It seems like everyone in my school majoring in biology wants to be a doctor. I'm a biology major and I want

I disagree with everybody who's saying that pre-meds and med students are just in it for the glamour of television shows. Sure, we like 'em, but it's for the same reason anybody likes any shows. Whoever said that med students are just dropping out of med school when they find out that it's not that exciting is just wrong. I've been in med school for three years and haven't heard of anybody dropping for that reason. With regards to the zillions of premeds, they do drop out and choose other paths when they realize the difficulty of getting into and succeeding in medicine. Generally, a 2.4 isn't conducive to getting into a US MD school, but most schools don't have a minimum GPA or MCAT. Work hard, keep your eye on the ball, and volunteer/shadow in the hospital. That's how you'll know if you like medicine enough to dedicate your life to it.

People want to medical professionals because of the amount of money they believe they can make and because of television shows, like ER and Scrubs, that make being a doctor popular. Teaching biology is wonderful and we need more people willing to do that. I majored in biology myself in college (with a minor in chemistry) because I enjoyed research. I now work for a screening service company peforming research for pharmaceutical companies. Majoring in biology is an admirable goal and so few are willing to try it. Do what you WANT to do and not what everyone else wants to do.

Good for you for wanting to teach biology! I have very positive memories of my college biochemistry professors; most of them were great. People may want to be doctors for a variety of reasons (or a combination of them), including money, family pressure, job security, and believe it or not, actually wanting to help people and make a positive contribution to society. Someone with a 2.4 GPA is going to have a very difficult time getting into med school, at least in the US. Weeding out occurs in the first couple years of college, when students realize how hard chemistry or physics is, and again when they apply to med school. There are many candidates for every slot and the screening process is pretty strict. Once someone is admitted to med school they rarely drop out. (Besides, after you're in debt for a couple years of med school you have to finish or you'll never pay off the loan!)

A lot of people want to be doctors because of shows they watch. I personally want to major in biology, and become a doctor, but it is not because of the shows that I watch. Bet me that at least half of the people that want to be doctors are fans of Grey's Anatomy, or House. Because medicine isn't that dramatic. I want to be a doctor because I love medicine. I want to specialize in neurology. Because I think the brain is very interesting. People drop out of medical school once they find out that it isn't going to be like a medical drama. I can tell that you don't want to major in biology because you relate medicine with tv shows. Because you want to teach it. A lot of people are going to major in diagnostic medicine or surgery because that is what House and Grey's Anatomy are based on.

Becuase they think that doctoring is fun, or interesting, or lucrative. It's not necessarily any of those thigns.

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family doctor's experience you need a PHD to teach in college, even if it a community college. So, i was a bio major when i went to college and later became a doctor. Bio is just a popular major for "premed" students

There are a number of reasons for this, but in my college experience, I have found the following to be the most common reasons: - Pressure from family. This often occurs because their are doctors in the family, or because the family thinks that doctors are well off. Thus, they want their kids to be well off in life, so the parents pressure them to be doctors. - Wanting to make a difference. There are people who are genuinely concerned about others and want to make a difference in the world. One of the people that first comes to mind that would fit in this category for me with be Paul Farmer, who spent a lot of time working in Haiti to build up their medical system. There's an interesting book on this, "Mountains Beyond Mountains" that you might like to read. - Enjoy chemistry/biology. There are some students enjoy learning about how the body works, or how chemicals react the way they do. Often, these students study pre-med because the most common careers for chemist and biologist is research or being a doctor.