Hi, I am trying to figure out what I want my major in college to be. I plan on going to medical school to be a pediatrician. I know that medical school accepts any major, but I want to choose a major that interests me, challenges me, allows me to show my true potential, and will kind of prepare me for the workload of medical school. I don’t know whether to major in health sciences or psychology. I thought health sciences would be a good thing to major in because it would allow me to get experiences with patients early on, and give me opportunities to volunteer, but I’ve heard of people saying that health sciences isn’t a rigorous or challenging major. I’ve always been interested in understanding and studying the human mind, which made me think that psychology would be a great option for as well.
The best way to decide this is once you get to college, take the introductory class in both fields, and see which one you like and can imagine studying for four years. Another consideration is what you might do if you don’t get into med school or change your mind about it.
I was a psychology major in college, and I wouldn’t say that it’s a particularly rigorous or challenging major at most schools. It kind of depends on how the major is designed - some schools are heavier on the biological psychology stuff. But you can make your courseload rigorous in other ways. And trust me, if you are pre-med you will have enough of the rigorous classes.
Actually, you can major in anything as long as you take the required pre-med classes. Psych, especially as a BS rather than BA degree, or Neuroscience would work well with that or Biobehavioral Health, which is offered at Penn State, among other universities. Whatever major you choose needs to be one that you can do well in since GPA is very important for med school apps. Heck, if you want to work in some areas of the countries, Spanish could turn out to be the most useful major for residencies down the line.