<p>I want to major in psychology at a UC, preferably UCLA or Berkeley. A voice in the back of my head is telling me to keep med school as an open option upon graduation (as opposed to going the grad school route).</p>
<p>This is all a ways off as I am only in my first semester at community college. However, I want to know if I am supposed to try to knock out the premed coursework before or after transfer. Do I have to squeeze in all the premed requirements while at community college? In addition to all the psych requirements I need? Or, after transferring, can I simply tack on a minor in biology or neuroscience and be okay?</p>
<p>Has anyone done something like this? Transfer for a non-science major and then go on to medical school. I don't really want to major in anything other than psychology so I don't know how to deal with the premed coursework. </p>
<p>I would go about taking care of med school prereqs now in cc. Usually once you get to where you’re going you simply won’t have the time to fit all of them in.</p>
<p>You’ll get better advice if you ask on the premed forum, but from what I’ve heard med schools are going to be a bit leery if you’ve taken all the premed requirements at a CC and nothing more. So you might want to dig into this deeper. One solution would be to take the required premed courses now, but take a few additional upper-division science classes at your 4-year to show you can handle the work. There are about 10 or so required premed classes, and you won’t have time to take them all if you start after xfer to the 4-year. A minor as you suggested is not going to give you all the required courses.</p>
<p>It would also be a good idea to get a book on med school admissions so you make sure you are doing all the other stuff needed to be a strong med school candidate.</p>
<p>I’m already at 4 or 5 classes per semester to include Berkeley and UCLA psychology requirements. </p>
<p>Adding Ochem, calc, biochem, etc seems like I’d have a hectic 2 years on my hands.</p>
<p>I’m halfway between changing my major altogether to something like bio (thereby jeopardizing my GPA and transfer chances) or just sticking with psychology and going full steam ahead to a PhD.</p>
<p>Thanks mikemac, I get what you’re saying; split it up, but take most or the basics now. I’ll try to squeeze in as many courses as I can (chem, ochem, bio) while at CC.</p>
<p>There is no doubt this is harder than just applying as a psych major. Since this is an advice forum, here’s my advice. Don’t do it half-heartedly. Decide whether you’re in or out. If in, then plan out your schedule so you take the classes and give it all the work it takes (which is a lot; figure on 6-10 hours outside class for each math & science class). You don’t want to be 22 and looking back thinking “if only I…” That said, be realistic too. If you do this for a semester, really trying your best, look at how you’re doing. If its jeopardizing your GPA and xfer chances, then your odds of med school admission are going to be pretty low anyway and its time to change course.</p>
<p>“A lot of the classes for premed will also count towards qualifying as a psych xfer student” – Never really looked at it from this perspective. Nonetheless, there are still a ton of premed requirements, which seem a little overwhelming.</p>
<p>I love my CC so far and even the tougher classes, I can tell I’m enjoying them. I know I can and am motivated to get a xfer worthy GPA. I’m taking honors for three of the four classes I’m taking to challenge myself. I’m just doing my general ed stuff right now and definitely am going to be either in or out by next semester. I’ll talk with a counselor and also a therapist I know (PhD) who knows all the ins and the outs. He’s the one who said I should go for the MD route.</p>
<p>That being said, the med school prereqs consist of a lot. For example U of Washington med school requires 4 semester of social sciences and humanities, 6 semesters of chem and bio, and 2 semesters of physics. That’s one heck of a lot of classes. I’ll have to hypothesize whether or not my GPA would shrivel up and die.</p>
<p>If you are worried about med schools being leery about taking coursework at a CCC, I would recommend taking one premed class each summer before transfer at your closest UC. You can knock out 2-3 classes that way and even if you don’t transfer to that particular UC, the grades will still be on the same UC transcript and will be factored into your UC GPA upon graduation. </p>
<p>Another thing to consider is the sequences. I don’t know much about pre med requirements, but if you had to take 2 semesters of calc, for example, and took calc 1 at a CCC and calc 2 at a UC and got As in both, then nobody should question whether you took the easy way out.</p>
<p>Man just thinking about the logistics of this, planning the sequence, is giving me a headache. </p>
<p>Is it even possible to just drop in at UCSD (closest to me) and get take some classes there? That would be pretty cool.</p>
<p>I like psychology a lot and I think I could do great things besides med school. Law, teaching, doctoral study. I don’t know if I should just pursue a PhD or go for an MD and possibly a psychiatry residency later on. I can already tell the second path is much longer, harder, and more expensive but the there seems to be a lot more possibilities and a bigger paycheck too. But while the grad school route is an equally big commitment it would save me a lot of stress at the moment and I can just focus on transferring.</p>
<p>Postbacc? Never heard of that until now. Just did a quick search and couldn’t find much. But apparently UCSD has one, and so does Berkeley. Berkeley’s sounds much more straight-forward. UCSD’s says that it is for disadvantaged students and it actually requires you have most premed reqs and have taken the MCAT already. Doesn’t make much sense.</p>
<p>Nonetheless,</p>
<p>Any idea as to how expensive a postbacc program like Berkeley’s would be? And about how long does it take?</p>
<p>This sounds like a great plan and would take a huge weight off of my shoulders. For now at least. My plan has always been and still is to do psychology all the way through grad school. I just wanted to keep the option of med school open. This postbacc thing sounds like it could be the best option for me. If anyone knows anything about postbacc programs, especially berkeley’s that would be a great help.</p>
<p>Thanks for telling me about postbacc, I can breathe a little more easily now.</p>
<p>You can take classes at UCSD during the summer and during the regular year you can also attempt to take classes as long as there is space available. You could also see if UCSD has an extension school that offers prereqs.</p>
<p>Yep post-baccs are a great way to get into med school if you’re missing requirements. Some post bacc programs even reserve you a seat in their med school if you are at the top of the class OR you get first priority. I don’t remember all the details but I think JHU has a post-bacc program like this. The downside is that they are expensive as opposed to having the classes already done at CC. The counter point to that is, a post-bacc looks stronger on your app than cc classes. Also make sure you do a lot of ec’s like shadowing a physician, volunteer work at a hospital, research work etc. ECs are really important. The MCAT as well.</p>
<p>postbacs are a great way to get ready to apply to med med school if you have well-heeled parents that don’t mind supporting you for the 2-3 extra years it takes to get thru the program and accepted to med school. Many people, however, find the traditional 4-years of college and then med school is tough enough to swing financially.</p>