First - check out the IB Fall 2007 Workshop Series. In a series of Tuesday workshops, the Advising staff will help students prepare for grad school, learn about health related careers (not limited to med school), or about environmental law, teach for America, and much more. Check the schedule now before you miss out.
Where Are We Now starts off a series on what IB Honors students are doing in their Independent Study time. We begin with Trisha Hadley's summer with the Islets of Pancreas.
And because I can never seem to leave the weird songs alone, "Don't Forget the Songs" continues with a short clip from the New Wizard Oil Combination advertising their CD, including Flanders and Swann's Hippotamus Song (a.k.a. Mud, Mud Glorious Mud). Don't ask or I will sing you the whole thing.
If you want to get into a good med school or a top graduate program, the fact is, you can major in anything - your courses, your grades and your major are not the same thing. You could major in MCB (Molecular and Cellular Biology), or you could major in English, and still get into Harvard, or St. Georges.
Of course, you could also major in IB (Integrative Biology). Why not learn about biology in its broadest senses? Getting to med or grad school is half the fun. Pre-med goes well with pre-mud.
Look at it this way. Someday, you may be a doctor working in an HMO. It's a factory job, but with really high malpractice insurance rates. Or perhaps you'll be an assistant professor busting your neck to do research, teach, write papers and write grant proposals for an ever dwindling pool of grant funds. What do you do to keep sane?
Oh, and one more thing ... while your major itself won't get you anywhere your performance, at least good performance, will. It's where embracing your passion comes in. OK, so this means time and studying, maybe 30 or 40 hours a week outside class. That's the price, but what else are you going to do, watch "Jeopardy"? If there is no passion, and you blow off your courses, your competition wins. If you don't read that chapter, or you pass with a B by cramming the night before, maybe start thinking "Caribbean". Oh yeah... better also save all your excess bucks to give the Kaplan people and pray for a miracle.
Otherwise, rest assured that there are always jobs in retail or in cubicles that you can get even with a degree in biology (MCB is better for this). School districts are always looking for substitute janitors. Avoid construction and sales, though; they take real work. Maybe your real passion is "Jeopardy".