Does your major get taken into consideration when applying to a medical school?

[nubs]

I was once told by a mathematics university tutor that being an Applied or Pure Mathematics major would give you an advantage over Biology majors (physiology, microbiology etc).

I was also recently told this by an older student currently in the MD, who also said the interviewers preferred Maths, Physics and Chemistry majors.

Just wondering if anybody out there had heard the same thing, or if anyone can actually confirm or deny this


theeeeenkssssss

[stonecold]

No.  This is complete and utter bullshit IMO.  Your major has nothing to do with it and the interviewers wouldn't know what subjects you have taken or anything else about you for that matter.  The university wouldn't even know what subjects you have taken in undergrad unless you are applying to the same university where you did your undergrad.  All that the uni gets is a GAMSAT score and GPA as calculated by ACER.

[Sinner]

Nope, I hardly believe that to be the case. Most if not all places accept applications from students of all undergrad degrees, even Arts and Music. Given this, bias towards students of science backgrounds would be more unfair. If I was an interviewer, wouldn't choose the run of the mill student in BSci over an Arts student with a more confident and positive personality.

There might be a teeny bit science related question(s) in the interview (a senior friend of mine was asked one), but that should be stuff within the level they expect you to know for GAMSAT. (e.g. Define "nucleus" or sth like that)

[nubs]

I was just told that medical schools would prefer to have a mixed student body, comprised of students with a variety of different majors instead of just biology related majors.
Apparently they find out about it during your interview? And it gets taken into account there?
Also, that a major in something like Maths, Chemistry or Physics shows a greater level of critical thinking which is somewhat appealing to the interviewers or something
(again, just what I've heard - which is why I came to you guys)

Also, a greater percentage of maths and physics majors who apply are accepted than biology related majors. I'd assume that's just because they did better in the GAMSAT and/or had a better GPA or something, though.

[Sinner]

The former part of the last remark sounds more plausible. The GAMSAT is designed to test your reasoning and application skills rather than your innate knowledge/memorization, the aspects of which roughly represent the methods generally used in the mathematical and biological sciences respectively.

[Tomw2]

Apparently they find out about it during your interview? And it gets taken into account there?

No, not taken into account at all.

Also, a greater percentage of maths and physics majors who apply are accepted than biology related majors. I'd assume that's just because they did better in the GAMSAT and/or had a better GPA or something, though.

I'm not sure there's any published data on this. Anecdotally, I've often thought that there are more maths and physics majors in the top 5% GAMSAT cohort. Makes sense, but who knows if its actually significant.