<p>So here's my situation/stats. For UCLA I am applying as a Psychology major.</p>
<p>At end of Fall semester:</p>
<p>IGETC complete.
3.57 UC transferrable GPA
excellent upward trend.
3.8 psychology GPA (4 A's, 1 B)
4.0 major pre-req's GPA << 4/5 complete at end of Fall sem. Only missing 1 chem or physics class.
3.65 overall GPA.</p>
<p>Berkeley......Philosophy major:</p>
<p>At end of Fall semester:</p>
<p>IGETC complete.
3.57 UC GPA
same trend.
4.0 in all Philosophy classes. and prereqs.
3.65 overall GPA</p>
<p>I haven't completed, nor will I have completed the prereqs for UCB psychology, so I am applying as a Philosophy major. However, this poses a considerable problem because in my personal statements I am discussing how/why I'm interested in Psychology and my personal experience (prompt 2) also relates to psych and not philosophy. I'm doing TAG's with UCD and UCSD as a Psych and Human Dev. Major respectively, but I'm wondering if applying as a Phil major to Cal and a Psych major to UCLA will look bad or weird?</p>
<p>Chance me please for UCLA psych or UCB Phil :).</p>
<p>I’ve also done 130 hours of volunteer service at a Senior Assisted Living Center over the past 3 months and have tutored young, underprivileged kids for about 20 hours over the past two months.</p>
<p>You’re in at Berkeley for philosophy as long as you keep up that gpa.
Psychology is an impacted major at UCLA, and if you want to risk not getting into UCLA at all your better best is to switch to Philosophy at UCLA, and possibly end up switching once you’re at UCLA. I think it is possible to switch. If not you still have the freedom of taking Psych classes on the side. I transferred in this fall at UCLA as Philosophy and am taking 2 upper division psych classes simply because those psych classes are huge and anyone can basically add them(including non majors).</p>
<p>PS I think UCB is aware that most community colleges or other 4 year schools don’t offer the lower division requirements for most of their majors. I remember that none of my philosophy classes when I applied to UCB showed up on assist org as counting towards my major and I still got in.
I also don’t know if you already submitted your application but I too had different majors on my applications for UCLA and Berkeley. I simply stated in my essay that I was interested in double majoring or majoring and minoring. And I explained why philosophy and why art history. I made it equal. I didn’t make my essay sound like I had a major preference over the other major.</p>
<p>Hey thanks for replying. I really appreciate it because this dilemma is eating at me. Here’s the thing: So my goal in life is to become a psychiatrist, which would mean I would have to go to med school and get my M.D. From what I’ve read, it doesn’t matter what major you were when applying to med school, so I’m thinking it may be most wise to just apply to UCLA and UCB as Phil majors? </p>
<p>However, I love psychology and want to take as much of it as possible for my final 2 years of undergrad. Is it possible to major in phil and still take a ton of psych courses? Or possibly major in phil and minor in psych?</p>
<p>I was hoping to apply to UCLA as a Psychology major because I know it is a very prestigious program, and I thought I had a decent chance at getting in with a 3.57 and 150 volunteer hours…plus I’ve already written my first personal statement about my interest/involvement in Psychology. Do you think my chances are decent or not so good?</p>
<p>For Berkeley it is a no brainer for me - Philosophy major. However, do you really think I have a good chance with only a 3.57 UC GPA and after writing about psychology as my major in my personal statements? </p>
<p>Please let me know what you think. Thanks so much.</p>
<p>Same thing with me, on assist.org no classes articulate for the Phil major at UCB, so I figure why not apply with a decent GPA and two phil courses with A’s under my belt. Plus, I really do enjoy philosophy…I just enjoy Psych more lol.</p>
<p>Actually you’ve given me a great idea. I think what I’ll do is double major. I’ll write in my personal statement about my interest in double majoring in psych and phil, and perhaps apply to both as Phil majors. If/once in, I’ll add on a second major (Psychology) since I have the prereqs done for it at UCLA and will have them done for UCB (I anticipate) by the end of next Fall.</p>
<p>Would it be advisable to keep Psych as my #1 major for UCLA on my app, and phil as my alternate major? Or do you think I should swap it?..From which point onward, if I were admitted, I would request to double major in Psych. This plan sounds crazy, but I love it. Is it easy to double major? By that I mean is the work load significantly greater and the process of establishing a double major difficult?</p>
<p>Double majoring and going premed sounds insane though…ugh.</p>
<p>Sorry, I wasn’t aware you had your reqs completed for UCLA psych. Have you checked UC stat finders to look at acceptance rates by gpa per each major as a transfer? Google uc stat finder and create a table for different gpas. That should give you an indication of where you stand at UCLA for psych. I can tell you that for UCLA philosophy the acceptance rate was well over 60 percent for philosophy majors who had gpas of 3.5 or higher, overall the acceptance rate for transfers in philosophy was also pretty high(over 60 percent as well).
