For any psych majors...

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PantherPride

PantherPride

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How is the workload of a psych major in comparison to that of a technical major like chemistry and biology? Did majoring in psych help/hinder your MCAT? Were you able to fit in time for other aspects of college (Ex. Socializing, research, leadership)? Did you feel isolated from other pre-meds who were majoring in technical majors?

I'm probably going to end up going to a very difficult university and have interests in both psych and bio/chem, however while I know psych isn't easy, I wanted to choose a major that would not have so large of a work-load that I couldn't fit in time for other things and still make good grades.

Will majoring in psych help me accomplish this or am I basing my plan off of false notions?
 
From my experience, the workload for being a psych major was much easier compared to some of the science classes I've taken. I've had a pretty decent social life (with the exception of a few weekends), and I have been able to get involved with research as well.

Also, from what I have noticed based on some of the classes I have taken, the most interesting/social pre-meds were the ones that were non-science majors (I know of a few other psych majors, as well as an English major).

While some may say that psychology is an easy major, I feel that it is dependent upon the school you attend that the professors that teach the classes. For some schools, the classes might be difficult, and it may be hard to maintain a good GPA.

If you're unsure about your major, take some classes in the fields you are interested in, and then you can make a decision as to what you want to major in! Best of luck!
 
I was a psych major (I graduated) and I agree that the difficulty depends on the university and the type of psych you focus on (clinical/social psych vs. physiological). However, no matter how difficult the actual classes, I think psych is easier than hard science because you have very few labs. This may also depend on the university, but I only had three classes with a lab component.

I personally found plenty of time to do research and volunteer.
 
I think the workload depends entirely on labs, and the difficulty is going to be very subjective. I majored in neuro and sort of minored in psych (one class short of a double major), and while the neuro classes weren't any harder than psych, the labs were a lot more difficult. The intro natural science classes were harder than intro psych, but once you get past those, the difficulty of lecture was equivalent.

The labs didn't necessarily take much more time or require more work, but being cooped up in a lab, or counting ants at a park, was a lot more mentally draining than doing cognitive tests on a computer or administering psych batteries on old people.

Though if you prefer lab work the natural science classes may seem easier. I met a lot of bio or neuro majors who loathed the more social aspects of psych labs, but were experts on the bench.

Also, I think psych helps you better prepare for the MCAT compared to bio. In my opinion, psych on average teaches more critical thinking skills, which you need for both the verbal and bio sections and take a long time to develop, and some basic physiology/anatomy, whereas bio has more physiology/anatomy but less critical thinking.
 
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Subjective. Also, psych majors can slip by with minimal effort but the ones who will get jobs later put in FAR more work than most chem/bio students I've met. Success in Psych is beyond the classroom (internships and research labs); whereas science majors tend to include these things (esp. labs and lab technique courses) in the curriculum itself instead of expecting students to do these things on their own. Psych also requires much better critical thinking and critical writing skills than most science students seem to possess.
 
PantherPride said:
How is the workload of a psych major in comparison to that of a technical major like chemistry and biology? Did majoring in psych help/hinder your MCAT? Were you able to fit in time for other aspects of college (Ex. Socializing, research, leadership)? Did you feel isolated from other pre-meds who were majoring in technical majors?

I'm probably going to end up going to a very difficult university and have interests in both psych and bio/chem, however while I know psych isn't easy, I wanted to choose a major that would not have so large of a work-load that I couldn't fit in time for other things and still make good grades.

Will majoring in psych help me accomplish this or am I basing my plan off of false notions?
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I have some experience in this regard. I double majored in biochemistry and psychology, and without a doubt biochemistry is a heavier workload. Furthermore, the things you learn in a biochemistry for majors course are synonymous with what you learn in biochemistry as a medical student, which I imagine is helpful during those first two years (*my brother is an M1 and we cross referenced our workload). This being said, you can certainly major in psychology as a pre-med, or any other field for that matter. Just know that although every single psych class you take will try to convince you otherwise, psychology is a SOFT science! Overall, If I were to do it all over again but with only one major...It would be biochemistry

Now, in regards to the second set of bolded items above. 1) Psychology is easy, at least in comparison with biochem. 2) Either major, in fact both majors together, can be managed to allow time for a social life, work, research, volunteering, clinical experience, exercise, and all the other aspects of your life that are important. You just need to budget your time. You could major underwater basket-weaving (*always my dad's example of an easy major) and still do poorly if you have bad time management skills.

