First you should have a pre-medical adviser. If you don’t have one, get one. If your college doesn’t’ have one, get you but into another school. Medical school has prerequisites just like any pre-medical program, so while you are in college then main thing is to go through their pre-medical program to cover those bases.

In short a pre-medical program will take up 3-4 years in college, depending on whether it is an accelerated program or not. Out of those 3-4 years approximately 1 year of it will be pre-med courses and the other 2-3 years will be whatever you decide to major in.

Here’s the skinny on your major. It really doesn’t matter what you major in college. About 2/3 of pre-med students major in a science, usually biology, chemistry, and the holy grail bio-chemistry. About 1/3 choose a non-science program as a major including anything from art history to literature. Medical colleges like a diverse student population, and since they screen applicants for high grades and MCAT scores before an interview many students use this their major as a tactic to get an initial interview for med school. At the interview they will take everything into account from your major; MCAT scores; community, school church and/or hospital involvement; everything.

Now since you show an interest in Neurology you probably shouldn’t go average. Since you want to choose a specialty you will be held to a higher standard, as if the standard isn’t high enough.

This is how specialties work. Think of it like a lottery pick for your favorite sport. You come up with a list of what you want to specialize in form most to least important. Fellowship programs do the same, and then you are matched up with your program. So to ensure that you get what you want for a specialization you will need to set your sights as high as you can.

In all what you will need to do is:

1) 3-4 years of college

2) 4 years of medical school

3) 1 year of internship

4) 2 or more years of residency, including fellowship> I believe that you will be looking at 6ish years.

Here are some links that may help:

http://www.aans.org/default.asp

http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/start.htm

http://www.medicalstudent.com/

This is an excellent med school message board:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=12

If you have any other questions, let me know. But please make sure that you take car of the pre med counselor thing. I applaud you for wanting to be a neurologist. Personally I want to be a Neurosurgeon or CT surgeon. Don’t let a community college get in your way.

A major is what you get your degree in. A minor isn’t a degree, just a sub specialty in a different area that usually compliments your major. Pre-med is a program, not typically a major. You usually major in a science field with a focus in pre-med. You can major in anything and be pre-med, however. Neither major will land you a job after college. They both prepare you for medical school or another masters or PhD program. Major in what interests you the most. If you are going to med school, there is no point in getting a minor. Just major in what interests you and take the classes you need to do well on the MCAT and meet the prerequisites to medical school. You should get assigned a pre-med advisor that can guide you in the right direction to take all the right classes.

at the community college level, make your major pre-med. Take sciences and maths that will transfer to schools or the school you plan on going to. At the university level you’ll still be pre-med. Some schools give you guidelines for your minor but a lot of them don’t care. Probably best to choose something that will be helpful like something science related or language or whatever you’re interested in.

Neurology Major