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Medical student Devin Behjatnia discusses his article “The case for a standard pre-med major in U.S. universities.” Devin outlines why he believes a unified pre-medical studies major would better prepare students for the rigor of medical school while also providing a valuable degree for those who choose alternative medical careers. He explains how the curriculum could balance core sciences, general education, and community-focused learning, drawing on the roots of the physician as both healer and teacher. Devin shares a detailed four-year plan, including science prerequisites, humanities, foreign language, and MCAT preparation, designed to produce well-rounded, patient-centered physicians. Listeners will learn how this proposed approach could strengthen medical education and ensure future doctors are not only skilled clinicians but also pillars of their communities.

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Transcript

Kevin Pho: Hi, and welcome to the show. Subscribe at KevinMD.com/podcast. Today we welcome Devin Behjatnia. He is a medical student. And today’s KevinMD article is “The case for a standard pre-med major in U.S. universities.” Devin, welcome to the show.

Devin Behjatnia: Thank you so much for having me.

Kevin Pho: All right, so tell us a little bit about your story and then we will jump right into your KevinMD article.

Devin Behjatnia: Yeah. So, I was originally born and raised in Los Angeles. I went to Moorpark Community College and then transferred to University of California Santa Barbara. And then I went ahead to Kentucky for medical school, and now I am back in Los Angeles.

Kevin Pho: All right, wonderful. And you write that there should be a standard pre-med major. My daughter is currently a pre-medical student, so I am very familiar with the pathway. So tell us what your article is about for those who did not get a chance to read it.

Devin Behjatnia: Yeah, so back when I was in undergrad and I was trying to choose between different majors, I thought that since I was going the pre-med path, there would be a comprehensive pre-med major. So I soon found out there was not, and the closest thing to that was biology. A lot of students do the biology path. So as time went on, I thought it would only make sense to have a comprehensive pre-med major. So what I did was I took the skeleton of a biology major and then detailed what should be there and what should not be there.

The first two years are pretty much the same as a biology major. You will have your general education courses, which I think are vitally important for a couple of reasons. Number one, I think that if someone decides to go the medicine route, it makes for a more well-rounded doctor. And then if they decide not to go the medicine route, it gives them options to explore other areas: arts, humanities, things of that nature. And then of course, the science prerequisites are very important for any entrance exam that you are taking.

And where the biology major and my major converge, or I should say diverge, is during the third year. So that is where you will have, instead of your upper division biology courses, you will actually have a course that is for an MCAT or DAT review. And one of the things that was difficult for me and a lot of my peers was studying for the MCAT alongside our normal course load. So having that within the curriculum I think is vitally important. And then of course, having an interview course to help you with those skills and a research course to beef up your CV a little bit.

And then the fourth year, at this point you would have taken your entrance exam between your third and fourth year. So during the fourth year, you would have anatomy, physiology, things to get you prepared for the first two years of medical school.

Kevin Pho: So for those who are not familiar with the pre-medical pathway, in essence, currently any major can apply to medical school, and there is not currently a dedicated pre-med major. You just have to take these prerequisite courses. But we have a variety of majors that apply to medical school. It could be any humanity. It could be music, it could be math, it could be engineering. It could be business, and of course it could be biology as well. Now before talking about your curriculum, your proposed curriculum in detail, what is the reason in the first place why there is not a pre-med major at all to begin with? Why do medical schools value a variety of majors for their students coming in?

Devin Behjatnia: Yeah, so I think that there are definitely pros and cons of both. I think having the ability to take any major and then just take the prerequisites is really interesting. And my pathway was not going down the biology pathway. I was actually a biopsychology major, so being able to go into that, or I have had classmates who are history majors or English majors. I think those things are really cool. And one of the benefits is you get more well-rounded physicians coming in, and you get them from completely different mentalities, different ways of thinking. So that is the one thing I like. The negative side of that, of course, is that standardization is not there, and that can be potentially a problem with the major that I have outlined. It allows you to go not just for medicine, but for dental, PA, really anything along the medical field. So if you end up finishing and deciding you want to go into something else, it is kind of more of a generalized degree.