In regard to the final bolded item, it really doesn't matter what you major in as long as you enjoy it. Basically pick the major with classes you enjoy the most. Your enthusiasm for these classes will show through and you will do better/enjoy your life that much more.
 
A true science major will face far more difficult classes than a Psych major, IMO.
 
Psychology overall can be an easier subject to tackle ( Provided you like the subject and have a good grasp of English and like research).I personally tend to find my biology classes and psychology classes on par with each other in terms of difficulty. I actually find myself working more in psychology classes simply because of the heavier writing/research component as compared to biology, where I more or less spend at most 2-3 days of studying for a test and 2 hours looking at random things under a microscope or models.
But in the end it really depends on the person. I think if you like psychology you should go ahead and do psychology. I personally as a psych major have an enormous amount of elective room, it's given me plenty of time to do research, EC's, and almost achieve a biology degree ( I didn't want to take botany, calc 2, and recombinant DNA lab). So personally there are many advantages to being a psych major.

Also to the people who claim that you'll be academically disadvantaged in medical school, or that their extensive knowledge of biochemistry will be advantageous. I'm honestly going to tell you that actual M-1's on here tend to agree that their extensive knowledge proved to give them an advantage for the first 2 weeks and afterward the playing field was leveled.
 
omgyou8myrice said:
A true science major will face far more difficult classes than a Psych major, IMO.
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I find that most true science majors tend to think this prior to the statistics/research methods barrier. At my school you have psych courses which require research methods lab and psychometrics ( Psyc 200,300) and then classes which do not. The one that do, the "for major's" classes tend to be much more difficult than the ones that do not require them the " recommended for all majors" classes. I mean you're free to say that advanced social psych labs are easy ( Requires 2 independent projects and 20 page thesis along) or animal behavior which examines environmental factors and their interactions with ingrained mechanisms.
But of course, you're the true science major and psych is obviously a lesser class of studies.
 
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Thank you for the responses. Luckily I won't have to declare my major until the end of sophmore year so that should give me more than enough room to test the waters in either major routes. I plan on taking an intro sem in psych, see if its a right fit for me, and then get some of my med reqs out of the way my first quarter.
 
serenade said:
Psychology overall can be an easier subject to tackle ( Provided you like the subject and have a good grasp of English and like research).I personally tend to find my biology classes and psychology classes on par with each other in terms of difficulty. I actually find myself working more in psychology classes simply because of the heavier writing/research component as compared to biology, where I more or less spend at most 2-3 days of studying for a test and 2 hours looking at random things under a microscope or models..
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I think you hit in on the head here.

Bio and Chem courses require precious little studying or time beyond class. For myself at least, getting near-perfect grades in classes like cell, biochem, ochem, calc-based physics, and adv physio required ≤1 hr/wk of studying outside of class (or, more frequently, no studying for 5 wks and then 3-5 hrs of cramming the night before) and a couple of hrs/wk to complete labs.

OTOH, writing and research courses in sx sciences (incl. psych) could easily take 3-5 hrs/wk outside of class due to the research projects, papers, presentations, etc. (and a little studying for tests).

All-in-all, I've found "hard" science majors to far overestimate the difficulty level of their coursework in comparison to that of other majors. I'd say it's insulting to other students but the fact of the matter is that once you take a few advanced courses in bio and chem and then after you teach a few intro science classes and labs, you quickly realize just how whiny these students are and suddenly your impression of their complaining goes from "Wow! Your classes must be really tough!" to "Shut up, you whiny b*tch, and rewrite your lab legibly with good critical thinking if you want credit for it!"
 
serenade said:
Psychology overall can be an easier subject to tackle ( Provided you like the subject and have a good grasp of English and like research).I personally tend to find my biology classes and psychology classes on par with each other in terms of difficulty. I actually find myself working more in psychology classes simply because of the heavier writing/research component as compared to biology, where I more or less spend at most 2-3 days of studying for a test and 2 hours looking at random things under a microscope or models.
But in the end it really depends on the person. I think if you like psychology you should go ahead and do psychology. I personally as a psych major have an enormous amount of elective room, it's given me plenty of time to do research, EC's, and almost achieve a biology degree ( I didn't want to take botany, calc 2, and recombinant DNA lab). So personally there are many advantages to being a psych major.
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This.

One thing that should function as food for thought however... I have been involved with research at a cognitive research lab for a little over 2 years, recently interviewed at a medical school, and despite my best efforts to explain the research i've been doing, I received a confused look from my interviewers as to the positive impact of reducing cognitive fatigue in children. Also, when I mentioned psychology as a science, one of my interviewers chimed in with "Well, sort of."
 
