Undergrad major/minor

[feedme]

This seems slightly unrelated to all the other posts, but I'd like a response from this board since psyd/phd is the school I'd like to apply to in a year. I'm a senior who WAS a Neuroscience major, Clinical Psychology minor, Chinese minor, AND premed, but the NSC coursework was just too rigorous, and it's too late to change back time. I've decided that a clinical psychology career would also be more interesting and fulfilling.

So I've switched my major to Psychology this past week as a senior and am having difficult deciding what would look best to a Psychology school and on my resume in the future to clients, clinics, hospitals, etc. I have a guaranteed Chinese minor, but my school offers no NSC minor (which I may be able to create on my own by adding additional courses next semester), but if I cannot do that would a Brain and Cognitive Science minor look just as good? Or Biology -- or is that completely useless? How about a Neurobiology CLUSTER. Cluster is this little idea that my school likes to use to classify 3 classes as a cluster. If I put this on anything I have a feeling it might look semi-laughable. A cluster I have guaranteed. I'm not sure if it is worth the extra coursework to create an Neuroscience or Brain and Cognitive Sciences minor in my 2nd semester of senior year. Anyway, any suggestions?

Thanks

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[thewesternsky]

Honestly, minors usually don't matter. They'll see your entire transcript, so just go with the psych major and take classes that you find interesting and that are related to the kind of research you want to do in grad school. The classes you take are somewhat important, but the little "minor" designation after your degree shouldn't change a thing.

Make sure you have a good background in stats, take independent/directed research courses if possible, and (especially if you're applying to Canadian schools) try to get at least one full course in each of the cognate areas (1. social, 2. individual differences, 3. biological, cognitive-affective bases of behavior and 4. history of psychology). The cognate areas thing won't make or break you, but some schools will require you to take the courses in grad school if you didn't cover them in undergrad.