Kevin Pho: It sounds almost like not a pre-med major, but a pre-health major.

Devin Behjatnia: A pre-health major. Yeah, exactly.

Kevin Pho: So what kind of gaps do you see in our current system where students can major in anything that they want? Are the medical school prerequisites not good enough, or do you still continue to see gaps in the current system?

Devin Behjatnia: Yeah, it is a great question. I still continue to see gaps, and the problem is I have noticed that a lot of these pre-med courses, while they set you up really for the MCAT, do not as much for medical school. So when you have students who are going from, let us say, an anthropology perspective and majoring in that, sadly when they come into medical school, sometimes they have a little bit more difficulty than the traditional biology or biochemistry majors.

Kevin Pho: Is that really true? Is there data to support that people who do come from humanities struggle in medical school, in contrast to those who take harder science majors?

Devin Behjatnia: No, I actually have not looked at the data for that. It has been more personal experience, at least I have noticed for me. I had classmates who had already taken these courses, and for them it was a little bit easier than for me who had never seen it and had just been introduced to it for the first time. So once you get in, my classmates who were different majors ended up figuring it out. So it worked well for them. But I thought, is there a way to make this easier for people so that when they come in, they feel a little bit more prepared? Everyone feels on the same level playing field.

Kevin Pho: Now in terms of a dedicated pre-med major, what if they changed their minds, like you said, during that pre-medical course? Because the more people find out about medical school or being a doctor, and some students say they listen to my podcast and they may not want to become a doctor after listening to my podcast. Let us say they change their mind during that path. So, what kind of recourse does a dedicated pre-med major have?

Devin Behjatnia: Yeah, so that is the thing that I noticed about a lot of other majors is that when you are stuck in that streamlined, let us say, biology major, you are forced to take of course the lower division courses and the upper division. And a lot of the time, by the time that students realize they may not want to go that direction, they have already completed such a high volume of their course load. So it might be difficult. What I like about mine is that it gives people a little bit more flexibility. Even up until your fourth year, you are still looking around and seeing what other options there are, and it gives you the opportunity to maybe jump or trampoline to something that is a little bit closer. And since you have a lot of those courses already taken, it is not going to be as difficult because you are not really forced into a certain place.

Kevin Pho: Talk to me about the various electives that you would propose in your pre-med major, inclusion of the humanities and foreign languages. So tell us about the flexibility in that respect.

Devin Behjatnia: Yes, exactly. So that is the other thing is that we have to ask ourselves: Do we want physicians to be pillars of the community or just another occupation? And I think that having them as pillars of the community, having them as leaders is very beneficial. So going for foreign language will diversify, of course, your language base, which makes you connect to a lot of different types of people. Having an anthropology base allows you to really see how history has affected human beings and culture. And then any of the arts and humanities courses that are already available I think are very beneficial. That is why I love the general education requirements because they really allow you to explore all the different options that there are out there.

Kevin Pho: What kind of challenges do you foresee universities having if they do choose to implement a dedicated pre-med major?

Devin Behjatnia: I think that one of the biggest problems they are going to have is that they are going to have a lot of students who are needing to pick something in the pre-health field. And so while you can switch to a different major within that field, if you end up completing the major, your basis really was to go into something health related. So I think that is one of the problems of the standardization is that it does not allow for flexibility once the major has been completed.

Kevin Pho: And then when you propose these ideas, what kind of reaction do you get? Give us a spectrum of reaction that you got.

Devin Behjatnia: So, on the one hand, a lot of people do not want to change is something they do not want to be a part of, which I totally understand. So there is a little bit of apprehension, but I have also had people on the other side of the spectrum where they are very excited for this new major to be implemented. And they think it could be very helpful for students as well as faculty, administration, and things like that because a lot of the time when they are directing students on what direction to go, they have a little bit of trouble because sometimes the student does not know. And so it is hard for administration to guide them in the right direction. So this gives them the option to explore a lot of different avenues.

Kevin Pho: So, as far as you know, are any universities coming up or thinking about a dedicated pre-health major, like the one you are talking about?

