Hi guys,
As of right now I’m majoring in biomedical engineering on a pre-med track. I’m currently a freshman in college and I’m having a very difficult time deciding whether I should double major in psychology or not. I took AP Psych in high school and absolutely loved it. It was probably my favorite class in all of high school. The problem is that I’m worried if it’s going to be too much. I’m in Honors College in my school which means I also have a few extra classes here and there but not too many. I don’t want to completely bombard myself with work that I get overwhelmed and my GPA will start dropping. Would it be wise to double major in both biomedical engineering and psychology while still doing pre-med?
Thanks!
No. A double major will do you absolutely no good for medical school admission and will lengthen your stay as an undergraduate. The BME major should provide you with the base courses required for medical school and psychology is not really required. If you like psychology, fill your free electives (probably not many in a BME honors program) with psychology courses and make sure you to all the other co-curricular things that will increase your chances at medical school admissions. Your pre-med advisor can tell you what opportunities there are at your school for these kinds of things.
Double majors are really best for enriching your education. If you’ve got the time, and you’ve got the ability to take the classes, double majoring is a great idea. But if it hurts your GPA or causes you to stay in college any longer than you normally would, it’s not worth it.
Look for the other threads about dual major. In most cases it will not be an advantage. You should take extra courses of interest without worrying too much if it fulfills a minor or 2nd major requirement.
As a hiring manager (now retired), I didn’t like to see double majors. A few classes outside your major were OK and one usually had to do so to meet most colleges BS degree requirements. But, I was hiring for a mechanical engineering job and wanted people who were totally dedicated to that career path. Why spend my time and the companies money to train a new hire who, by double majoring, wasn’t sure what their career path was to be? Let them go somewhere else and figure it out was my opinion.
Most of those who double majored, one of the major is for their interest or very hard to find a job. A few are for engineering and music performance, for instance.