Is Psych a Safe/Worthy Option for a Med School Track?

Hey!

So my ultimate goal is medical school but I also want to have a backup plan just in case the situation changes, I change my mind, or I don’t get in. I’ve heard that a Psychology major is not a bad option for medical school, but is pretty useless as a bachelors degree (in case my situation changes like I mentioned).

Is psych a bad option for the situation I’m in? If I choose not to do medical school I would like a good job and I’ve been looking into statistics or data science (though I’m not too interested in math although I’ve been pretty good at it).

Thanks!

I believe that psychology is generally considered a social science, not science science, so you may want to post in the social science forum to get more responses.

Anyway, my best friend was a psychology major, and as far as I know, that major does not require many of the classes required for pre-med like 2 semesters of gen chem + labs, 2 semesters of bio + labs, 2 semesters of ochem + labs, 2 semesters of physics + labs, and any other advanced biology coursework required (i.e. biochem, micro, genetics, etc). So while I’m not saying it is impossible, this is just something to consider. Also, at my undergrad, psychology was a “weed out” class - not easy at all.

Always a good plan to start with the true things and move out from there. Psych is a perfectly good path to med school- IF it is interesting to you. Would you enjoy it enough to go to grad school in it? Similarly, if you don’t like Data Science or Stats don’t do them.

Here’s the thing: this is not something you have to decide for at least 2 years. Get into college. Take some classes. See what you like. Then follow your real interests. Life is long: why would you choose to do something that you don’t like, when there are dozens of choices ahead of you?

You could major in music or English, as long as you take the courses required for med school apps, get top grades, and get the needed ECs, do well on the MCAT.

Look into med school prep, how it works. Google. Don’t assume.

You can major in anything as long as you take the prerequisites that are necessary for medical school and do very well in them. You will also need appropriate ECs etc as noted above.

As far as psych being a “useless” major, I disagree. It all depends on what you do while in college.