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3 years ago
Admissions Advice

Help with choosing major for applications

Hi all! I am currently a junior and I've heard that gender and major can affect your chances of getting into college. Currently, I have psychology with a pre-med track as my intended major, I am aware that females are very prevalent in the psychology major so I know I wouldn't stand out a lot. I have ECs that curve more towards the medical field because it's hard to find psychology related extracurriculars. I have been in my school's medical academy for 3 years now and I intend on doing my 4th year next year, I also have been doing some volunteering with a local courthouse. Based off of my ECs, I could list my major as psychology, political science, or biology, which would help me the most?

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4 answers

1
3 years ago

Just so I've got this straight... your intention to pursue political science is due to your courthouse volunteer work, right? Your intention to pursue biology is due to your time in your school's medical academy, right? Finally, your intention to pursue Psychology is due to your inner drive, right? Which path do you think defines you? When you're at the courthouse, can you imagine yourself sitting amongst the Jury or the Judge? When you're participating in the medical academy, can you imagine yourself as a medical researcher or a surgeon? What sparked your idea of Psychology (this is also my intended major)? Do you like to help people? If so, can you imagine yourself as a psychologist diagnosing a patient? As I've learned, nobody can tell you what path to go down. Only you can make that decision. Whichever image is vivid to you is the target you want to aim for. In the Psychology field, women are prevalent, but none are alike. Just because there are a lot of women in the field, it doesn't mean you should be deterred from majoring in it. Let me know which image speaks to you more!

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0
3 years ago

The biggest factors that go into med school acceptance are undergrad GPA and MCAT.

Political Science is a medium difficultly major, but will not prepare you for the MCAT. It will look random if you want to go to medical school, so I would not recommend it.

Biology is the most common premed major and you will have A LOT of competition, but it will prepare you. It is quite difficult, so keeping a high GPA will be hard.

Psychology, in my opinion, would be your best option. You are interested in it, from what it seems. It is not that difficult of a major, and will prepare you for med school as well. It is not that common for psychology majors to go to med school, so it might stand out a little more.

Let me know if this helps!!

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0
3 years ago

I don't know if anyone has mentioned it but some schools don't require you to declare your major in your application. That is really only needed if you want to go to a school where that major is competitive but even then this is usually done in your second year from what i've seen. As for what might help you I would say what excites you the most. I can't say for sure but if you need to write an essay on why you want to pursue a degree in blank field innate passion will usually make it stand out as it will translate in your essay an excite the reader as well if written well.

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3 years ago

First and foremost, I’d like to respectfully clear any potential misconception about your major choice, your identity, and your chances. First thing, your race or gender does not initially affect your chances at ALL, but in the “heat of things”—when admission decisions are tight and coming down the line—unfortunately some colleges will make the FINAL cuts based of your identity so as to diversify their study fields. This is sort of the “nasty” hidden truth behind some final admission decisions.

Anyhow, to answer your fundamental question, a female applicant in a STEM major will stand-out (stand-out doesn’t mean better chances for instance) than, perhaps, their tenth male applicant to the same study field. Biology you have, which may or may not reward you that stand-out. Political-science, also, may or may not reward that stand-out. Though, every college is different and their general applicant pool can vary by major to major and year to year. But generally-speaking, any female or minority aiming for anything STEM related or political/law related can be noted as a stand-out (also taking into account strong applicant status). And, of course, this may or may not reward you that “final-decisions” chances that is so notoriously discussed amongst admissions cycles.

Hope this helps!

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