Philosophy or Psychology Major?

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jcon21

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Help! I like philosophy and psychology both equally and Im not sure which one I should choose along side doing my premed reqs.

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What year are you? Have you taken classes in both disciplines at your school? If not, I would recommend doing so, and then making your decision after.
 
What year are you? Have you taken classes in both disciplines at your school? If not, I would recommend doing so, and then making your decision after.
Im a 2nd year, Im a liberal arts major rn and I took intro classes to both philosophy and pyshcology.
 
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I find psychology more interesting and more applicable (learning about how people behave, act, develop, think, etc.).
 
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It doesn't matter as far as med school apps go. Pick whichever you like more. Psychology would technically be more useful since you'll have one section of the MCAT ready to go with minimal studying. I personally am not a fan of philosophy or the people who tend to major in it, lol.
 
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If you were choosing solely for the purpose of being a pre-med, then being a Psychology major would be more beneficial for one section of the MCAT. However, you really should choose which interests you more. There's no point in forcing yourself to be one-major over the other simply because you think it'll help you as a pre-med, especially not when selecting between those two.

Good luck!
 
Im a 2nd year, Im a liberal arts major rn and I took intro classes to both philosophy and pyshcology.
Do you mean a degree in liberal arts specifically or getting a degree in the liberal arts college?
 
Just do what I did and get a Psych major and Phil minor and have the best of both worlds!
 
I studied neuroscience and philosophy and really enjoyed both disciplines! If I had to pick one, I would choose philosophy because I really enjoyed the rigorous analytical style of thinking, and I'm interested in ethical issues.

Also, to counter some previous posts, I believe philosophy would be more useful for the MCAT. I think there was a survey by the AAMC showing that philosophy majors have the highest or second highest average MCAT scores. Philosophy is really useful for CARS, as well as for developing the reasoning ability you'll need to excel on the test in general.
 
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Help! I like philosophy and psychology both equally and Im not sure which one I should choose along side doing my premed reqs.

Philosophy for sure. I kinda regret not majoring in philosophy back in undergrad. The few philosophy courses I did take were incredibly insightful and valuable. Philosophy teaches you to read critically/analytically through various, often dry, philosophical essays. And philosophy gives you an opportunity to develop new forms of reasoning skills.

Philosophy will undoubtedly help you ace the verbal/CARS section of the MCAT, and the reasoning skills acquired will help you nail the MCAT, diversify your knowledge and make you a refined future physician.
 
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It doesn't matter as far as med school apps go. Pick whichever you like more. Psychology would technically be more useful since you'll have one section of the MCAT ready to go with minimal studying. I personally am not a fan of philosophy or the people who tend to major in it, lol.

fight me irl,

jk we dont like ourselves either
 
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I was debating between biology and physiology. Honestly I think you'd be better off with physiology major but then again. It is whatever you find more interesting at the end of the day because you'll do better if you have a interest in the subject.
 
I was debating between biology and physiology. Honestly I think you'd be better off with physiology major but then again. It is whatever you find more interesting at the end of the day because you'll do better if you have a interest in the subject.
Physiology.. Wut?
 
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Psychology lmao my bad it's late and I've been studying all day.
 
I'd say study philosophy. Then again, I am quite biased being a philosophy major myself.
 
If you're positive you want to do med school and are confident about getting in, and you're more interested in philosophy, go for it. If there's any chance of you wanting to do something else, psychology or another major. Philosophy is super interesting but with essentially no job market.
 
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While med schools won't care, I would say that philosophy is the more academic/intellectual major. The courses, such as Critical Thinking, Deductive Logic, Ethics, may be beneficial. The first two may help with thinking skills needed for MCAT and life in general.

But if the major might be a challenge, then consider adding some Phil classes either as electives or a minor. Does your school require a minor for Psych majors?
 
See, everyone is saying "psychology cause MCAT," but, arguably, the psychology section as it stands now is one of the easiest sections to study for.

On the other hand, how are we forgetting about CARS (except you @Lawper)? One of my degrees was in philosophy, and I have no doubt that it was one of the factors that led to my high CARS section score.

So, if philosophy is something that interests you, that's what I would suggest. Not only that, but in all likelihood, the second you step into medical school (or, really, once you finish the MCAT) you're going to essentially forget most of what you learned in psychology. Conversely, philosophy—as @Lawper said—embeds you within that analytical mindset, in which your critical thinking skills are honed. And further, I'm sure your program will include some courses on ethics and morality; now that is something useful to have unpacked before medical school.

