Psychology w/ Minor for Pre-Med?

[seattleredmd]

Hi everyone!

This thread might sound a bit redundant or even a bit mislead, but I am trying to work out my pre-reqs so I can officially declare myself pre-med, but my school is coming down hard on me to declare my major. So here's my situation.
I love psychology. I'm fascinated by the way the mind works, but I am also fascinated by how the body works. I've wanted to be a doctor my whole life. I don't want to be a psychologist or go into psychiatry. But I have been told that I can declare my major as Psychology with a minor in Bioethics and Humanities, since it's what I'm interested in. I thought about double majoring in Psychology and Biology, but was told that sometimes it's better to just fully commit on one major, challenge yourself, and work to get the best grades I can (all while ensuring that I hit all normal pre-reqs).

I'm wanting to get some feedback on whether not this is an acceptable route to go. Do my chances of doing well on the MCAT significantly decrease? Would my knowledge of psychology give me an added boost when dealing with patients as a doctor? Any insight you can give me on getting into med school as a psych major would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!

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[DrMikeP]

Declare whatever major as it really really really doesn't matter as long as you can take the required premed courses and make the c/s and or bcpm gpa!! So study whatever you think you'll enjoy the most.

You'll do fine via any route on the mcat if you study hard and take the req classes, and be sure and take biochemistry, as it weighs heavily into the new mcat. A degree in psychology will help with that portion of the test, but also add a general course in sociology. A bachelors in psychology really doesn't help that much with patient interaction unless you take some courses in counseling if the school offers such. Much of what is taught at a bachelors level is quite generic and sometimes just plain misguided.

As far as psychology and psychiatry get a job in a public hospital as a psych tech and see what it is really like! See some of my other posts for more details.

Best of luck!

 

[esob]

Just double major in Bio and Psych like I did My personal experience as a previous liberal arts major is that psych is a nice balance of "hard science" coupled with the critical reasoning skills you typically garner from a liberal arts major. My psych classes (including a paranormal psych class) were a big part of the skill sett that allowed me to breeze through the logic reasoning portions of the LSAT, so I would imagine, at least for CARS, they psych classes will be beneficial.