Any Psyc Majors get into medical school?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

Medicinewoman85

Thats what she says
10+ Year Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2011
Messages
158
Reaction score
1
I know they say major in whatever you enjoy so I am switching my major to psychology. I'm wondeing if any medical students have been accepted with a psyc. degree. Or if you have do you know anyone who has. How did you do in your science classes (Bio, Org Chem, Physics)? How well did you do on the MCAT? Did you feel that a psychology major was a good fit for medical school? Thanks in advance:love:

Members don't see this ad.
 
Your major is irrelevant for fitting into medical school. Do you do well on standardized tests? That might be a slightly more relevant question.
 
I was a psych major. In the core science classes I got mostly As with some Bs (final science GPA something like 3.65). MCAT score 35S.

The psychology degree was awesome! I learned a lot of interesting stuff and was able to truly enjoy the college experience (which included taking lots of classes from the sciences, other social sciences, literature, philosophy, etc). I struggled at the start of first year competing with others who had taken or even TA'ed anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, etc. but with hard work by the second year I felt on closer to even footing with my classmates.

I am going into psychiatry and I find myself pulling up info from my undergraduate studies, not to mention being able to talk about the research I did in psychology back in college and afterward. It seems like my undergraduate degree will be quite useful in psychiatry. The psych degree helped me out in research/stats classes and some of the 'soft' classes in medical school, as well as in behavioral health.

So the short answer is that you can get into med school with a psych major and it will help out in some places, but expect to work harder and experience more of a culture shock when you get to med school compared with your science and engineering peers.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
ijn,

I have done well on standardized tests in the past. I haven't taken any in a long time. I am non traditional student so I am a little concerned about doing well in Biology, Chem, Org Chem, etc...
 
Bartelby,

Do you think Psychology puts you at a bit of a disadvantage (when compared to other hard science majors) once you get into med school?
 
Bartelby,

Do you think Psychology puts you at a bit of a disadvantage (when compared to other hard science majors) once you get into med school?

Personally I thought it did, but mostly because of specific classes. I didn't take biochem, anatomy, physiology, pathology, or really anything else we covered in medical school (except human behavior) while many of my classmates had taken some or even all of these. There are two ways to deal with this as a psych major. You can either take some of the above as electives in college or you could just recognize that you will have to work a little harder to catch up.

You will also hear from many that having taken any of the above classes does not help at all, but that just doesn't make sense to me. If you were an anatomy TA and you already dissected a human cadaver before setting foot in medical school, you know the lingo and have a good road map (at the very least) for filling in the details med school wants you to know. If you haven't taken it you need to catch up on those things.

Again though, I felt like it just made me stress a little more especially in the first few months and put in a little more study time than I otherwise would have, nothing truly major. I am very happy with my med school performance and step scores, and I am very glad I chose psychology in college because of the great times I had completing that degree and because of the enduring value of having a relatively broad liberal arts education (that beats having a head start on learning biochem any day in my book!).
 
I'm was a psych major and Ive gotten into Med School... not in med school yet, but I've been accepted to 5 so far. So def possibly.
 
Yeah, I met a couple of psych majors who then went to Brown. You can enhance the rigor of your major by taking "bio-like" psych classes, such as behavioral neuroscience, addiction studies, neuropharmacology, etc.

Fitting in pre-reqs shouldn't be that hard. For some schools, bio is required for the psych major anyways.
 
Your major doesn't matter. My buddy over at themedstudentblog.blogspot.com got in, and he was a psych major. Heck, it probably helped his GPA a bit. I did bio, and that was definitely harder.

Good luck.
John
 
dear lord i certainly hope so, otherwise I'm screwed.
 
Bartelby,

Do you think Psychology puts you at a bit of a disadvantage (when compared to other hard science majors) once you get into med school?

No, it doesn't. You could just take all the reccommended classes and be completely fine. I majored in psych and I don't have any more trouble than my science major counterparts. I am actually doing really well in med school. Your major doesn't make a difference, the amount of effort you put it in is what makes a difference.

Do you really think that your major would ever matter? Your intelligence, motivation or innate talent is the same whether you're an art history major or whether you're a biophysics major...
 
By the way, bio majors, get over yourselves it's not that hard of a major, I was two classes away from double majoring in bio and it really wasn't that hard, I just ran out of time, and starting med school > than double majoring. Also, I usually had the highest grade in bio classes, so it's not like a just got by


:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
THANK YOU.
 
No, it doesn't. You could just take all the reccommended classes and be completely fine. I majored in psych and I don't have any more trouble than my science major counterparts. I am actually doing really well in med school. Your major doesn't make a difference, the amount of effort you put it in is what makes a difference.

Do you really think that your major would ever matter? Your intelligence, motivation or innate talent is the same whether you're an art history major or whether you're a biophysics major...
I am a community college student transferring to UCLA in fall 2015. I will be admitted as a pre-psychology major student. However, i want to take life science classes or prerequisite classes for medical school. Do you think i can get those prerequisites classes even i am not a life science major student at UCLA?
 
Someone I know was a psych major and got into a top ten. It really doesn't matter what you major in as long as your science GPA is good and your MCAT is on par.
 
Top