Exploring STEM Programs: Choosing the Right Major

Webinar Transcription

2024-03-21 – Exploring STEM Programs/ Choosing the Right Major

Hello, everyone. Good evening. Good afternoon. Good morning. Whatever time it is, wherever you’re dialing in from. We’re so happy you’re here. Welcome to Exploring STEM Programs, Choosing the Right Major. My name is Anna Vande Velde, I’ll be your moderator today. I’m also a senior advisor here at CollegeAdvisor, been with the company for about two and a half years, and in addition to the advising I do with students, I’m a proud co captain of our essay review team, uh, so love staying involved.

For undergrad, I studied psychology at Carnegie Mellon, thinking I wanted to be a clinical psychologist. I ended up at Harvard Law School. Life’s full of twists and turns. Um, so, in addition to my work with CollegeAdvisor, I am a non profit defense attorney, and I live in Ottawa, Canada. To orient everyone with the webinar timing, we’re going to start off with a presentation, then we’ll answer your questions in a live Q&A.

On the sidebar, you can download our slides at any time, and you can also start submitting your questions in the Q&A tab. So as you think of them, please don’t feel the need to wait until the end of the presentation. Go ahead and submit them now, and we’ll get to as many as we can at the end. That’s more than you needed to hear from me.

I’m going to now turn it over to our panelist, Lily to introduce herself. Yeah, great. Thanks, Anna. Um, yeah. So, hi, everyone. My name is Lily Xu. Um, I graduated from Washington, St. Louis in the class of 2020. and while I was there, I was a STEM major. So, um, I started out as a biomedical engineering major, and then towards the end of my undergrad studies, I also realized I got.

This huge interest in biology as well. So I also I had a dual degree in computational biology and genomics along with a minor in computer science after undergrad, I realized that I really loved doing research. And that’s what drove me to pursue a PhD. So I’m currently a PhD student at Stanford studying microbiology and immunology.

I’m really excited to tell you guys a lot more about different kinds of stem programs. How you know if stem is right for you, how to choose a major within stem. Um, and just like within Anna’s introduction, there’s a lot of, you know, changes when it comes to exploring different majors. Especially if you’re a high school student.

Now, you have plenty of time to explore and I would say college is especially a really great time to figure out if you like them, or if you want to do something else. And so there’s definitely a lot of stories that go both ways. Some people start in stem, they go into humanity. Some people do the opposite.

Some people have completely different career path, but that’s what makes choosing your major really exciting. And so, with that, we’re going to start off with a quick poll, just so I can also gauge what stage you guys are in. So, Anna, if you want to take the lead on this. Absolutely. And so before we get into the presentation, we’d just like to see what grade y’all are in.

If you’re here as a parent, educator, guardian, support person, please just select other. And while you do that, Lily is wondering if I could put you on the spot. Ask now that you’re in a PhD program. What is one piece of advice you wish someone had given you when you were in high school? Oh, I feel like in high school, I wish someone had told me just to like explore everything.

Um, I feel like even when going back to, you know, thinking about my college classes and what I really enjoyed, I really liked like my fiction writing classes, or I really liked my language classes. And I feel like, you know, even if you want to pursue STEM, it doesn’t mean you have to like make sure that everything you do is 100 percent STEM.

And so I feel like for me, like parts of college that I really enjoyed were, I love the STEM courses, but I also loved, you know, all of the other courses that I got to take, um, and especially like different kinds of non STEM electives and also just all of the clubs that I was a part of in college. And so I feel like that exploration is like not just limited to academics, but then just, you know, having this well rounded college experience.

Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. Um, not just for having a well rounded college experience, but for becoming a well rounded person. Um, and really colleges are looking for well rounded. Students, students are interested and engaged, so follow your passions for sure, even if you think, eh, they’re not STEM.

Try them out. Um, Lily, just so you know, we have about 50 percent of our, um, attendees are in 11th grade, and then the rest are split between 10th and 12th. Alright, great. Yeah, in that case, um, I would say you guys are definitely in the right place when it comes to considering STEM. I feel like, you know, you can never be too late to end up, um, joining a STEM major, but then also, you also can’t be too early either.

Um, so hopefully this helps you with, you know, maybe narrowing down if you want to do STEM or not, and then also figuring out what majors you might be interested in. What’s also really exciting is that schools are always making new majors, especially as different STEM fields evolve. And so even majors that you look at now, there might be new ones that get created while you’re in college even.

Um, those could be things that you end up pursuing. Um, so to continue with the presentation, um, I guess one of the first things that I always, you know, thought of when I was in high school is like, how, how do I know if I should even be doing stem? I feel like these are some great questions you can ask yourself and mostly see, you know, what are some things that you feel like you enjoy right now in high school?

And from that, what kind of things do you think you want to continue doing in college and possibly even beyond college? For me, I actually knew pretty early on that I think I wanted to major in STEM, um, but even in like middle school and high school, I had a lot of interest, especially in like the arts and humanities.

And so for me, I realized that, you know, out of the different topics that I was interested in, you know, when it comes to like music and writing and like pursuing, you know, math and science, um, I ended up realizing that math and science was that topic that I just got so interested in. Like, I just love the classes.

I even liked doing the homework for those classes. Um, and for me, that was a good sign that, Um, if these were topics that I could say, like, read about late until the night, um, those were probably topics I wanted to continue studying in college. And so, I would say for you, if you really like your STEM courses right now, if you really like the content, if you feel like in your free time you want to explore those, and also if you really like problem solving, um, STEM could be one of those great options for you to explore further and look a little bit more into the specific majors that are possible.

Um, from here also, you know, why should you pursue a STEM degree? Um, I would say the first bullet point here, um, for it being intellectually stimulating, it was just really exciting for me to learn about different STEM topics and something that I personally really liked is just knowing that the field is always changing and also knowing that there’s so much that you can explore, whether it’s something that you do in the classroom or something that you do hands on through something like research or working a job within a STEM career, um, and also just being able to learn so much more about the different laws that govern our world.

Along with that, what is also nice is that you do get a lot of, um, there are a lot of different job options when it comes to STEM, just because there are so many different majors, there are so many different companies, so many organizations that are all, um, really, like, geared towards STEM. And with that also comes a lot of job security as well.

