Many undergraduate students hem and haw over this very question: “what should I choose as my undergraduate major?” It is after all, what you will be devoting four years of study to. Do you think it makes sense to major in either biology or chemistry if you want to attend PA or medical school? Actually, I want to play devil’s advocate here and say having a science major doesn’t matter. The reason why is that everyone else has one! PA programs and medical schools alike are highly competitive. You need to stand out.
If you find chemistry or biology absolutely fascinating, then by all means go for it. After taking entry-level biology and chemistry classes I knew I couldn’t spend four years solely studying them. I changed my mind about a million times before I finally decided on my majors, which were psychology and Spanish. This post includes my story on how I choose my majors, and why it was the best decision for me. I strongly believe your undergraduate major doesn’t matter. I will also discuss why you can major in anything and still be accepted into PA school.
How I chose Spanish as one of my undergraduate majors
I knew I wanted to double major early on with Spanish being one, simply because I placed out of many Spanish credits from my AP courses in high school. The University of North Carolina also had a language placement test that everyone had to take before starting undergrad (I am not sure if they still do this or not). I scored very high on this exam and therefore only required what seemed like minimal credits in order to complete a major before even starting school! My goal was always to study abroad in Spain as I had a taste of the country in high school and fell in love with the culture. I was able to spend 6 months in Sevilla, Spain my junior year where I took courses that counted towards that major.
How I chose psychology as one of my undergraduate majors
Choosing Spanish as a major was easy but choosing a second major… not so much. I changed my mind about my major probably over five times in a two-year period (this is not an exaggeration). I like many people originally thought I wanted to major in biology until I got a C+ in Bio 101. My first C ever of my academic career. Ultimately, the reason I ended with psychology was that spring semester of my sophomore year I was looking at my GPA and going oh no. It was low, real low. Read more on why I had a low GPA, and what I did to improve it here. I knew if I wanted any chance of being accepted to any graduate program then I really needed to focus on increasing my GPA.
At this time, I was still undecided about my second major. I sat down and looked at the past two years of classes I had taken and the associated grades. I ranked them by how I had done in the class. The As I did have were in my physical education class (of course), my Spanish classes, and lastly my psychology 101 course. Well, I couldn’t major in PE. I had already considered Exercise and Sports Science in the past but was unable to enroll in any of the classes I wanted because it was so competitive. Spanish was already one of my majors. All that was left over was psychology. One summer, I took abnormal psychology and after that, my mind was made up. I fricken loved it. It was the first class where I truly enjoyed learning the material. From there on out my two intended majors were psychology and Spanish. For the next two years, with the exception of my semester abroad, I packed my schedule with psych classes. Since I actually enjoyed the material, my GPA started to rise.
Why your undergraduate major doesn’t matter to admission committees
Here’s the thing, your undergraduate major really doesn’t matter. In fact, it may make you stand out if you aren’t like the masses majoring only in biology or chemistry. The caveat is you have to also complete all of the prerequisites for PA school (and do well in them) in addition to your intended major. Going even further, a lot of programs are also looking for high performance in upper-level science courses. My recommendation is to pursue what you enjoy learning. You will enjoy your classes more and your grades will reflect that. If you love biology then great! You will kill two birds with one stone, but you will still need to stand out in some other way for admissions. Are you really interested in the medical field but don’t want to major in bio or chem? That is okay! Choose the major of your choice and slowly sprinkle in the prerequisites. Try not to stack too many difficult prerequisites at once. If you are able, take one by itself during the summer so you are able to really focus your attention and do well. Along with abnormal psych, I also took anatomy and physiology one summer.
I hope this information can help at least one person. You have permission to study what you enjoy learning. I truly believe it will only benefit you in the long run. Have you already chosen a major besides biology or chemistry and you intend to apply to PA school? Comment below with your chosen major! I love to learn about different paths taken to PA school.
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