biology, I just find it challenging. As well as the social sciences. I just did not excel in those classes.

 

But I really don't know where to go from here. 

[GH0ST]

Dude chill out ... I studied mathematics for years before transitioning to medicine. Plenty of people have minimal biology background prior to medicine but can do fine with hard work. You don't need to be a genius to be a good doctor and more importantly, take care of people the best way you can. 

You don't have to like pure biology to do well in medicine. 

You have other issues like why you're procrastinating while some of the more competitive students are studying day in and day out... you'll need academic discipline to improve your grades not this junior life crisis. 

- G 

[logsaol]

29 minutes ago, GH0ST said:

Dude chill out ... I studied mathematics for years before transitioning to medicine. Plenty of people have minimal biology background prior to medicine but can do fine with hard work. You don't need to be a genius to be a good doctor and more importantly, take care of people the best way you can. 

You don't have to like pure biology to do well in medicine. 

You have other issues like why you're procrastinating while some of the more competitive students are studying day in and day out... you'll need academic discipline to improve your grades not this junior life crisis. 

- G 

I mean like to be honest, I don't procrastinate;  I probably dont study as intensely as those people who tried to memorize orgo, but thats because I didn't need to, I  dont "study" for things I don't need to. I mean of course I had to practice, I would do a couple practice problems for orgo and calc after lecture and I'd get it and be good, same for Biochem. Anatomy I studied like day in day out- just couldnt memorize everything, dont know why it didnt click with me. I remember when like in Biochem people were memorizing all these transcription factors and couldnt do a peptide linkage where as I was the opposite. 

So it's not about being a genius... I just think a doctor should be good at Biology more than chem or calc and I'm the opposite. 

What changed you from math to medicine? I kind of want to do the opposite....Thinking about engineering. 

[OwnerOfTheTARDIS]

So I don't think liking biology or chem or psych or philosophy necessarily correlates to whether or not you will like medicine. I have classmates who enjoyed and majored in all of these subjects who all say that they are very happy in med school. 

To me, it's more concerning that you don't like the subjects based in memorization (as opposed to chem/physics which I would describe as being based on concepts and patterns). Med school is almost entirely memorization and even understanding the physiology/pathology behind diseases doesn't necessarily help you memorize syndromes or names of medications. If you don't enjoy/don't excel at this type of work, med school could be a very frustrating or even miserable experience for you.

Maybe talk to some people with careers in chemistry and physics to see what career paths are more in line with the type of learning you enjoy and have been doing amazingly well in?

[frenchpress]

I agree with other posters that not liking some of those subjects doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t enjoy or excel in Med school. People come to medicine from all areas of study.  

Some topics take people longer to learn, so just because you’re not naturally as good at something does not necessarily mean it’s not worth putting in the time to get better at it. But if you’re finding that you’re really not enjoying certain types of courses or your major, it is a good idea to explore other areas you think you might like better. There’s no point in being miserable. And if you really do think you might want to go to Med school one day, then the most important thing right now is for you to excel in whatever course of study you choose. Continuing down a path where you’re getting a lot of 60s in courses you don’t enjoy is not likely to make you happy nor give you a strong enough GPA to even apply to medicine. If you switch to a path where you’re motivated by you’re interested to study things you you like and excel at, you may discover a rewarding new career you hasn’t considered (and that won’t necessarily prevent you from pursuing medicine later if you want).

[frenchpress]

Also, medicine is a massive field, and there’s a tonne of variation in what types of things you might do and what skills you need to do it. No one is good at everything, and you don’t need to be. For example, a lot of students in my school suck at anatomy (myself included), but that’s not necessarily going to be a problem. It’s the sort of thing where if it’s important for the areas of medicine you’re interested in, you just pick up the content over time with more and more practice. And then you forget the rest because you aren’t using it.

[Med Eye]

1 hour ago, frenchpress said:

Also, medicine is a massive field, and there’s a tonne of variation in what types of things you might do and what skills you need to do it. No one is good at everything, and you don’t need to be. For example, a lot of stufents in my school suck at anatomy (myself included), but that’s not necessarily going to be a problem. It’s the sort of thing where if it’s important for the areas of medicine you’re interested in, you just pick up the content over time with more and more practice. And then you forget the rest because you aren’t using it.

Too true and there is so many people with different backgrounds and skills which have come into medicine and make/made fantastic contributions! 

 

[Borborygmi]

As OwnerOfTheTARDIS mentioned in their post, med school has a much more vast volume of information to cover than undergrad. Some of it is, of course, pattern recognition. You still need to be able to retain large quantities of information in relatively short periods of time. I would argue that residency is actually more intense in that regard because your schedule is so horrible that you have much less time to actually study.

I would suggest two approaches. Perhaps you haven't found a good technique for memorizing large amounts of information. It might be worthwhile to check in with your undergrad advisers in the library. There might be techniques/tools that you don't know about that would be useful for you. If the same strategies you have been using keep not working, you might just need a strategy adjustment.

Second would be, just take courses in a major that plays to your strengths. It doesn't really matter in what area you do well in undergrad as long as you do well while pursuing personal interests. People in my med school class had varied backgrounds: musicians, physiotherapists, nurses, lawyers, paramedics, accountants, art directors, journalists, professional athletes, etc.