What major should I choose at the University of San Diego for pre-med?

I’m a high school junior trying to plan ahead for college, and I’m interested in pre-med at the University of San Diego. I keep seeing that pre-med is a track rather than a major, so I’m trying to understand what students usually major in while preparing for medical school.

I want to pick something that will let me complete the pre-med requirements without making my schedule impossible.
2 days ago
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Sundial Team
2 days ago
At the University of San Diego, there is no official pre-med major, so the best major is usually the one you can do well in while fitting in the medical school prerequisites. Common choices at USD include biology, biochemistry, chemistry, neuroscience, and psychology, because they overlap well with the courses med schools expect. Biology is probably the most straightforward option if you want the least scheduling friction, while biochemistry can be strong if you like chemistry and molecular science.

USD students on the pre-health path can major in almost anything, but medical schools still want the core science classes: typically general chemistry, organic chemistry, biology, physics, math or statistics, and often biochemistry, psychology, and sociology. That means majors with built-in science requirements usually make planning easier. If you choose a non-science major at USD, it can still work, but you will need to be more careful about sequencing labs and prerequisites.

If your main goal is to keep your schedule manageable, biology is often the safest pick because it naturally covers a lot of pre-med coursework and leaves room for electives, research, or clinical experiences. Psychology can also be a smart option if you are very interested in behavior and want a lighter concentration of lab-heavy upper-division science, though you would still need to add the full pre-med science sequence separately.

The strongest choice is the one where you can earn a high GPA, complete the required courses on time, and still have room for volunteering, shadowing, and possibly research, all of which matter for medical school preparation at USD.

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