Hey SDNers, I?m thinking about changing my major to psychology and I have a few questions. How difficult/time consuming is this major? What would you do with your psych degree if you didn?t get into medical school or chose not to go? Also, does it look strange to change major to something entirely different during the junior year? Thanks!
In regards to medicine, it won't matter much what you major in as long as you completed all the admissions requirements. It won't look wierd switching; and it may make your transcript stronger due to your diversity of courses. If you didn't get into medical school, then you could go into counseling, research, or even medical social work. Alternatively, you could get a PhD and become a professor. I think your options are quite open if you're ambitious.
How challenging the major is will depend on how challenging the department is at your school and what classes you choose to take, so unfortunately i can't help you with that one... onto the other questions: i think psych is a great choice for people interested in medicine or the medical field. it's a field that focuses on people and treating problems, though how "science-y" the problems are depends on what type of psych you do. there are a many fields of psychology i would be interested in entering if i didn't end up in med school for whatever reason. personally, i'm into neuroscience and neuropsych, so i would most likely become a neuropsychologist. if i didn't do that, i would probably want to get my Ph.D. and do work in research language delays and language development in children. the thing is, though, that psych degrees are versatile because it's such a diverse field...there are occupational therapists, industrial psychologists, cognitive neuroscientists, family and marriage counselors, school psychologists....and they all do very different sorts of jobs! i know i'm not being extremely specific, but that's part of the beauty of this field. if your interest is science, law, patient care, writing...there are great roles for someone with a psych major to fill (though many do require Ph.D.'s). lastly, i don't think it hurts to change majors. is it on your transcript?? otherwise, med schools won't even see it. good luck
Psychology is my major, so I?ll try and answer your questions. First off, to be totally honest, Psych is an easy major. The classes can be difficult, but classes like Organic are a lot harder. Psych can boost your GPA, and it is semi-medical related. I think the biggest difference between a science class like biology / chemistry / physics / etc and Psychology is the type of learning you have to do. The science classes require you to memorize a lot of stuff and regurgitate it for tests, or at least to memorize equations and how to use them. Psychology classes seem a lot more like literature class then Science classes. You have to learn ideas and concepts, but you tend to have to write a lot more reports and essay type stuff. Like optho said, you have a lot of options available if you don?t go to medical school, and you want to work in the health care field. Plus some states have programs that you can do to get some patient contact while your are still in undergrad. In Kansas you can get a certificate in substance abuse counseling (~14 credit hours) which would allow you to actually work in the field. I don?t know how strange it would look to change your major? I think it depends on your previous grades. Where you doing well in your previous major, or are you trying to get off a sinking ship? I think most schools would prefer you to major in something you liked, and they realize that sometimes we change our minds.
I just got accepted to KU through the EDP program, so I will be starting in 2003. I know, I know... it 's a long way away!
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