And so I feel like this is one of those situations where you can get the best of both worlds, where you can pursue something that you’re really excited about, and also have a lot of different options for what kind of career path you could take on afterwards. Here I’ve listed a few different examples of what kinds of jobs you can end up pursuing in STEM and some different kinds of paths to get there.

Um, this is not limited to, you know, the only, um, set of directions that you can take to end up at a certain point. Um, but I would say within a lot of STEM careers, a lot of people will, um, divide them into academia oriented versus industry oriented. Um, and then there are also some additional areas that I’ll include in the next slide as well.

Um, when it comes to, uh, a STEM career within academia, I would say some really common ones are, you know, it was doing something within research, whether you’re a P. I. R. would mean you run a lab in academia. This could also mean becoming like a staff scientist in that area, or some other kind of permanent research position.

Um, along with that, you could also pursue medicine. I know that’s a popular route with a lot of the students that we have at CollegeAdvisor. And so here you could end up working in, you know, an academic hospital, you could be working in private practice, and there are so many different routes that you could take to get there.

Um, this would also mean, uh, having a role within teaching, whether this is teaching at a university, so somewhere, um, within academia, um, sometimes you’ll end up Becoming a teacher and also running a lab and having a tenure track position. Um, sometimes you end up teaching at a community college or at a high school or middle school.

And so there are also a bunch of different, um, degree paths that you can go through, um, to get to those points. And then along with that, um, I would say industry is that category that I use for a lot of just like general companies, whether these are companies within industry in general, within biotech, within startups, um, or within the more general tech industry.

And so for all of these, there’s no, there’s no, You know, one specific major that you have to pursue to get to one of these endpoints. And so here, I’ve just listed some of the more general areas that you could end up pursuing. But I think what’s also nice is looking for people who have reached that endpoint and also going and backtracking to see what kind of steps did they take to get from where they are, where they are now.

major to what they did after college to end up getting their final position. And so this will give you a quick list of examples. And if anyone is interested in any of these specific career paths, I’m also happy to talk a little bit more about what kind of steps you might need to take when it comes to say, you know, going from, you know, Becoming a PI in academia or, um, landing a job within industry,

um, when it comes to job outlook. So I went over some of the more general areas, um, within, you know, academia and industry. Um, I also do want to add the other, um, divisions as well. And so some other popular areas include government, NGOs, so non government organizations, public policy, um, and then there’s also a bunch of other routes as well where if you major in STEM, you’re also not limited to just these areas.

You can also end up pivoting and going into law or business. I feel like those are always, um, also like popular areas where you can have a lot of translational skills. When you’re preparing for a STEM career into pivoting into something else, especially if maybe you realize that there’s something else that’s also you’re calling.

Um, and so job outlook wise, you’re pretty flexible in terms of different careers that you can end up pursuing. But I would say academia and industry have the majority of careers that STEM majors will go into.

For different examples of STEM majors, I would say what’s most helpful is looking for any college that you’re really interested in, and then looking at all of the majors that are available. When I look at Washington and St. Louis, so the undergrad college that I went to, the way that we have our school divided is we have a bunch of different schools within the college itself.

And so the College of Arts and Sciences, um, has a mix of our STEM and Humanities majors. And so here these are, um, some of the prominent, uh, STEM majors that we have. And then we also have the School of Engineering, which has a variety of different kinds of, um, engineering majors also. Um. Um, for this, you can pretty much go to any college website and read through and really browse and see what kinds of, um, what kinds of majors you could be interested in.

And especially when comparing more arts and sciences majors for general STEM majors versus engineering, you might also see some overlap in some of the topics that you might end up studying. And this could be, say, when you’re comparing chemistry versus chemical engineering. And so by looking at both majors from one school, you can do a little bit of research and try to see what kind of overlaps to those majors have and also what kind of topics really stand out to you that can help you maybe choose one major over the other.

Um, this is not to say that this, these are the only STEM majors that are available. Um, some things to note is that, um, different colleges might have different names for different majors. And so I remember at Washington St. Louis we have, um, PNP, which has philosophy, neuroscience, psychology all together in one major.

Um, I know Stanford has a similar ish major, but they call it symbolic systems, but they also include, uh, computer science into the mix. And so different colleges will have different names for their STEM majors, and they might have different focuses just based on what students are interested in that school, and also what kind of strengths that college might have.

And in addition, like I said earlier, the major that you’re interested in might also be something that ends up becoming created or While you’re a student in college. So I remember at Wash U in St. Louis, we suddenly had a, I think, financial engineering major that was created because there are a lot of students who are engineers, but also wanted to take classes in the business school and the school realized that there was this need for this additional major.

Um, and so I think they rolled out their first cohort for that major while it was actually in college. And so, um, keep browsing school lists. And then, um, as you’re looking at different colleges, you can also see what majors. are maybe unique to just that college. Um, but for the most part, a lot of the majors that are listed here, you’ll see overlapping, maybe with a slight variation in their name, um, in different university lists.

Okay, so say you have looked at a few different majors and you want to do some further research and really see, is this going to be maybe a program that you want to apply to when it comes to your college applications, or maybe if you’re, you know, making that decision down the line of like, just declaring your major.

How do you know if This is going to be a major that you think that you’ll enjoy for the rest of college. Um, I would say the first place that I always look at is just first, uh, Lee looking at the academics, looking at the classes. And so, um, for a lot of majors, you might have really similar introductory courses, um, across different majors and also across many colleges.

So I think it’s pretty common for students. A lot of say like arts and sciences majors to have everyone take like an introductory chemistry class, an introductory physics class, um, because of that, the way that you can see down the line, how that nature might stand out is to look at the upper level electives that are offered at that school.

And so I know for the biology major, specifically, we had a few classes. We had some about misery trees. We had some about the circadian rhythm. We had, you know, a bunch of different courses that are a little bit more specific to the professors that are teaching them and also more specific to the college and the students.

And so, by looking at upper level electives, you can see if the classes that you’ll be taking as a junior or senior are going to really appeal to you to help you decide if that’s a major that you might want to pursue longer term. Outside of the classroom, I would also look into research and also extracurriculars.

And so when it comes to research, I would say it’s really common for a lot of STEM majors, if there is research available, to get that experience outside of the classroom and do some research in labs at the college. And so this is going to be a lot more school specific in terms of how many undergrads are doing research and also more specific to the different professors who are there who are also you know hosting labs and also offering research opportunities to undergrads.

