I’m a psychology major currently enrolled in Organic Chemistry. I was originally interested in going on to medical school for psychiatry but recently decided to pursue either a phD or a psyD in clinical psychology. So now rather than taking organic chemistry to fulfill a prerequisite for medical school, I’m basically taking it as an elective. It’s taking a great deal of time, energy, and focus away from my other courses (that are important for what I want to do). I’ve made decent grades so far and could probably pull a B (a C at the worst) but I’d rather not take it all. Would withdrawing from this course and receiving one “W” on my transcript hurt me when applying to grade school? My GPA right now is at a 4.0 if that’s relevant.
One “W” won’t make a difference.
Nope, I had a couple Ws on my transcript too.
In general, people have a W and retake the course. It will hurt you more if you withdraw and don’t take it again.
My advice is to take the W, and double-check at some of your top grad school choices that they don’t want or recommend organic too. If you want to be able to discuss medications, whether or not you can prescribe them, organic is useful.
^Eh. I’m not sure that I would agree with that in clinical psychology. Clinical psychologists wouldn’t be discussing specific medications with their clients - for that they would refer to a psychiatrist with which they had a relationship. I don’t think many clinical psychology programs would recommend that someone take organic chemistry, because it is truly not necessary to the coursework in the program. The only exception might be clinical psychology programs in the three states that currently allow clinical psychologists to prescribe certain medications (Louisiana, New Mexico, and Illinois); and in those states you have to take additional coursework/a separate program to be able to prescribe.
In order to obtain these privileges, psychologists will have to undergo 2.5 years of additional graduate training including relevant coursework. They will see a minimum of a 100 patients under physician supervision and sign a collaborative agreement, and will be limited to only prescribing certain classes of medications, such as anti-depressants, but not stimulants.
So a clinical psychologist who wanted to do that might have to take organic chemistry, but that would be an additional 2.5 years beyond the PhD. Otherwise, the majority of programs won’t really care about it that much.