Hofstra University reveals the startling information that science is not a required major for medical school. American Medical Students Association statistics confirm that, while biochemistry has a statistical spike in medical school acceptance over biology -- 43 percent vs. 35 percent -- neither has a distinct advantage over the other in the long run. Both fields are required as coursework in all medical school courses of study, but in 2012, only 51 percent of medical school graduates had degrees in the sciences. Follow biology or biochemistry only if it's your passion, statistics say.
Pre-med biology is vastly different from biology courses in medical school. Overwhelmingly, the coursework in the medical biological sciences focuses on genetics, developmental biologies and physiological sciences; the typical biology major covers little of these subject areas. By the same token, numerous campuses have biochemistry requirements, but their coursework is centered on human disease and physiological reactions to various chemical treatments, while pre-med majors in this science focus only on general chemical processes.
Your coursework in biology will complete the biology requirement for most medical school degrees; your coursework in biochemistry will also complete the basic chemistry requirements. Yale University, for example, requires both; however, their medical coursework branches into organic and non-organic chemistries and laboratory biologies. Similarly, Johns Hopkins University requires basic biology and chemistry coursework, but its medical school pathway continues both sciences in lab work. In addition, both these prestigious universities require humanities, mathematics and English; science majors have no distinct advantage over others, aside from the completion of some pre-med coursework.
Neither biology nor biochemistry majors have a distinct advantage in getting into, and staying in, medical school. The overwhelming recommendation is that, once basic biology, chemistry and physics pre-requisites are completed, you, as a successful medical school candidate, should major in your passion: philosophy, politics and the humanities do equally well next to science majors in medical school. This discipline does not seek scientists; it seeks those with a passion.