And so in this case you can see what kind of labs are available, see if there are any specific topics that you’re really interested in, and see if there’s a good match at that school. So say for you maybe if you’re really interested in you know neurosciences in the brain you want to work in a lab that.

Works on some kind of neurodegenerative disease. Maybe you’ll look and see if there’s labs that are studying Alzheimer’s or any other kinds of diseases, or maybe you’ll look and see if there are research labs that are setting that you can something that you’ve never heard about, but that that is within that research realm.

And so, by seeing if there are research opportunities for the students available, and also seeing if there’s research areas are something that you’re interested in that can help you gauge whether or not this stem program might have the support for you to also do research in that area. Um, along with that, so for most colleges, there will be some kind of website, um, that will list, like, the different clubs that students participate in on campus.

And so, for clubs, there’s always going to be a mix of, you know, more academic or career driven clubs, whether that’s maybe like a physics students club or biology interest group, or, you know, a computer science club, or they might have more formal, uh, academic clubs. If there’s some kind of fraternity or sorority, that’s more.

Geared towards academics. Um, so you can go and see what kind of, um, extracurriculars are students engaged in that are on the academic realms and that can help you see, um, if you’re going to have also that support network built built in, if you end up joining those clubs and so, um, things that you can look at when it comes to that is maybe how many students are also going to pursue those STEM majors and then how many of those are also going to engage in these extracurriculars and really unite outside of the classroom.

Along with that, I would also look at just career wise, what kind of advising might be available from the school to help you actually figure out your next steps after college. And so, if you think about what is my dream job, and then say, if you go back to the side and look at the different kinds of routes you could take, maybe if you want to apply to a program, or you want to play them at school, or you want to apply to a job right out of college, you can see if the school has a career office.

That might help you, or major advisors that will help you. Figure out those next steps in terms of maybe writing essays, you’re writing cover letters or perfecting your CV, um, and see if you have that support to actually make the next steps after college. And so these are a lot of things in terms of like what different schools can offer you to give you support, um, within the STEM program that you’re looking at.

But then something that I would also look at is, you know, what are the program perks that you see from, from a specific school? And so if you look at a lot of different schools across different colleges, A lot of them will have a lot of similarities and you know, say a few elective courses that are available or more general research areas or more general clubs But I would try to see what kind of things does your school offer you that makes that STEM major unique.

And so some things I sometimes look for are, you know, maybe there’s going to be a seminar series for students within that major, or maybe there’s an event that invites back alumni from that major to help students with career growth or mentorship. And so you can, um, I guess one, try to look at different STEM majors, but then also see what kind of support is available.

It’s available if you were to major in that area at a specific college.

Alright, so, um, from the poll I saw, you guys are, you know, a mix of 10th grade through 12th grade as high school students. And so what kind of things can you do right now? Um, I would say some big areas when it comes to, you know, just developing yourself as a high school student. your high school career is really gearing your coursework towards, you know, showing your some interest and being able to explore different STEM areas.

But then also really showing that you have an interest in different STEM topics when it comes to your extracurriculars, I would say your extracurricular involvement is going to be as important as your coursework. When it comes to showing that you’re really interested in something, and so this could mean maybe spending your summers doing research in a certain area and showing that you are also interested in a topic outside the classroom.

It could mean joining any kinds of simulated clubs in your high school, or even starting a club. If that is something that doesn’t exist yet, that could also mean doing some kind of volunteering, whether it’s. It’s, you know, tutoring students in a STEM subject, or mentoring students within STEM, or maybe volunteering for some kind of STEM day that your community might have available.

And then this also isn’t limited to personal projects. And so, um, especially if maybe your school doesn’t have opportunities to do research in the summer, or, you know, join a specific STEM club, or it’s hard to create one of those clubs. Um, you can also definitely look into doing a deep dive on your own.

Um, and doing a personal project, and that could be something like writing a research paper within a STEM area that you’re really interested in. It could be, you know, so many other things, say, you know, creating a video game if you’re interested in computer science, doing a science experiment if you’re interested in another STEM area, and then maybe also finding a teacher from your high school who might be able to support Uh, your personal project as well as you develop it.

Um, outside of just, you know, being a high school student, um, when it comes to also applying for colleges, um, some areas where you can really show your interest in STEM is going to be your rec uh, letters of rec that come from your, uh, teachers and also, um, from your essays. And so, for your recommendation letters, you’ll typically have 1 letter from a stem professor and 1 letter from a humanities professor to show that you can be, you know, a really well rounded student.

And so I would choose your recommendation letter from your stem professor or some teacher in high school really carefully and try to find a teacher who really vouch for your interest in stem the involvement that you’ve had and also the commitment and passion that you have for stem. Outside of that, when it comes to your essays, so there’s so many different topics you could end up talking about.

I’ve seen a lot of approaches when it comes to students who are putting together their essays. Sometimes their main personal statement is completely about STEM and just how much they love it. Sometimes it’s about something completely different, because I know even if you are a STEM major, you may also have a ton of other passions that are in the humanities, within the arts, and you know, completely unrelated to STEM.

Within your essays, when talking about STEM related topics. Um, there are a bunch of different approaches when it comes to, you know, explaining scientific topics really clearly, showing that, you know, you have a good understanding of the topic, you can explain it to others. And then I think most importantly, in your essays that focus on STEM topics, talking about the impact that that activity has had on you and why you want to do STEM.

So, say if you do a summer research experience, maybe you’ll end up writing a supplementary essay about your research experience. So, for that, you’ll want to explain what you did, the lab, etc. But I think most importantly, reflect on maybe how that’s impacted what kind of major you want to pursue and maybe what kind of impact you might want to do in the future as well.

If that’s something that has also impacted you.

Um, going into some of my, um, final bits of advice, so I would say right now if you’re interested in doing a STEM degree, um, I feel like one of the biggest things that you can do is explore everything, and I think from there figure out what you actually don’t want to do. Um, I know when doing research early on, you know, I first tried out research when I was, um, towards the end of my, uh, high school.

experience, and I realized, okay, this is something that I really like. But then as I did more and more research there at college, I started learning what kinds of research I don’t actually like doing. And so you start to get a feel of, you know, narrowing down what kind of interests you have. And that can also help you with maybe, you know, Figure out if you’re deciding between, you know, that first 10 different STEM majors, maybe after a year you’ll explore a few and you’ll maybe narrow it down to eight, and then maybe five, and maybe three, um, and then by the time it comes to apply, you have one or two that you’re really interested in applying to, um, when it comes to your college application.

