<p>hi,
i have a basic question. Im currently enrolled at 4 year college, this is my freshman year. The college is Suny Farmingdale in Ny . It not quiet famous. Im currently majoring in BIOSCIENCE. i have asked a couple of people whether should i stick with this major or not. </p>
<p>Some people have told me that psychology is the better way to go. Because it is better gpa wise. i have heard some horrible stories about bioscience major ending up getting 2.2 because of hard courses.</p>
<p>is this true, i know biology will bring down my gpa, but if i stick to psychology my gpa would stay high, and the pre-required courses should help me out with the mcat. ?</p>
<p>Im an average student.. not too smart.. so any advice would be appreciated.</p>
<p>There may be some slight difference from department to department but a 2.2 bioscience major would not have been rocking a 3.2+ in psych or probably any major unless the problem was that they hated bioscience. If you like bioscience, stick with it unless you feel that psych is a better match in terms of interests.</p>
<p>^mmmmcdowe is right. If you’d end up w/ a 2.2 in a bioscience program, you really shouldn’t expect anything more than a 2.2 in a decent psych program either. Every school is different and every person’s strengths are different but controlling for personal differences and variations in professors, most majors are fairly similar in level of difficulty. (The exact challenges presented are what differ.) IME, psych will require more critical thinking and abstract learning with testing via projects and papers (along with exams). Biology, chemistry, etc. will require more concrete thinking and testing via exams and labs.</p>
<p>Thank You guys, That does make Sense, but for future references if i do decide to go with psychology, would it increase my chances of getting into a med school, due to the diversity form bioscience or bio chemistry degrees.</p>
<p>Also is it better to have a 3.2 from Stony brook for a 3.5+ from Farmingdale. ?</p>
<p>No, it wouldn’t. Psych is in no way an uncommon pre-med major. 3.5+ anywhere is probably better than a 3.2 at anywhere but the most grade deflated institutions. Even then, I’d rather have the comfort of a 3.5 than the hope that adcoms will be understanding.</p>
<p>Psychology is consider academic wise, easier then Bioscience. That is why i was considering psychology. But if i have a 3.5+ in psychology and 3.0 Bioscience, would the med school treat them equally or pick psychology over bioscience. and my interest is toward both of the major, so i do not mind either.</p>
<p>The assumption is that you would get a 3.5 in Psych and only a 3.0 in Bioscience. Once again, GPAs between majors don’t tend to vary that much. Much more likely you might get a 3.43 in Bioscience if it was a somewhat harder major. No way to tell, but don’t pick between the two based on guesses about GPA, you might get a 3.58 in bioscience instead of a 3.5 in Psych. There’s no way to know unless you go through both programs.</p>
<p>D’s classes for Neuroscience minor are easier than Bio classes. But the point is to take what you are interested in, not for the goal of having certain GPA. She just works harder in harder classes, isn’t it how it should be? </p>
<p>“Im an average student… not too smart… so any advice would be appreciated”</p>
<p>-Except for URM, average is not enough, 3.2 by far is not enough from what I have been reading here.</p>
<p>You might squeeze by in a DO application process. 3.2 would be rough unless you had a killer MCAT, and if you are under the assumption that you are average, that will not be the case.</p>
<p>Engineering is the one exception that I’ve come across that is known to seriously drag down your grade if you attempt it in 4 years, especially if you go to Caltech or MIT, but even then I refuse to believe that a 2.2 is going to magically convert itself a 3.2 if you switch out of engineering except under the rarest of circumstances. The differences might be more pronounced at schools with hard curving policies. And yes, I’m sure there are a few majors on the other end as well, but for the vast majority I don’t think there’s that much variation (assuming you like all of the majors in question and have reasonable talent in them).</p>
<p>Take courses in a variety of depts at a given school and you’ll find this to be true. Controlling for individual strengths, courses are similar in difficulty across majors (at most schools and assuming the depts are of similar strength) and there is likely to be more variation within than between groups (i.e., between different profs within a dept than between depts). Each subject takes a different set of strengths, which is why some people find chem much harder than bio, while others think bio is an impossible amount of memorization and chem is just a bunch of plug-and-chug. Likewise, some find English courses to be impossibly difficult due to their subjective and abstract nature, while those same individuals may find something like chem or physics quite easy.</p>
<p>GPA = 2.2 is not a good idea for anything. If plan is to go to Med. School, forget it, otherwise, you are not going to find job easily with this kind of GPA. I was asked about my GPA during interview after about 25 years of experience in a field and numerous references that could have been obtained locally very easily. I got the job, I said I did not remember but I graduated Magna Cum Laude, so it must have been relatelvely high. This is not to brag, means nothing for me now. This example is to point out that having GPA=2.2 is a waste of time and money as far as going to college is concerned.</p>