This is a preliminary profile of admitted students for 2009. as you can see the overall transfer acceptance rate for pre psych applicants was under 40 percent. UC STAT FINDER(google it) can break it down in what that means for people from different gpas. Obviously the lower your gpa the less likely your acceptance rate will be higher.</p>
<p>You can also use UC stat finder for berk and other UCs.</p>
<p>Also if Psychiatry(med school) is your goal, and they don’t require you to major in psychology, than you need to evaluate the importance of school vs major for UCLA and UCB. By this I mean, if after you look at UC stat finder for psych, you realize that the difference between getting accepted with your gpa for psych vs philosophy is huge, than you need to ask yourself what is more important, name of school or major? I think you’re obviously in at lower UCs for psych, the issue is for B and LA for psych. I can tell you now that Philosophy at UCLA, or at least from my one class, is not caught up to be what I expected. Needless to say I plan on switching majors, to comp lit and minoring in philosophy(since the minor requirements are only like 5-6 classes). The psychology classes at UCLA are interesting and you could technically take them as electives(i dont think they have a psych minor at ucla though), but you’ll never be a major unless they allow you to switch majors at UCLA once youve already transferred in and take the upper division requirements for the major. </p>
<p>Lastly I don’t know how competitive psychiatry school is, or if it is the same thing as med school, but get ready for major competition at ucla and ucb. In my psych classes, it seems like everyone is premed(at least those in my discussion session) or hope to attend graduate school. By major competition I mean, on top of keeping a high gpa(i don’t think its that difficult as a psychology major), you’ll be fighting or will be compared to other classmates who on the side are helping out with research or working/interning.
If the only requirements for medical school are the ones that are for everyone, which i think are one year of organic chem, year of physics, year of … Etc than honestly go for what you love. You will hate your time at UCLA or UCB if you’re not in the major that you love or taking classes that don’t interest you. Taking classes that dont interest you won’t make it easy for you to get a good gpa for med school(psychiatry). For me, the philosophy classes aren’t as diverse at UCLA as they are at other schools(berkeley, usc, uci, etc)</p>
<p>anonymous, I know you’re pretty active on CC, and I value your opinion, so I’m wondering that since I’m going premed if I should just apply to UCLA as a Philosophy major to maximize my chances of acceptance. From there, if I were accepted, could I double major phil/psych? Or would double majoring and going premed be crazy? What would you recommend for my situation? Thanks.</p>
<p>that’s tricky and don’t think that I’m the authority on the options for a premed but here’s my take:</p>
<p>I think it would be the **safer **option to apply as a phil major at both UCLA and Cal. You’re GPA is above the average admitted last year for phil at UCLA (3.49) and you are below psychology (3.7) so your chances would increase tremendously. Alongside that, you would be able to write an essay that is dedicated solely to your interest in philosophy, not both majors, which will help in your chances for Cal as well. </p>
<p>The benefits and consequences of double majoring rely on a lot of variables (how many med school prereqs you’ve completed, how you think you could cope with psyc, phil, and prereq classes, if it would effect your GPA negatively, ect…)</p>
<p>Since you said you finished the prereqs for UCLA psych, i assume you’ve had at least 1 chem, bio, and physics class. If they were all introductory and without a lab you would have to retake them…so I would think that completing **all **the prereqs for med school with your double major would be hard. </p>
<p>You have a lot of time to worry about double majoring, you would make that decision after you transfer and have at least declared **one **major first. </p>
<p>I would talk to a premed adviser at the school you transfer to (if your cc doesn’t have one) and get many more opinions than mine. </p>
<p>on an unrelated note: phil majors have consistently score the best on the MCAT for all majors</p>
<p>If you Psych at all of UCLA, you have to put that as your first choice… </p>
<p>1 bc they don’t really look at the second choice major unless you are TAP, and 2 bc they are not allowing/admitting second choice majors to be impacted majors, such as English and PSYCH…</p>
<p>Also, UCLA does not usually allow transfers to change their major to Psych after being admitted under different major (or else I’m sure all mediocre Psych majors would do that).</p>
<p>I don’t know about the Berkley reqs tho…</p>
<p>I’m applying as a Psych major, double major/minor in Anthro, so I focused on Psych in my personal statments with a bit of Cutural Anthro thrown in… So you could do the same with Psych & Philosophy</p>
<ul>
<li>Demand for this major significantly exceeds space available. You must be admitted directly into this major; you will not be able to change to this major after admission to UCLA. Students are classified as Pre-Psychology until they complete the preparation courses.</li>
</ul>
<p>wow…i am SO glad i am not applying for an impacted major. If you are very specific about what you want to do with your major and how that will translate into a life goal ( and it sounds like you are) then go for your first choice major; the one that prepars you most for that goal even if it puts your chances back a bit statistically. Not all of the admissions process is based on stats…you could be the lucky one. in the event that you don’t get in, just focus on that fact that you are pursueing your goal at a lesser known school, and remember there is always grad school to prep for!</p>
<p>sarah, it does seem like I’m going to get to know you over the next few months on this site. We seem to have similar situations, you’re right. I really appreciate all the positive feedback you’ve given me, and I’d be lucky to end up wherever you do. btw we may have already discussed this, but I’m just coming off an all-nighter, and I’m exhausted, so I’m not thinking clearly, so that being said, what’s your major and top school you’re aiming for?</p>
<p>And in response to your post in another thread to me, I’d be totally in for reading each other’s personal statements. That would definitely be interesting. When I get home tonight I’ll PM you mine and we can review each other’s.</p>
<p>Oh and sarah, in the midst of a caffeine overdose and strain from studying for two major tests today, I went back to some other threads and can see you’re aiming for UCB as Comp. Lit major, so no need to remind me. But I’m definitely in for checking out each other’s personal statements. Keep in touch.</p>
<p>^^^ Yeah, caffeine overdose and strain from studying…Sounds soooo familiar lol. </p>
<p>Damn, it’s been awhile since I’ve gone back and checked out some of these old threads I made back in the day. </p>
<p>To think I have a 3.74 now instead of a 3.57…and most said I have a good shot before the GPA change! Yes, this is consoling at 3:34 AM. Now I can sleep peacefully and without recurring nightmares of being ruthlessly rejected from UCB.</p>
<p>Ahh the good old chance threads in my humble beginnings here…good times.</p>
<p>Soooo, do they take into consideration your major GPA and your overall GPA then? The B in orgo is the only thing weighing me down, and it’s not even part of my major (just premed focus).</p>