Psych - important for med school?

<p>i was doing research about certain medical schools - i forget which, but i remember two of them mentioning that a background is psychology can be helpful. i've never enjoyed learning about psychology...so....i was jsut wondering if taking psych was truly necessary to gain admission to med. school?</p>

<p>If it's not an official prerequisite, it is not necessary.</p>

<p>Is psych necessary as an undergrad? No.</p>

<p>Is it important for gaining admission? An even bigger no.</p>

<p>Will it help you if you've had at least a couple of psych courses, and thus understand very basic concepts like Oedipal complex; id, ego, superego; Jungian archetypes; or defense mechanisms? YES. All these concepts are tested on Step 1 of USMLE (even though for Jungian archetypes, all you have to know is that Myers Briggs personality testing is based off of them). Having a minimal background from intro psych and/or Psych of personality will make these concepts review. These topics are secondary high yield topics in that for Step 1 b/c most people skip over them and thus don't get the points when they actually have questions about them, and thus spending a little bit of time on them usually while preparing helps (in contrast Primary high yield topics are high yield simply b/c they show up all the time). Because they show on USMLE's, many medical schools will go over them, but no where near as in depth as an undergrad class might.</p>