I think along with that, um, I know it’s, you know, a really long path when it comes to going from being a high school student now to doing college and then figuring out what route you want to take after college. I think if possible, if you know anyone who is working the jobs that you’re interested in, um, if you have, you know, a dream job in mind or different jobs that you just want to explore more, um, try to see what they actually do every day, um, and then see if that’s also a life that you want to end up, um, Doing as well.

And so I know for a lot of students who are pre med, um, something that’s very common is shadowing different doctors and just seeing, you know, within different areas of medicine, is this a job that they’re really interested in doing? Is this a lifestyle that they’d be interested in? Um, just to really solidify, um, whether or not they want to do medicine.

And then, um, I would also say, you know, try to spend your time outside of the classroom also showing, um, that you are interested in STEM. And so I would say summer is a really great time where you’re able to commit a lot of time. Um, to, you know, multiple different projects or even as one specific project and so I would definitely, um, start early and when it comes to looking for different summer opportunities within stem, whether that’s research or doing an internship and also know that there always is the option of doing a personal project as well, whether that’s, you know, during the summer or during the school year in case you want some more of a flexible schedule.

Um, so with that, I’ll turn it back to Anna to start the Q and a awesome. Thank you so much. Well, we. That is the end of our formal presentation part of the webinar. We hope you found this information helpful and remember that you can download the slides that you saw from the link in the handouts tab on the side of your screen.

We’re now going to move on to the live Q&A as Lily said. I’ve been reading through the questions you submitted both ahead of tonight when we registered and tonight. Please keep those coming. You can submit them in the Q&A tab. As we get to each one, I will paste them into the public chat so that you can see them, and I’ll read them out loud, and then turn it over to Lily for her answer.

As a heads up, if your Q&A tab isn’t working, if it’s not letting you submit questions, just double check that you joined the webinar through the custom link in your email, and not from the webinar landing page. So with that said, let’s dive right in, Lily. Lily? Someone was asking, what are the typical requirements for an engineering degree?

Yeah, so when it comes to the degree requirements itself, I can speak to just like What the requirements were for WashU. Um, I remember for us like we have to take a lot of the general sciences and so a lot of this overlaps with arts and sciences. So I think like intro bio, intro chem, intro physics, like different kinds of math going up to DiffEQ.

And then for the engineering courses, so for us like, Every single engineering major has an intro to whatever the major name is. So for me, this was intro to biomedical engineering. Along with this, there are also, I think a lot more schools are implementing, you know, having some kind of computer science introductory course, and then sometimes additional electives within CS, just because it’s really hard to do engineering without also doing some kind of programming.

Um, after that, so, um, for BME, um, we had our own set of, uh, course requirements for every year. And so I think our first year was mostly focusing on a lot of these, um, intro courses. Um, our second year, we had a bunch of courses more within like thermodynamics or, um, within biomechanics and also quantitative physiology as one of our main core classes.

And then, um, Towards the end, we also have like a senior capstone and then sprinkle throughout. There’s a lot of options to take different elective courses. I think for us, we had to take a few electives that are within the major and then also electives in some other kind of major as well. And so something that can be helpful is.

Looking for a major’s course requirements because a lot of these are posted online for current students to look at you can go and see like what is the general road map for all of the required classes for any major at a given school and then a lot of the times there are a lot of blanks for the different electives that students can take because a lot of students will end up being able to like customize their schedule based on what kind of upper level courses they’re really interested in and so feel free to use WashU as an example if you’re interested in any of the engineering majors there or if you end up You know, a college’s name plus an engineering major, um, you can usually find the requirements online as well.

Great advice, thank you. You mentioned earlier that you knew, you knew before college that you wanted to pursue STEM. Someone’s asking, how early did you know, um, and this person in particular likes both STEM and Humanities. So they’re wondering how, I think they want to know, how did you decide to help them figure out how they can decide?

Yeah, I think for me it was like in the middle of like middle school where I started getting more involved in like extracurriculars. We didn’t have a ton of, I don’t think we had like extracurriculars in elementary school, but then middle school is like the first time we had like STEM. School clubs, and I remember I joined my school’s math team and I just, I absolutely loved it.

And so I think at that point, I probably would have majored in math instead of something within engineering. And then it wasn’t until high school where I started exploring more areas and really nearing down what kind of stem majors I was more interested in. And when it comes to making that decision between, um, the humanities and STEM, I think some things you can consider are, you know, what kind of, like, what is your dream job in the end?

And is it something that could possibly combine both? Um, I feel like some successful combos I’ve heard before are, say, if you’re really interested in, you know, creative writing and also computer science, maybe a video game design is something that would be perfect for you. And so I feel like don’t, you know, don’t hesitate to feel creative when it comes to combining what you’re passionate in and seeing if there is a good combination here as well.

Um, I think another example I’ve heard of is someone who is really interested in origami and also really interested in physics, and they ended up going into more like aerospace engineering, where they can combine a lot of elements of design, um, with just, you know, building things within engineering. Um, and so, I would say, see if there is some kind of overlap with what you’re interested in when it comes to finding your dream job.

And then from there, maybe see which major, Um, whether it’s Humanities or STEM would be the easiest to take you to that final endpoint. Um, I would say if your interests are really, really separate and you don’t think they can be combined, um, some things you can also consider is which one do you have the stronger application for right now?

And so maybe if, you know, you really like both, but your entire application is really, really strong when it comes to the Humanities, um, there might be a good route to apply to the Humanities and then also make that decision once you’re in college if your school has flexibility in switching majors. Um, I feel like a lot of schools, I would always read the fine print and see, you know, how easy it is to change majors or maybe add a double major and a minor in a different area.

Um, I feel like most schools are pretty flexible in letting you change your major, but for some programs, um, that are especially really selective, you might need to see if there’s like a separate application process for switching majors. Um, and so I would always read about that first. And if you do have the flexibility, um, know that you can always explore a little bit more in your, um, first few years of college and then make that decision for which major to choose.

Absolutely. And I, I really like to stress this with my students. It’s okay if all of your interests don’t make sense together right now. A full grown adult, I’m still figuring out how all of my interests sit together, and my life, and my job. That’s what this whole process is for. That’s really what college is for.