Psychology is a very "you get out what you put in" major. Some aspects of the field learn toward soft science, while others are definitely hard science and are totally reliant on quantitative data and statistical analysis. It really depends on what classes you take: Personality and Developmental Psychology tend to conceptually easier than Cognitive Neuroscience and Physiological Psychology. To make the most of a psychology major you need to get involved in research, clinical-type work, and internships.

But it is possible to skate by and graduate with a decent 3.5+ gpa: You just won't have a whole lot of practical skills or experience.
 
I have absolutely loved my psych curriculum. The last 2 years have been sweet since I did all my med school prereqs alongside my upper level psych classes. This combination REALLY complemented themselves well.
Many will hate me for saying this but I dont believe ANY of my classes (even ochem, physics, etc) were difficult, just often time consuming. Ive seen so many students make a subject 10x more difficult just by thinking it is.

I strongly believe this degree has given me a wery vell dounded reducation.
 
Chem courses require precious little studying or time beyond class.
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loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool.

That said, I think psychology is generally an easier major, but it's university and professor dependent. For a senior level seminar I've taken, there were ~100 pages academic lit/wk to read, 2 10-15 page research proposals (numerous smaller), and a 30 minute presentation to give to the class. I've heard that at small liberal arts colleges, this can be pretty much the norm for all classes beyond intro excluding stats. That would be a tremendous amount of work.
 
loveoforganic said:
loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool.

That said, I think psychology is generally an easier major, but it's university and professor dependent. For a senior level seminar I've taken, there were ~100 pages academic lit/wk to read, 2 10-15 page research proposals (numerous smaller), and a 30 minute presentation to give to the class. I've heard that at small liberal arts colleges, this can be pretty much the norm for all classes beyond intro excluding stats. That would be a tremendous amount of work.
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You must have been trying to hard. :meanie: I'm honestly not sure which took more time -- my EMT-B class or the ochem class I took alongside it.... Oh wait, I know which one took more time -- EMT-B, by nearly an order of magnitude! (I ended up with a 97% in Ochem 1 and a 100% in EMT-B, which I took together. EMT-B took probably a good 5 hrs/wk outside of class to complete our stupid workbook due at the end of the semester, do the ******ed readings, and complete all the paperwork and extraneous licensure BS the state and school require. OTOH, Ochem 1 took about 20-30 min/wk for the homework and probably no more than 10-15 min/wk of actual studying except on test weeks, when I would study for 2-4 hrs.)
 
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How fortunate for you 😉 It's too bad you haven't taken several upper level chem class to truly compare 🙁
 
^I went the biochem route. So no, I don't have to take pchem or achem. Biochem was fun. Neither achem nor pchem really relates to what I want to do, so why would I take them? I have a strong conceptual understanding of the basics from gen chem and have helped people find their way through achem, pchem, and thermo problems as a chem/physics/bio tutor when no one else was available. (I work here and there in the school's science center.) It was an interesting adventure, but I won't be taking the classes because there's no purpose in doing so.

Regardless, I really just find the common statement made by science students that their major "is the hardest" to be preposterous and slightly annoying. I've taken quiet a few upper division bio classes a multiple universities and while some were certainly challenging, I have yet to find one that is challenging enough to merit statements like "my major is so much harder than [psych/soc/music/art/biz/etc.]."

Honestly, when I have repeatedly gotten 98-100% on exams in science major science classes where the class avg was a 50-60% (F!) and then the science students who got <60% go and tell all of their friends that BIOL XXXX or CHEM XXXX is the "toughest class ever" and "my major is SOOOO much harder than yours," I really can't find much respect for them. Sure, the exam was probably challenging, but someone got a perfect score without cheating or needing to spend hours upon hours studying. When I see this time and time again, it makes me begin to heavily suspect that a significant portion of the "difficulty" of a science major lies in the students themselves at least as much as (if not more than) in the subject matter itself. I'm not saying I think science majors are any less intelligent than other majors (I absolutely don't think this is true), but I'm not so sure the average bio/chem student is any more intelligent than the average psych/soc/history major.

My suspicion would be that the stereotype that science majors are intelligent comes from the difficulty many people experience in poorly-taught math and science courses in elementary and middle school that are never remediated in HS.
 
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How about just test format? Very often scantron (psychology) vs very rarely scantron (natural sciences).
 
