<p>Okay, I know the question whether undergraduate major should correspond to the intended focus of research in PhD was asked numerous times, but it didn’t help me figure out the seemingly contradictory nature of two propositions:</p>
<li>Undergraduate students do not necessarily have to major in their prospective field of PhD.</li>
<li>They do need, however, to show strong research potentials in their prospective field of PhD during their undergraduate years.</li>
</ol>
<p>So since prop. #2 is virtually impossible without major work in the field, the option of prop. #1 is purely theoretical?</p>
<p>not necessarily. you can study russian literature as an undergrad and do russian history as a graduate, for example. you can major in history but use methods that are largely anthropological/ethnographic, and can then move into an anthropology phd.</p>
<p>i wouldn’t know if this is as flexible for the sciences, but in the arts there’s certainly some malleability.</p>
<p>I disagree that “#2 is virtually impossible without major work in the field”. I was a pure chemistry major and had no formal classroom training in biological principles or lab techniques. I worked solely in biology/biomedical labs during undergrad and was able to get trained in numerous biology techniques just from my lab experience. As a result, I have a working knowledge of the biology field which, though far from extensive and most likely very lacking compared to people who majored in bio, was at least enough to get me into PhD programs in biology.</p>
<p>You can have a BS in one field, an MS in another, then apply for a PhD in your MS field.</p>
<p>Plus, I’ve known several people to get into top programs (including Harvard, Stanford, and MIT in various fields) without any research - just good ideas of what they wanted to research and why.</p>
<p>Having diverse research experience was viewed quite positively by the faculty I met with including discussions of how my research in a tangentially linked field might enhance the projects available to me in the labs I was considering. Also, I think people are genuinely understanding that sometimes you take an opportunity for other reasons than the topic. My most recent research has been in Complement but I am looking for labs in bacterial pathogenesis; when I explained the reasons I had for taking my current job and why I wanted to change fields, people didn’t say anything negative about it.</p>
So, if I major in Religion, I wouldn’t be involved in any psych or soc project to the degree of creating potentially publishable outcome, so what have I got to sell myself to grad school admission officers if GPA or GRE matters little?
It’s not that I would dislike majoring in Psychology as an undergrad, but I want myself to be more interdisciplinary, so I want a different major during my undergrad.</p>
<p>You could be majoring in English, and if you go find a professor in whatever subject you like, and get him to do one directed study course, and impress him, I bet he’d let you do molecular biology or fusion physics or theoretical computer science or topology.</p>
<p>If you can’t impress them, then, well, why would you want to do a PhD in that subject? How would you know you like it?</p>
<p>Directed study? Isn’t that like private reading? I thought in order to do an individual study you need to take a bunch of intro courses and get the approval of the department/professor?
Sorry, but I don’t really understand your kind advice. Can you explain it in more detail? I’m a lowly first-year.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine a professor taking on a freshman for an independent study credit. I did several semesters of independent study credits and they generally consist of some sort of project with discrete goals, aims and subaims. This plan was always worked out with the faculty mentor ahead of time and often was a part of the faculty member’s existing grant proposals. I don’t know how this would work in a non biomedical science discipline but if you speak to your professors about this, they will certainly know what you are talking about.</p>
<p>Well, unless I’m missing something, it doesn’t say anything about majoring in the subject. It says “be a junior or higher” and to have completed “basic coursework in the selected topic area”.</p>
<p>If you haven’t completed “basic coursework” in the area, then you have no business doing independent study and you have no business going to graduate school in that area. “Basic coursework” is a very loose term. You should expect to take the freshman sequence in whatever you want to go to graduate school in… do well enough in those, and I don’t see why the professor wouldn’t go with you.</p>
<p>I was a CS major who met up with a physics professor in my freshman (honors) physics class. I told him I liked playing around with numerical methods, and I ended up doing 4 semesters of undergraduate research under him. No independent study, no nothing. A little luck, maybe, but I’m confident that if I had wanted to then, I could have canvassed the department and found something.</p>
<p>And if you have to wait till your junior year before you do any research, big deal. That’s enough time to get a lot of experience with whatever you want.</p>
<p>As a professor in biomedical research, I do take on exceptional freshman for independent research-though I prefer taking soph and higher who hopefully understand how much time is required to balance coursework with extracurricular activities such as research. Much of how I decide to take on a student, depends less on their actually meeting my posted requirements, and more on their ability to specifically articulate why they wish to work in my lab. </p>
<p>I also have had in my lab a music major who subsequently went on to a top tier biomedical research program. This individual did take key science courses in addition to her music major curriculum (O chem in particular). regardless of what “official” requirements are listed for doing research as an undergraduate at your university, I would encourage you to contact individual research faculty and volunteer to work in their lab. The key is to detail in your initial contacts why their lab and their research is of interest to you. You should also realize that when you begin in a lab, you may spend substantial time learning to make solutions and wash dishes before working up the food chain and becoming involved in actual research. </p>
<p>Much of success in research is perseverance…So persevere!</p>
<p>But… but do you mean that extracurricular activity(research) is the most important criterion in grad school admissions? What about my performance in my other field of major? So if I focus my every energy in extracurricular research and do a marginal job on every other stuff, I can get in to top schools?</p>
<p>I believe the implicit goal is to do your best in both arenas, and marginal in neither. Research is one of the most important aspects for graduate studies, more so than in any other type of post-college admissions (such as med school, which could be more GPA or shadowing focused).</p>
<p>This is all extremely confusing.
Will anyone answer my question in yes/no?
Would it hurt me at all to take just a minor in psychology or sociology, rather than majoring in it, in doing a PhD in organizational behavior?</p>
<p>No, it won’t hurt you. What will hurt you is if you breeze through your undergrad years, don’t make any effort to show you have strong interests and abilities in whatever field, and then try to get into graduate school for that field with an unrelated degree.</p>
<p>I mean, if you were evaluating two candidates, having the following stats:</p>
<p>Bachelor of Science, Math
No research
No extracurricular activities
3.95 GPA</p>
<p>and</p>
<p>Bachelor of Science, Industrial Engineering, minor in Economics
6 semesters of undergraduate research in operations research, published in three journals
Chapter President of the Society for Excellence in Operations Research, active member of Operations Research International
3.5 GPA</p>
<p>Applying to a graduate program in OR, which one would you pick? You want the one who will be most likely to do well, pass, and get done with research in a timely fashion… and who will bring in research bucks.</p>
<p>impsuit, what is the major you’re intending on pursuing? An undergraduate degree in biology, computer science, informatics, neuroscience, chemistry, or even philosophy would set you up well for graduate studies in psychology. For organizational psychology, a business degree would be apt as well.</p>
<p>You’re not tied down to the classes you can take once you submit your major to the registrar; electives are yours to do with as you please. You can join psychology clubs, attend talks, help professors with their research etc. while pursuing whatever degree you want if you make your goals clear (example: I worked for four separate psych labs over the years as a biology major; a math major friend has been in one for three years writing programs and getting credit hours in the chemistry department for it). I assume that whichever major you choose, you will be concentrating your coursework on what you eventually want to study, so you should be fine.</p>
<p>Don’t stress. And don’t assume that if you focus on “extracurricular research” you will “do a marginal job on every other stuff.” We’re not dealing in absolutes here. You–not your college adviser or the school bulletin or a mysterious administrative force–decide what to do with your days, and how well you do it.</p>