Um, so I know the question was about picking your major, and you do have to do that at a certain point. Um, But as best you can, hold on to your passions, hold on to your hobbies. You never know how they’re going to come together in a really unique way. Okay, next question. Do you have advice on, like, is there a specific major or set of majors that are best for students to choose if they are interested in becoming a doctor?

Yeah, so what’s actually interesting about, um, I guess like pre med studies, you can actually like do any major you want and still do pre meds. You could be like, You know, I’m used to performance major and still do pre med, but you have to do all of your stem requirements. And so for pre med, you have a certain list of science and math topics that you have to complete.

And so a lot of reason why a lot of students are stem majors is because there is a lot of overlap with getting those requirements done and then also graduating on time. Um, I would say when it comes to different majors, there is no specific major that you have to do. Um, but I know within pre med studies, um, what happens is your stats end up being really important.

And so, your science GPA and your cumulative GPA end up being really important when it comes to becoming a competitive applicant for med schools down the line. And so some things that can help are, you know, figuring out what, um, major you’re really interested in and also what major you’re really good at.

Um, and so sometimes those two will also align because when you’re really interested in it, it’s not something you might also spend more of your time studying that topic and really, um, becoming an expert in it. And so I would really go with whatever major you are most interested in. Um, I know back when I was in college, people always ask, you know, does it help to have an engineering degree when it comes to pursuing pre med?

The answer is no. Um, your, your GPA ends up getting weighted the same if you’re a biology degree or biomedical engineering. Um, and so I would really choose the major that speaks to you the most, that excites you the most, but also the one that you think you can succeed in. Um, when it comes to your coursework, where you have a good balance of having a good challenge from your courses, but still being able to succeed in them for pre med studies.

And so summary here, any major is okay, but I would recommend choosing the one that you think you’ll succeed the most at. Noticing a theme of the importance of following your genuine interests and passions. Um, on the med school topic, someone’s asking, they’ve heard that maybe it’s possible To cut down on your undergrad, to do it in maybe two or three years.

Do you know anything about that? How, how should students look into that? What should they be doing in high school to prepare for that? Yeah, so I would say there are two, maybe like two different routes, um, to do this. Sometimes, like, you can end up joining a BSMD program that already has an accelerated route.

Um, where you’re like undergrad time ends up being shorter and then sometimes your med school time is also shorter and then you can end up finishing both degrees either in seven years or six years. Um, but I would say most programs are still geared towards like a standard four plus four for undergrad schooling and also med schooling.

Um, outside of that route, say, if you, you know, want to apply to colleges and then apply to med school separately, so you’re not doing the BSMD together. Okay. Um, it definitely is possible to graduate earlier, but I guess the main, you know, way to do this is to take a lot more classes compared to other students.

And so most schools will have a limitation on how many credits you can take before you have to pay per additional unit. Um, and so for WashU, um, what was typical for us is like, most students would take anywhere from 15 to 18 units, so that would be 5 or 6 classes, but you can max out at 21 credits, so 7 classes if each one is around 3 credits.

And so, um, I know from like, WashU, you can definitely graduate in three years if you want to, but you pretty much have to take the max 21 credits every single semester in order to make that deadline. And so that means, you know, taking all of your pre med requirements on top of your major requirements and really like maximizing how you’re going to take all of your elective courses when it comes to actually like fitting classes into your schedule itself.

Um, this is something that you can definitely discuss with your major advisor as well once you get to college. Um, and I think if you are really, really dead set on, you know, graduating early, maybe to save money on tuition, or maybe you just are really excited to start the next step, I would talk to your major advisor and see if there’s a good plan for you when it comes to crafting your schedule.

But do know that, you know, one, it’s going to be really challenging to take just so many more classes. So, um, this is something that might not be the best option if you think it’s going to You know, maybe cause your grades to be lower because you have such a high workload and then to, um, also keep in mind that college isn’t just about the academics.

It’s also about, you know, having a good college experience and, you know, the friends that you make, the different communities that you build. And so, for me in college, I also had the decision of, do I want to graduate in 3 years with just the BME degree, or do you want to stay on for a 4th year and also add this computational biology degree?

And in the end, I decided I wanted to, um, end up doing 4 years cause I realized, you know, you only get to do college once. You can, you can always do, you know, post, um, you know, post undergrad programs like a master’s or a PhD or other kinds of degrees. But I think I realized that, you know, I really wanted to experience the full college experience.

And even if it meant, you know, staying an extra year, I could still explore a lot of cool topics. And I ended up realizing that I didn’t feel super pressured to accelerate that timeline after realizing what I wanted to do in the future. Well, that makes sense. College really is a special time, so. I think we’re both excited for all of you here who are, you know, looking forward to that chapter soon.

Um, Lily, someone’s asking if you don’t mind revealing some of the advice you had for high school students. What should they be doing to prepare for pursuing STEM in college? Opportunities they should be seeking out to enhance their learning now. Yeah, for sure. Um, I would say for like students who are in college, but like, sorry, in high school, but not necessarily applying to like college applications in the next cycle.

I would focus on 1, making sure that you’re exploring a lot of different stem courses within your classes when it comes to creating your schedule, but then just as important also exploring stem outside of the classroom. And so something that I had mentioned is really taking advantage of your summers and trying to pursue something that stem related, whether that’s looking for research opportunities or internship opportunities.

Or even something like doing job shadowing for a few weekends. Um, and then also, I would say there are a lot of other extracurriculars that you can be a part of. So try to join the different stem clubs. They’re at your school. Try to join a club. Um, if that’s not possible, try to volunteer and maybe mentor students within a stem setting.

Um, and then also, you can always work on passion projects or personal projects and kind of create your own extracurricular if there is one that isn’t available to you. And so I would say a lot of this is showing your interest in STEM within the classroom, also outside of the classroom, and the more that you can do to show that you’re really interested in this topic and you want to take the initiative to explore it more, um, that’s going to be something that’s going to, you know, help you feel happy, because it’s going to be a cool topic that you can delve more into, but then also it’ll, it’ll strengthen your application when it shows that you have a specific interest in something.

Shifting a little bit to your application, Do you remember, did you write your personal statement about something STEM related? And I’m going to add on to this question. If you didn’t, did you write about anything STEM related in any of the other supplemental essays? Yeah. Um, so going back to my like main, like common app essay, I wrote about volunteering in the library.