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You wanna know why psych majors are considered a joke? Because our football teams' majors are either psychology, sociology, childhood development & housing economics (sounds hard...yeah no), or speech communications.

But, if you put in hard work, you do pretty well to get papers published and set yourself in the door.
 
loveoforganic said:
How about just test format? Very often scantron (psychology) vs very rarely scantron (natural sciences).
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I don't know where you went to school. My psych classes' tests weren't scantron. I probably had more natural science scantron tests than psych but I wouldn't say I've had many in either.

My psych classes' grades were generally more based on research writing, though. A typical breakdown would have been:
35% Final Project (Publishable research paper on a related topic to be assigned through written proposal to instructor and oral presentation the final week of class to be evaluated by peers [on a curve])
5% x 7 Research Article Summary & Application Papers (max. 1 pg, dbl-space, 12-pt Times New Roman, 1" margins) <-- btw, in case you think writing a brief, 1-pg paper is easier than a 20-pg paper, try it w/ a researcher who wants everything covered and explained thoroughly in those 300 words! It eliminates the BS you thought you might try....
10% Midterm Exam (essay, short answer, multiple choice; 90 min.)
20% Final Exam (essay, short answer, fill in the blank, multiple choice; comprehensive; 150 min.)

94.000-100 A
90.000-93.999... A-
87.000-89.999... B+
...
&#8804;60.000 F


One of the psych classes I TA'd for (a 400-level class), I failed about 40-50% of the students on their first paper and I was being easy!
 
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There we go back to the more accurate "depends on the school." psychology is a very popular major. Classes at big state u's can be large to the point of prohibiting long writing tests when the answers are often fairly subjective (within bounds).
 
Psych major here. I really enjoyed it. It definitely depends what area you want - my classes learned more towards the neuroscience perspective. Overall, psych is a very doable major. I haven't felt at any kind of disadvantage this year.

Caveat: I took a bunch of additional biology and chemistry beyond what was required for my psych degree.

If you find you like it, it's a lot of fun.
 
fiat said:
Psych major here. I really enjoyed it. It definitely depends what area you want - my classes learned more towards the neuroscience perspective. Overall, psych is a very doable major. I haven't felt at any kind of disadvantage this year.

Caveat: I took a bunch of additional biology and chemistry beyond what was required for my psych degree.

If you find you like it, it's a lot of fun.
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I was a psy/biz double major and my experience is very similar to fiat's. The focus was mainly on critical thinking and rigor in applying the scientific method in research. There were some parts which touched on ethics and case studies in clinical psych but they're not really anything comparable to actual experience in a clinical setting. My department's orientation leaned towards cognitive neuroscience though and this was study hell for some of my coursemates whose summa slipped away from them as a result. I am, however, really psyched (sorry I couldn't resist the pun) about this area and I enjoyed the classes so much that they became my inspiration to apply for medical school in the hope of becoming a neurologist one day.

I won't lie that a psych major is relevant only to the nervous system chapter of Biological Sciences out of the entire MCAT syllabus. I would strongly advise taking additional courses if you have little to no familiarity whatsoever with the syllabus content unless you're exceptional at independent study. All the best!
 
if biology is just memorization(which i commonly hear) i don't see how it can be considered one of the hardest majors.
 
bigmike7104 said:
if biology is just memorization(which i commonly hear) i don't see how it can be considered one of the hardest majors.
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It's not. (Except, perhaps, by those who have never experienced any major other than bio and found their intro bio prof "sooooo difficult.")
 
apumic said:
It's not. (Except, perhaps, by those who have never experienced any major other than bio and found their intro bio prof "sooooo difficult.")
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Lol for real, biology is usually thought of as an easy major (as far as science majors go) if anything. Biochem on the other hand...
 
apumic said:
I don't know where you went to school. My psych classes' tests weren't scantron. I probably had more natural science scantron tests than psych but I wouldn't say I've had many in either.

My psych classes' grades were generally more based on research writing, though.
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+1 I had two psych classes in 4 years that used multiple-choice format for tests: Intro and Developmental. They were the two lowest-level.

I had one class on race and racism that was a 2 credit course with more required reading than any other class I took in undergrad or grad school. When you went to the bookstore there were no books to buy, just two 3-inch D-ring binders, which the prof filled with photocopied articles, chapters from different books, etc.

Another class, physiological psych, was a real kidney stone. The prof gave take-home essay exams that took most students 12 hours or more to complete. He'd hand them out on Friday to be turned in on Monday, knowing he was destroying your weekend.

