need some advice

[chaos]

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I've been getting increasingly worried that I haven't been taking rigorous enough classes...I transferred from a community college, so 2 years of my credits come from there...and I slacked off somewhat so my GPA from there was like a 3.45...eugh. I then transferred to a university...I'm really not sure where it is in terms of academic reputation... it's ranked around #30 for psychology PhD according to some ranking I found online, but that's not undergraduate and I have no idea if #30 is pretty good or really not so good. Anyway, since transferring, I have a 4.0 GPA but most of my classes, both at the community college and here, have been psychology, sociology, and English. In terms of the 'hard sciences', I've taken two basic biology courses and that's it. Now, the university offers a B.S. in psychology with neuroscience concentration, and I've been thinking of changing to that...the thing is, I'll be a first semester senior in the fall (in terms of credits) and it would take me like an extra year and a half or 2 years to complete all the neuroscience requirements...you have to take math, physics, lots of chem and bio, plus some neuroscience classes in addition to the psych requirements. basically it's like a pre-med degree plus a psychology degree. What I'm wondering is whether it's worth the time and expense. I want to get into a clinical PhD program to research schizophrenia and most of the schools I'd be applying to are either top-tier Ivies or very good state universities because that's pretty much where they seem to be researching schizophrenia. I know neuroscience and genetics are becoming increasingly important in this field. I've asked a few professors at my school- one said the neuroscience degree would look really good on my application and I should go for it, and the other said that the neuro degree is more for people who want to go into pure neuroscience- working with animal models, etc, and that I would learn all the neuroscience I need in grad school. So I don't know if I should just try to take a few physics and chem classes before I graduate to show them I can do 'real science' and then apply in fall '08, or go for the whole degree and keep doing research for those 2 years so I have an absolutely killer application.

If you read all that, have a cookie.

EDIT: my other concern is that if I go for the neuro degree, I might not do all that hot in those advanced biochem classes...so I don't know if it's better to have like a 3.4 GPA with loads of science or a 3.9 GPA with none.

 

[Ollie123]

Wow, that's a tough one.

First off, my suspicion is that a 3.9 is better than a 3.4 (unless you're at MIT and you double majored in psychology and nuclear physics or something).

Now if that is a 3.6 vs. a 3.9 I'm not so sure. I think below 3.5 gets culled out at many schools - that is the only reason.

There's too many other factors here. Those classes can only help you - they won't hurt you. That being said, whether its worth it is only something you can judge. I don't know what undergrad you are at and whether or not you can afford to take that extra year. If it means spending 50 grand its probably not worth it. If its 10 grand than it MIGHT be.

Plus if you have any interest in medicine it would be nice to have that option in the future. Again, hard to say.

I don't think NOT doing it automatically excludes you from more than a few schools, your research will matter alot more in getting into a top program. It might help though, but it depends on lots of other factors (how well you think you can do being one of them).