Um, for me, I was like, I know I have a lot of STEM extracurriculars, but I think I also wanted to show colleges that I’m more than like just someone who just does, you know, STEM activities. And I also wanted to Um, all of the other activities that I was a part of, um, for me, I ended up talking about STEM in a lot of my supplemental essays when it came to, you know, talking about working in a team or like talking about, um, collaboration or talking about, uh, like a topic that I’m really passionate about.

And so I knew that I would have plenty of space to talk about some of those areas. And so, um, what I ended up doing before writing my college essays. Um, so the common of essay and my supplemental essays is I, I made like a mind’s map of like everything that, you know. I’m really interested in right now, um, as a high school student, and then I ended up just like trying to divvy up like, okay, here’s where I think I can talk about these different topics without having overlap within my essays.

And then I ended up realizing that I thought I would have a more cohesive application if my comment about it was actually not about STEM, just because I didn’t want to end up being, becoming really repetitive when it came to overlapping topics in my personal statement. And then also within all of my supplemental essays.

That makes sense. And that’s. That can be a tricky balance to find, um, which is what we love helping students do. Um, Lily, you, I imagine by now, have a lot of friends in STEM, not all of whom are still in school, um, or in a Ph. D. program, so what common career paths have you seen your friends in STEM follow?

Thank you. Yeah, this is actually a really good question, because, um, I remember my first, like, week of the BME major. They were like, these are the breakdowns for where students go from these majors, and it ended up being a third academia, so a lot of students either went to a master’s program, to med school, or to a PhD program.

A third went into industry, um, and then I think a third, I third ended up doing, I think it was like also that like more like non profit, NGO, government, org space. Um, and so we ended up being pretty divided in terms of like what different options people had. Um, when it comes to, I guess like my more personal friend group, WashU is a very pre med heavy school, so I think now like most of my friends are either, um, towards the end of um, finishing med school.

Or, um, some of them who decided to take some more gap years and do some exploring, um, they’re maybe towards, like, the beginnings of med school or also just a lot of them just have jobs, which is awesome. Um, and so they, they’re in the workforce and, you know, figuring out how to move up, um, within industry.

Um, but I would say for most people that I know, the most common career paths, uh, were either staying in academia and pursuing, uh, more education or, uh, getting a job straight out of college and then moving on. Um, moving up in that, in that pipeline. That makes sense. Thank you. Lily, I’m going to give you a break for just a couple minutes here.

Um, so I can talk a bit more about CollegeAdvisor. For those in the room who are not already working with us, we know how overwhelming the admissions process can be. CollegeAdvisor’s team of over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts is ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process.

In one on one on one advising sessions, we have already helped over 6, 000 clients in their college journeys. And this is very exciting to me. We recently analyzed some of our data and from 2021 to 2023 data, we found that our students are 3. 6 times more likely to get into Stanford, 4. 1 times more likely to get into Vanderbilt and 2.

7 times more likely to get into Harvard. So, increase your odds and take the next step in your college admissions journey by signing up for a free 45 to 60 minute strategy session with an admissions specialist on our team. You can do that by scanning the QR code on your screen, and remember that you can download these slides at any time, um, and scan this code whenever, so you don’t have to scan it right now, but definitely suggest that you do sign up for a free session during that initial free meeting We’ll give you a preliminary assessment of your academic profile, along with some initial recommendations.

At the end, you’ll also learn more about the premium packages we offer that pair you with an expert who can support you in building your college list, editing your essays. navigating the whole process. With that said, we’re going to move back to some more questions until the end of our time. But that QR code is going to remain on the screen for the rest of the evening.

Lily, shifting gears a little bit. Can you talk about being a woman in STEM, a field that is thought of as male dominated, the numbers, it’s male dominated. So what has that experience Yeah, I would say this is a really great and really important question. Um, I would say within my like, some experiences, I felt pretty lucky that the biomedical engineering major and also like, where I am now in the biosciences, we have a really good gender balance where it was almost close to 5050 and actually right now in the biosciences, we actually have a lot more women than men as well.

Um, but I would say you definitely do see that gender, like. Divide when it comes to different, like, engineering majors, especially. And so I remember, like, in computer science classes, it’s really nice. Now that, you know, pretty much all engineering majors require everyone to take into your computer science.

And so the gender ratio is. Like, it’s really good in all of those classes because everyone is taking these courses, but definitely as you proceed to different upper level classes, you see the number of women and women identifying students really decrease. And so that can definitely get really difficult.

I would say things that you can definitely do are look for, you know, people who, like, just look for your people when it comes to your classes. I feel like. It ends up being pretty easy when you get to upper level classes, just realizing like, oh, like, there’s only maybe a few, you know, female students in the room, you guys can get together and do, you know, your problem sets together.

You can study together and make sure that you aren’t aren’t feeling like you’re being left behind when it comes to, you know, those course works, especially for any courses that have like group projects. I would also say look for different women in STEM who can end up being mentors for you. And so I feel like something that’s been really helpful is either looking for other female professors, looking for female PIs who are able to also give guidance when it comes to looking for female role models.

And then also, On the flip side of things, by the time you finish college, you’ll also have a lot of experience to become a mentor yourself. And so I think also mentoring younger students and really showing them that they’re, you know, you can, you can survive in STEM. You can succeed in STEM as a woman. Um, I think that’s real, also really important to really pay it forward and also mentor students as a STEM, um, I guess as someone in STEM who is also a woman.

Um, so I would say a lot of this is like really building that community, especially if that community is really small to start out with, and then becoming really close with the people in the stem community. I think along with that, being in a male dominated field, if you ever feel worried, try to hold your ground and try to find role models that you can talk to when you do have situations where you feel like you feel really underrepresented in your field.

And then also you’ll end up making a lot of friends with, you know, the guys who are in your classes, and you’ll always end up working group projects together. I mean, also just. You know, try to communicate to them. If you feel like there’s something that that is bothering that you want to talk about. I love that advice.

I love the advice to find mentors. Um, I think that’s that’s super helpful. My computer’s saying my network is in and out. Can you hear me, Loey? Yeah, I can still hear and see you. Okay, perfect. Um, the next question is about MD PhD programs. Um, so one, do you think they’re worth it? Why might students, you know, choose that over a traditional MD route?

