Psychology and Pre med?

[bear2011]

Hello,
I will be attending UC Berkeley in the fall and will be majoring in Psychology and will take pre med classes.
I love psychology and would like to see if i can get involved in research at my school. I was wondering how do medical schools view extracurricular that are not related to the medical field? If I decide to volunteer at a local school, tutor or try new things that do not show my interest in medicine, will it kill my chances of getting accepted to med school?
I know that it is important to show your interest in medicine, but I am a well rounded person and I love being exposed to new things.

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[paul411]

If I decide to volunteer at a local school, tutor or try new things that do not show my interest in medicine, will it kill my chances of getting accepted to med school?

No

I know that it is important to show your interest in medicine, but I am a well rounded person and I love being exposed to new things.

Believe it or not, most people in the world like to be well-rounded and love being exposed to new things. Adcoms are aware of this and encourage this as well.

So, go for it

 

[torshi]

^^^^

 

[gettheleadout]

Research need not be medical in nature or even in the basic sciences; social sciences research is common and looked upon as favorably as research in other fields.

Non-medical extracurriculars (EC's) are also well-received and demonstrate interests in things other than medicine, representing as you said a well-rounded person, as opposed to the one-track-mind gunner that nobody wants in their medical school class. Non-clinical volunteerism such as you listed, in particular, can be enlightening to application readers in determining a person's passions.

If you can clearly demonstrate your interest in medicine along with your other pursuits, you'll be golden.

 

[BiopsychStudent]

Be careful when it comes to psychology research: Depending on the lab, and subfield, you could end up recording action potentials in vivo... or you might end up handing out surveys on "first year college students attitudes toward alcohol." Make sure that you're going to play a significant role in the research; don't settle for proctoring a paper and pencil test, entering data, or being a telemarketer as your time is worth more than that.

Your other questions can pretty much be answered by a quick peruse of this board. To sum it up: The common wisdom is that clinical experience is a must, but non-medically related activities are nice too. Whether that's just bad information that gets passed around, or the cardinal rule... who knows: it seems to make sense.

 

[gettheleadout]

Be careful when it comes to psychology research: Depending on the lab, and subfield, you could end up recording action potentials in vivo... or you might end up handing out surveys on "first year college students attitudes toward alcohol." Make sure that you're going to play a significant role in the research; don't settle for proctoring a paper and pencil test, entering data, or being a telemarketer as your time is worth more than that.

Your other questions can pretty much be answered by a quick peruse of this board. To sum it up: The common wisdom is that clinical experience is a must, but non-medically related activities are nice too. Whether that's just bad information that gets passed around, or the cardinal rule... who knows: it seems to make sense.

I agree with this, but "quick peruse" is an oxymoron.

 

[Soulstice]

Maybe do research in psychiatry, so you can bridge what you learn about cognitive capabilities and human reasoning with physiology?