Do what interests you most. Though as someone mentioned above, there's no reason you couldn't major in one in minor in the other—or get right to it and double major!
 
Help! I like philosophy and psychology both equally and Im not sure which one I should choose along side doing my premed reqs.

Just do what you like more. I had one semester of psych years before I took the MCAT and did fine in that section. It's not hard to prep for. You would be best served taking classes you enjoy and can do well in, and later during interviews discuss with passion.
 
See, everyone is saying "psychology cause MCAT," but, arguably, the psychology section as it stands now is one of the easiest sections to study for.

The psych req't and info needed can be satisfied with psych 101 or whatever it's called. No need to major in it. And likely for a philosophy major, psych 101 might fulfill some gen ed req't.
 
Help! I like philosophy and psychology both equally and Im not sure which one I should choose along side doing my premed reqs.

IMO, philosophy more readily lends itself to expansive, and often esoteric, ruminations about the human experience in all its facets, while psych is more narrowly constrained, at least in the inter and intra-personal sense. If it were me, I'd go with Philo, if for no other reason than a rigorous program would seem to be excellent training for complex decision-making.
 
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Psych is considered a 'soft' major by many AdComs and much of the professional world, whereas Philosophy will get you some respect. It'll also get you some derision because it's so blatantly unemployable... But seriously - do it anyway. Not like a psych major is good for anything other than Starbucks...

Edit: I should clarify. I don't mean a philosophy major is unemployable - just that a philosophy degree does not have a clear and direct career path. There are few paid positions as philosophers for BS degree holders.
 
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Psych is considered a 'soft' major by many AdComs and much of the professional world, whereas Philosophy will get you some respect. It'll also get you some derision because it's so blatantly unemployable... But seriously - do it anyway. Not like a psych major is good for anything other than Starbucks...
Unless they go for a masters/doctorate, then there's plenty of jobs(psych wise)
 
Psych is considered a 'soft' major by many AdComs and much of the professional world, whereas Philosophy will get you some respect. It'll also get you some derision because it's so blatantly unemployable... But seriously - do it anyway. Not like a psych major is good for anything other than Starbucks...

Philosophy is a FAR less employable field. They're the ones working in Starbucks (or in the case of my friends, servers at restaurants). Not saying psych is great like finance, computer science, or engineering, but at least there's options including grad school paths for it.
 
Ok so I'm studying both and I think both are great. However, from a scientific standpoint, I do think that Psychology gives you a really strong background in basic statistics and research methods that is invaluable in understanding any scientific discipline. Meanwhile, Philosophy gives you great ethical and critical thinking skills. Again, I don't think you can go wrong, but if you do major in Philosophy, I really hope you take some statistics and research methods classes in other departments if you want to do anything in the biomedical sciences as a doctor. I really think this should be compulsory for all university students since so many students seem absolutely ignorant as to what a clinical trial entails, what the scientific method looks like in practice, and all the ethical questions behind scientific research, all which have been covered in my Psychology classes.
 
Ok so I'm studying both and I think both are great. However, from a scientific standpoint, I do think that Psychology gives you a really strong background in basic statistics and research methods that is invaluable in understanding any scientific discipline. Meanwhile, Philosophy gives you great ethical and critical thinking skills. Again, I don't think you can go wrong, but if you do major in Philosophy, I really hope you take some statistics and research methods classes in other departments if you want to do anything in the biomedical sciences as a doctor. I really think this should be compulsory for all university students since so many students seem absolutely ignorant as to what a clinical trial entails, what the scientific method looks like in practice, and all the ethical questions behind scientific research, all which have been covered in my Psychology classes.

I thought statistics was sufficiently taught in medical school.
 
Philosophy is a FAR less employable field. They're the ones working in Starbucks (or in the case of my friends, servers at restaurants). Not saying psych is great like finance, computer science, or engineering, but at least there's options including grad school paths for it.

This really is a stereotype and does not hold up according to actual data.

The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates - FEDERAL RESERVE BANK of NEW YORK

This is a sheet from the New York Fed comparing national employment outcomes sorted by major. You'll see that philosophy majors out-compete psychology majors in literally every single category. The market is over-saturated with psychology majors, and as someone said previously, it's a very soft degree.

Philosophy provides great training for most professional careers, eg. business, law, medicine. Obviously you can't just study philosophy and expect to have companies throwing themselves at you trying to hire you, but there is no way that psychology can be considered the more inherently employable major.
 