And then the third part of the question, if you have thoughts on this, is how would the process change if they want to become MDs? Yeah, okay. I would say this is a lot of different questions. I would say if you’re working with someone in CollegeAdvisor, this is also a great question to ask your advisor and also.

And we have a more like, stem specialty team that can focus more on, like, the route. I think for general context. So the is going to be when you’re doing your MD and your together. So you apply for both programs at the, like, there’s going to be a joint program that you can apply to, and you’ll typically do 2 years of MD.

Then you’ll do four to five years of your PhD. Then you’ll finish the last two years of MD. Um, I’d say the advantages here are if you know you want to do both degrees. And that would be if, you know, for the MD side, you know that you want to treat patients. Um, and that, you know, that’s something that you want to do, like, And have, you know, that hands on in like in person interaction with your patients.

Then for the PhD part is if you want to do research, um, that being said, say, if you want to go the research route, you can do that with an MD degree only. You can do that with a PhD degree only. Um, but I think on the flip side of things, um, if you want to treat patients, you have to have the MD degree. Um, when it comes to the actual, like, I guess, career afterwards with doing an MD PhD, a lot of the times your day to day will end up being this 80, 20 split, right?

We’re doing 80 percent of your time is going to be doing research in the lab, and 20 percent is going to be seeing patients and being in the clinic. And so, going back to the initial question, you know, what is the advantage here? If you end up doing the program together, you do get your tuition waived for most programs that are MSTP programs.

And so you don’t have to pay your MD tuition. Um, and you instead get a stipend throughout the program, but there are also MD PhD programs without the MSTP part where you still have to pay your med tuition, but you get a stipend for the PhD portion advantages can be timing. And so, because you’re already a med student starting, you can start doing research and you can accelerate your PhD by a little bit, and then just do everything within 1 institution.

Um, I think the disadvantages here are the MD PhD programs are really, really competitive in comparison. And then, so, it ends up being a balance of, you know, if you do, say, if you did an MD and then a PhD, you end up paying full MD tuition. Um, but it might be less competitive to apply to. Um, and so I would say these are definitely questions you can also try to answer when you’re in college and talk to your premed advisor at your college and see which route is going to be the best for you.

And then also, I would maybe look at, you know. out of the two options, like treating patients versus research, which one is the one that you want to spend the higher percentage of your time doing, and that can maybe help you decide if, um, you should be applying to MD programs, PhD programs, or MD PhD programs together.

I’m going back to DO schools, so, Um, there are just like, I guess, most people aren’t applying to deal programs, but there are a few programs in the nation that are D. O. P. H. D. programs that are kind of like, analogous to the P. H. D. programs with the D. O. degree. Um, I would say the deal programs, like, you’ll end up applying to a different set of colleges when you’re applying to med school and then, um.

You basically have like slightly different requirements for, you know, maybe how competitive that application might end up being. But when it comes to practicing as a DO versus an MD, you basically have the same kinds of privileges and responsibilities as a doctor for both situations.

Thank you. I know that was a long question, so thank you for taking it one part at a time. Do you have advice for students if they don’t have, you know, universities near them or no programs to participate in research? Any advice on what they can do, how they can participate? Take advantage of their summers.

Yeah, I would say one thing I would definitely look into is passion projects and also maybe seeing if there’s a STEM teacher at your ISO who could support you with that project. I would say a really common passion project ended up seeing for STEM is like, really doing a deep dive in a research project and writing a research report or kind of like a review paper summarizing like, what is that field looking at?

Like right now, what are the different gaps? What are the different challenges? And also, what are the current innovations and research that are there to address that? And so, um, you can do something like that. Also, when it comes to, like, more computational research, there is a ton of data online that you can always work with and say, maybe if your personal project is gonna be more computational within computer science or computational biology.

You can always learn some coding skills and either decide if there’s something that you want to do with that data set, whether it’s visualizing that data set or analyzing the data set or finding something more specific. Um, and here I would definitely recommend talking to a teacher, um, to get some more direction and guidance on that, because, you know, that’s a much larger task as well when it comes to learning skills, identifying a project, and then figuring out how to solve it.

Um, I would say along with that, I would also apply to different programs. Where, um, they offer you, um, like, either housing or, like, travel to go somewhere to do your research, because, you know, not everyone has, like, a university right next door to them. And so, I would look for different, um, programs. I know RSI is, like, one, a program research summer institute.

Where I think they will compensate you to do work at MIT, um, for a summer, but it is extremely competitive to get into, um, but along similar lines, I would look for other maybe like out of state research programs. If you’re able to leave state for the summer, um, and see if those are things that you can also apply to.

And then, if not, you can always work on personal projects throughout the summer or throughout the whole school year. And then I would also say, um, something that can be helpful is also taking courses at like a community college throughout the summer. If you feel like you have already gotten a lot of support from your high school classes, but you want more of a challenge in a more specific elective area or something that is going to be more rigorous.

Um, and so that’s also a good option because I think most places will have a community college in the area. Absolutely. I think that’s fantastic advice. And I would add, um, COVID changed the way the world works. Um, so, you know, we, I think, for a long time had advised students to send cold call emails, um, to professors at universities nearby.

I think now it’s fair to expand that out broader. And if it’s somewhere where you couldn’t live or visit in person, I think it’s fair to say in the email, like, are there virtual opportunities? to learn from your research, contribute, et cetera. Let me be clear, response rate to cold call emails, typically not that high, um, but it only takes one, and I think it’s worth it if you’re really, really passionate about, about getting that experience.

Um, we are getting some questions, Lily, about AP classes, particularly STEM AP classes. Um, I’m going to try and generalize them for the sake of time, but like, what’s your personal experience with them? And what if students like my high school didn’t have AP classes? Um, what’s, what’s your advice if folks don’t have access to them in their schools?

Yeah, I guess quick rundown. So my school is really fortunate. We had a lot of AP courses available and then I think we started adding a few for like any of the courses that we didn’t have as like we had new teachers who are able to teach that curriculum. I ended up taking. I think a lot of the core science classes where I took.

I think bio chem physics. And then like calculus, and then I think some that I didn’t take, I didn’t take stats, didn’t take psychology. Um, I think it was just like, it wasn’t possible to take every single class and like, still have enough time in my schedule. Um, I would say when it comes to your coursework, so whether or not you have AP classes, try to choose a course that shows academic rigor.