Devin Behjatnia: As far as I know, and I have looked around a little bit, I have not seen anything. And I think that taking my model and not necessarily copying it, but adapting it is one of the best options. The other thing I have looked at is I think that the best place for it to be implemented first is in the U.S. because I know that a lot of other countries have different systems, and so I do not know how a standardized major would necessarily work for them if it would be better or worse. So, if somebody decides to take it and pick it up and mess with it a little bit, I think that is the best option. Just asking questions and having these discussions is very important.

Kevin Pho: You said one of the challenges in the current system was trying to study for the MCAT concurrently with other coursework. So tell us more about that challenge.

Devin Behjatnia: Yeah, so I remember when I was studying for it, I had pretty much finished all of my prerequisite courses, which is what you need for the MCAT. And then I had a full course load, and then on top of that I had to study for the MCAT or take a review course for that. And I remember being bogged down by a full load and then taking a whole other course on top of it. So I thought if we implement it into the curriculum, it is going to allow students to really sit down and focus on it. And by the time that their third year has come, they have already finished all the prerequisites necessary. So I think they are going to have a huge edge, a huge advantage to other students who have to take it alongside their other courses.

Kevin Pho: Now I know that current pre-medical requirements do not just include academic requirements, right? There is a research component, there is volunteering, there is shadowing, and there is clinical experience. Now, when you talk about a dedicated pre-med major, how do those other components play into a dedicated pre-med major?

Devin Behjatnia: Getting your CV up to date and having good extracurriculars and good research is a very important thing. So the place where volunteering lies is that all students should do some sort of volunteering to get exposed to medicine or the hospital system. So that area I have not implemented into the actual course load only because it is so diverse. A lot of people can do so many different things for extracurriculars. However, where I have implemented more of a core curriculum is for interviews and for research. So we know that across the board, research is really important for your applications. So, a lot of students do not have the opportunity to pursue research, so having it within the course I think is really valuable for students.

Kevin Pho: So, short of a wholesale pre-med major, are there any incremental changes that you can make to our current system? Because like you said, there are not, as far as you know, any universities that are considering a wholesale pre-med major. So how about in terms of more feasible changes, more incremental changes to our current pre-med track? What kind of ideas do you have for that?

Devin Behjatnia: Yeah, so I think one of the best things is having a few courses in whatever, if there is a major, let us say a biology major at a university that is already having a lot of students go that path for medicine. I think that having courses like anatomy and physiology and maybe a bioethics course, things of that nature, that set you up for the first couple years is really helpful because the students who end up taking those for the first time, of course in medical school, they are taking them again. Seeing all that information again for the second time just really helps you ingrain it a lot easier. So small changes to the curriculum in the pre-med space I think are going to be very beneficial for medical school.

Kevin Pho: So are you talking about making those a requirement? Adding on to the biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics. You should also do a medical ethics, maybe public policy, to some other pre-med courses.

Devin Behjatnia: Exactly. Exactly. So maybe one of the things I remember looking at when I was looking at the biology course is a zoology course, for example. And while it can be helpful if you are going the veterinary route, let us say for the human health route, it is not necessarily as vital. So I think giving students a little bit more flexibility on their upper divisions to tailor it more towards what they want to go into, whether it is PA or nurse practitioner or if they want to go into public policy, I think that is going to help students focus their studies.

Kevin Pho: And as far as you know, is there any movement for the AAMC to modify the pre-med curriculum requirements so far?

Devin Behjatnia: No, not really.

Kevin Pho: We are talking to Devin Behjatnia. He is a medical student. Today’s KevinMD article is “The case for a standard pre-med major in U.S. universities.” Devin, let us end with some take home messages that you want to leave with the KevinMD audience.

Devin Behjatnia: Yeah. I think one of the biggest quotes actually that I have had that has helped me out this past year has been, “Just because you do not like the chapter does not mean you will not like the book.” And that is one of the quotes that has really helped me. I think as human beings, we all go through difficult times, and especially as medical students, so I think it is important to remember that you might have some rough patches, but it does not mean that overall it is going to be bad for you.

Kevin Pho: Devin, thank you so much for sharing your perspective and insight. Thanks again for coming on the show.

Devin Behjatnia: Thank you.