Psychology Major Aiming for Medical School

WayOutWestMom
Mon, 10 Sep 2018 16:31:58 +0000

@babyangecakes

You need to meet with the health professions advisor when you get to your college and use a spreadsheet + the college’s course catalog to map out a 4 year plan that includes all the graduation requirements for your major PLUS med school pre-reqs (bio, gen chem, ochem, biochem, physics, statistics, calc1, 2 semesters of composition/writing skills) PLUS any GEs required by your college for graduation (foreign languages, freshman seminar, etc.).

If at all possible, you should plan to take general chemistry as a freshman since the chem sequence required for med school is the longest–5 semesters.

If you have room in your schedule during your later years of college, think about adding a genetics or a human anatomy or physiology class. Both or either are useful for the MCAT, although a general bio class will give you enough background in both areas to take the MCAT. If you want to take an additional humanities class, consider taking medical ethics, if it’s offered by your college.

Social science majors do OK in med school admissions, assuming their GPA, sGPA and MCAT scores are competitive–

[Table A-17: MCAT and GPAs for Applicants and Matriculants to U.S. Medical Schools by Primary Undergraduate Major, 2017-2018](https://www.aamc.org/download/321496/data/factstablea17.pdf)

Medical school adcomms don’t particularly care what your undergrad major is and having any one particular major isn’t a boost or detriment to your application.

In med school, any academic advantage a physical or biological science majors have disappears fast. Med school coursework will cover a whole semester of undergrad UL bio material (immunology, embryology, advanced biochemistry, etc) in 2 or 3 lectures (about 1 week of class). Everybody, regardless of major, is seeing most of the material for the first time.