Because I know, um, if you don’t have those classes available, that’s totally okay. Colleges will be able to, like, conceptualize your coursework, like, within what’s available at your college. Um, and so they’ll know, like, if you don’t have those courses, like, they’ll know that’s why you’re not taking them. So I wouldn’t be too concerned there.

Um, I think something that you can do if you don’t have AP colleges, uh, AP classes available are either taking, um, some kind of dual enrollment class, um, through a, through a community college or a local college, if you have that available, um, and sometimes you’ll be able to set that up with your high school if there’s been a student who’s done that in the past, um, and that’s how you can take courses similar to, like, AP Calculus or BC Calculus or some of your, like, AP, like, Biochem physics courses.

Um, along with that, what you can also do is self study for some of the AP exams. Um, if you’re able to take a sitting of that, like, exam towards the end of the year. Um, for that, I think you do have to pay for the test still. So. Um, I would talk to, you know, family or like school administration to see if they can help you with the financial aspect there and then also see if there’s any teachers who could maybe provide you support with studying for those tests.

Um, I know you can usually get like, like, test prep books from your library for any of the various AP courses. Um, and there’s a bunch of different test prep companies that will also be geared towards, like, taking that test. And so sometimes you can align, like, what you’re taking in a more generalized way.

STEM course to what’s going to be on AP curriculum, but you might need to do a lot of self studying on the side to really make sure that you’re hitting all the topics that are going to be on the AP exam. Absolutely. Um, because we have some juniors in the room and that’s an important time to start considering who’s going to write your letters of recommendation.

Um, do you think that those should come from STEM teachers, if students that are applying for a STEM major? I would definitely recommend getting, um, at least a, I usually recommend one STEM, one humanities. But I know sometimes, like say, you just don’t know if you’re a humanities teacher. Sometimes you can get away with two STEM letters, but I would most recommend one from each.

And then from your STEM recommendation letter, what can be helpful is maybe a teacher who’s seen your STEM letter. What you do in the classroom, but also anything outside the classroom. And so say if there’s a teacher who helps run one of the STEM clubs that you’re in, um, or maybe has just like, knows a lot about your involvement in STEM outside the classroom.

So maybe they’ve, you’ve talked to them about your smart research that you’ve done or you’ve talked to them about different STEM clubs that you’re in, or you’ve talked to ’em about a personal project or passion project that you’ve been working on. Um, they would be a really great person to write, um, your letter for you.

Sorry. Um,

folks are curious. You’ve been in school a long time now. What are your plans? Like what, what do you want to do when you complete your PhD? Yeah, so this took me a long time to figure out. It took me basically up until, you know, halfway through the PhD. Um, I’m going to be looking for jobs within industry afterwards.

And so I, I realized I got really, really interested in like human disease therapeutic development. So in a sense, I want to work for some kind of company that is working on, you know, either drugs or vaccines to different human diseases, and I really want to be a part of that research pipeline. Um, and so that’s my goal for afterwards.

I’m hoping that, you know, No, I can get a job and then afterwards just work on trying to cure one kind of human disease, any kind of disease. Um, that’s what I’m really excited about. Well, I love that. I think we have time for maybe a couple more short ones. Yeah, I’ll try. Can students end up with a STEM career if they have not majored in a STEM major in college?

Yeah, I would say in rare cases, yes. And those like rare cases would be if you have a lot of experience in STEM, um, that isn’t necessarily like what you majored in. Um, I would say any route is possible, try to gain experience, but I know that is kind of hard if like you kind of need the major to get the first experience to get more experiences.

Um, so I would say like, say you majored in something completely different. It’s never going to be too late to pivot. Um, I would say, see if you can use your network, see any connections that you have to try to get that initial STEM opportunity and use it as a springboard for getting more STEM experiences to really build your career path within STEM.

Awesome. Thank you. Um, this will be our last question. Is there something that surprised you about being a STEM major in college? And then what is something you wish you had known going into college? Yeah, I think maybe like two things that are kind of like, they don’t know, they’re a little bit conflicting.

Like, I think one, like, the STEM majors can be really hard. Um, and so I really, I think like back in high school, I was like, I’m going to do STEM because I think I’m good at it. Like, I really like it, but I think like, you know, getting to college, like you’re definitely going to get challenged. I think when you feel challenged, you know that you’re also in the right place, but you’re going to have problems.

That’s where you really just can’t figure out the answer and like throughout all the ways that you tried it. Sometimes, sometimes these answers, they just, you just can’t get to them by the end of, you know, when, when your assignment is due. And that happens sometimes. Um, I would say. College courses, they end up being really challenging, but I would say the second part of the question is something that I didn’t realize was it’s also going to be super fun.

Like, the amount of, like, rigor and, like, the things that you get to explore is going to be so much beyond what you would have, like, imagined. Like, I remember when I was in high school applying to biomedical engineering programs. I was writing, like, I want to one day learn how to make biological simulations.

And at that point, I had no clue, like, how to code them, like, what that even looked like. And by the time I finished BME, like, we had a bunch of labs where we did exactly that. And I was like, it’s so cool knowing that, like, something that I really showed up to do in high school that I had no experience, um, in was something that I was able to learn by the end of college.

And so, I feel like challenge plus fun, those are things where, you know, it’s going to be really hard to get through your STEM courses. You’re gonna have some really, really difficult PSETs, but it’s gonna be so cool, like, how much you get to learn, all the people that you get to meet, you’re gonna have this, like, community as you’re doing all of these problem sets, um, and really exploring STEM.

And I feel like there are just so many cool classes and so many different kinds of, like, problems you can learn about, um, within the STEM major as well. Yes. Again, college is a cool and special time. Thank you, Lily, for your wealth of knowledge and wisdom. Thank you for being here tonight. Thank you to everyone who came out to ask questions, to come in.

We appreciate you being here. This is the end of our webinar. We had a great time talking about exploring STEM programs and choosing the right major before you go. Um, please know that these webinars happen on an ongoing basis, so we have two more coming up this month and more to come next month. Um, so next week you can come back if you want to learn about Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.

or and or building a strong extracurricular resume for college admissions. Thank you all for coming and have a wonderful night. Thanks so much, Anna. Have a nice night. Thanks, you too.