Difficulty varies widely from one class/professor to another, but in general psych is pretty easy. I double majored, was an athlete, and still had plenty of time to screw around.

Couldn't have done that it I had majored in chemical engineering.
 
I majored in psychology but took enough lower- and upper-division courses in biology to practically double major...

My psychology classes were sometimes just as technical as biology classes (e.g., my physiological psychology class, which taught nervous system stuff at the same level as the biology classes!).

The disciplines were so totally different that they're really hard to compare, but here are my two cents:

Psychology can be a great prep for advanced study in health and medicine. Psychology students usually know their statistics waaaay better than "hard" science students, which helps you to critically evaluate the medical literature you're reading. (Psychology researchers, also, tend to be way more statistically savvy than biomedical researchers, with the exception of geneticists.)

Psychology students tend do waaay more writing than biology, chemistry, and physics students. My classes had one or two term papers each, compared to one or two term papers in four years for biology students. I think that the amount of time that I put into an upper division psychology course was usually no less than what I put into an upper division biology course.

More than anything, an in-depth study of psychology is great practice for understanding long, complex arguments. People are becoming increasingly intolerant of complex ideas (according to some media analysts), but you have to learn to deal with them in psychology.
 
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medzealot said:
+1 I had two psych classes in 4 years that used multiple-choice format for tests: Intro and Developmental. They were the two lowest-level.

I had one class on race and racism that was a 2 credit course with more required reading than any other class I took in undergrad or grad school. When you went to the bookstore there were no books to buy, just two 3-inch D-ring binders, which the prof filled with photocopied articles, chapters from different books, etc.

Another class, physiological psych, was a real kidney stone. The prof gave take-home essay exams that took most students 12 hours or more to complete. He'd hand them out on Friday to be turned in on Monday, knowing he was destroying your weekend.

Difficulty varies widely from one class/professor to another, but in general psych is pretty easy. I double majored, was an athlete, and still had plenty of time to screw around.

Couldn't have done that it I had majored in chemical engineering.
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My prof that taught my neurophysiology and cognitive psych classes did that kind of thing. Except his way of doing it was to give the general topic of the major essay question for each exam the Friday before the test (which would be on Monday). He found that students generally preferred this since it told them what he cared about. His expectation, in turn, was that you would walk into class and give him the equivalent of a short paper (~2-3 pgs handwritten, single space) for an in-class essay thoroughly covering every aspect of a given topic -- e.g., the prof would tell us the essay would cover the visual and auditory pathways. The actual prompt might be something like:

neurophysiology midterm said:
With his left eye covered, a single ray of light enters the lateral aspect of the person's right pupil upon being reflected from a coffee cup sitting in front of him. When instructed, the patient easily locates and picks up the coffee cup and drinks from it with his left hand; however, he is unable to verbalize or describe what is in front of him despite having no apparent speech or language impairment. 1) Diagram and explain in detail the pathway(s) this signal should travel beginning with the relevant receptor/stimulus and ending with the expected voluntary and/or involuntary response(s), ignoring the patient's apparent pathology; 2) Based on the information given, propose an appropriate diagnosis and explain the symptoms observed using a thorough diagram of the visual pathway(s) as well as the auditory pathway by which the patient is hearing the instructions; 3) Based on the proposed diagnosis, would you expect the patient to be able to write down what he should be seeing (i.e., a green, white & yellow coffee cup with the phrase 'Green Bay Packers' on it)? Why or why not? Would it depend upon which hand the patient was writing with? Why or why not?; 4) Could the patient write down the instructions he was given verbally? Why or why not?
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Psychology and biochemistry were two of my majors, and I found each to be easy and hard in their own ways. I didn't study for my psychology classes; however, I spent quite a bit of time reading/critiquing articles and doing research in neuroscience (psych department). I needed to study for chemistry and biology; however, with the exception of analytical chemistry (which was awful in work load and exams), there wasn't a lot of literature reviews/theses (definitely not the 30 pages in some of my psych courses) for these courses. Personally, I think that psychology helped me more on the MCAT (especially verbal and writing) and that biochem has helped me more in medical school.

That being said, my undergraduate school is known for weeding out people in biology and chemistry courses (failing half a class in pre-med courses), so I'm not sure my experiences as a biochem major accurately reflect the general difficulty of the major at other schools. Also, I took some graduate courses in psychology as electives, which added to the workload for my psychology major...
 
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