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the employability of any degree (outside of the professional or technical degrees like Nursing, Engineering, Computer Science to an extent) depends way more on the undergraduate institution (and your ability to obtain good networking opportunitites, which in turn also depends on your UG) than the actual discipline you major in. Once you guys graduate you too will learn this truth. I know unemployed engineers and philosophy majors making 80k + straight out of undergrad. Networking is so much more important than what you major in, it truly does not matter.
 
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I think this is highly dependent on your definition of "sufficient".

Basically satisfying the criteria you listed. Medical students learning statistics to know how research works is obviously important. People who are just interested in medicine can pursue statistics if they want but there is no obligation for them to take it.
 
This really is a stereotype and does not hold up according to actual data.

The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates - FEDERAL RESERVE BANK of NEW YORK

This is a sheet from the New York Fed comparing national employment outcomes sorted by major. You'll see that philosophy majors out-compete psychology majors in literally every single category. The market is over-saturated with psychology majors, and as someone said previously, it's a very soft degree.

Philosophy provides great training for most professional careers, eg. business, law, medicine. Obviously you can't just study philosophy and expect to have companies throwing themselves at you trying to hire you, but there is no way that psychology can be considered the more inherently employable major.

Interesting to know, was unaware of this.

I still think psychology has more of a commonly known path to employment through means of grad school. I've seen too many people study philosophy just because they think it's interesting, but are then unemployed at graduation with no prospects, so I'll admit I'm biased there. Like I said to OP, if you're sure you want to and can do medicine, I definitely think it's more of an interesting and unique field.
 
I fully endorse choosing philosophy (disclosure: I'm a philosophy major). Although I think the above posters are valid about philosophy's benefits career-wise (critical thinking skills, MCAT utility, etc.), for me the actual content was the most exciting aspect. Considering you've only taken an intro class, there are many fields you haven't explored within philosophy. Keep in mind the broadness of its scope as compared with psychology. It might be helpful to look at what your school offers down the road to better gauge your interest.

If you do choose philosophy, I'd also advise you not to limit your philosophical interests in light of your career interests. Most people here have mentioned medical ethics as the direct application of philosophy within medicine. Other philosophy pre-meds I've met were also very interested in bioethics. I found it strange, then, that medical ethics was the least interesting philosophy class I've taken (although still interesting in general). Philosophy of religion, political philosophy, pragmatism, and phenomenology/existentialism were far more interesting to me, affecting how I view the world in a way bioethics didn't. At least for now, when nothing is being used in medical practice. So, don't feel odd if your interests philosophically and medically don't converge.
 
Adcoms really don't care what your major is, so if you like both equally, try and pick out which classes from both degrees you want to take throughout your next two years and do the math to see which of the two majors you'd be able to finish in conjunction with your pre-med prereqs. You indicated that you've taken classes in both disciplines already, but maybe for example psych has less required credits to graduate with the major so you can try and meet the requirement in that field while still taking philosophy for fun, or vice versa! If you could provide more specifics on the requirements for each major and what you have finished so far, it would be easier to make a recommendation one way or the other.

Unrelated, but at my school the psych department is kind of known for housing all the premeds who don't want to major in a science so the competitive vibes there are a huge detractor for people.
 
Unrelated, but at my school the psych department is kind of known for housing all the premeds who don't want to major in a science so the competitive vibes there are a huge detractor for people.
Can you explain further what you mean by this, premeds at your school major in psych bc they didnt like the competitive vibes from the science majors?
 
Definite cliche around here, but I truly believe in this; major in whatever interests you most! Of course, every major is interesting once you open up your mind to it, but we definitely have our own preferences.

If possible, try to take some electives here and there from things that might interest you! In your case, take some of the more high-level Philosophy and Psychology courses at your University.

Try to engage with these courses to the fullest and aim for those A's, in order to get the most out of these courses, and of course to start off on the right track in terms of having a solid GPA and in order to make your Med School application down the road highly competitive.

From there you'll hopefully have a fair understanding of what class you had more of an intrinsic interest in, and what Major to switch into.

Personally, I took countless electives from every possible field of study at my "Cegep" (It's pretty much Quebec's Pre-University, nothing to do with GPA/Undergrad) and opted to choose History as my Major because I found the lectures extremely comfy and the material highly engaging.

Best of luck!
 
Help! I like philosophy and psychology both equally and Im not sure which one I should choose along side doing my premed reqs.
Psychology, for the benefit of your patients. Patients are unlikely to need a philosophical discussion but many of them will have mental health issues. Although a few classes in psychology will definitely not make you an expert!! you may improve your ability to provide treatment (eg effectively encourage treatment compliance ). Or recognize the need for a referral to a licensed psychologist (PhD) and/or a psychiatrist (MD).
 
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