WAH! Please help me! What is a good Double Major with Psychology?

Question

Transferring to UCLA next fall. I'm considering graduate school for my PhD, medical school (psychiatry), or PA school.

What should my second major be?

Please include your opinions on nonscience majors as well.

What are your friends' experiences in graduate/med/PA school?

Also, what did You, yourself, major in? (Just curious)

Answer 1

I double majored in psychology and elementary education and minored in French. I haven't found the psychology degree as useful as I thought it would be - not unless you get a Master's or PhD in psych.

Answer 2

I would think that: Biology or neuroscience of some sort might be a good related field. If you don't like the medical side of that you could do Sociology as a second major because I found the fields related to each other and knowledge in one was helpful in the other. I can also see Mathematics relating to Psychology at least for the statistics.

I have one friend in Med school who is working hard but loves it. Similar story for the rest of my grad school friends.

I was a Psych major and an education minor. I see many people put education down as an option. Yes, it can be helpful but personally my psych BA did not help at all with my getting a job in the education field.

Answer 3

I would suggest Biopsychology or Neuroscience. The science courses that are pre-reqs for med school are generally required for these majors. Ones about the brain and nervous system, along with anatomy, will give you a decent medical background.

I am majoring in Behavioural Neuroscience, but I'm not sure if UCLA even offers this program. Stats show that this program has the highest percentage of successful med school applicants at my university, even more than Bio majors.

Hope this helps :)

Answer 4

I'd think a good double major would be education. Most educators in public schools are REQUIRED to have some sort of psychology training, and if that's something that interests you with psychology, it'd be a good way to get into working with kids -- whether it be teaching, counseling, family therapy, etc etc etc.

None of my friends have gone to med school yet, but I have one friend whose got a BS in Psych and another in Biology. The first is now working as a manager of a job placement agency (sounds weird, but there's a huge amount of psychological analysis that goes along with finding a job) and the other is working with a dentist and intends on going to med school for dentistry and/or orthodontics.

I majored in fashion design, but was always interested in lots of things, psych included. I'm now the director of an art gallery.

Answer 5

I have always respected psychiatric social workers!! They have the psychological and the social aspects of growing up!! I had a French major by default; worked in the new Vietnamese section of the now National Security Agency and ended up breaking low escelon military codes of the Vietcong. I was good at this. Then lived in Japan for a year in '54 and learned Japanese and to read Hiragana and Katakana. Went through a divorce; got a student load and got a CA teaching credential. The 5 yrs with Kinders there--they taught me everything I ever learned re group dynamics. Then got an MA in Guidance and Counseling; got a lot of good clinical hours and worked 21 yrs with very troubled adolescent young women and guys!! With good success! LOVED them all!! Learning to help others understand themselves is like finding gold!! In that process, we learn about ourselves, as well. To help others is our highest endeavor. But, To thine ownself, be true!!

Answer 6

Try majoring in neuroscience. A relatively new field of study, Neuroscience combines the fields of biology, psychology, chemistry, engineering, and others to come to a more specific understanding of how brain structures influence behavior. As a Neuroscience major, you’ll learn about the evolution of the brain, cellular neuroscience, and genetics. You’ll learn about consciousness and what affects it. You’ll learn about the nervous system, and what factors might enhance or destroy it. You’ll study various types of both normal and abnormal behavior. And then you’ll put them together and see how the brain and nervous system are themselves factors in why we act the way we do. Much of your Neuroscience coursework will require research and laboratory work. You might study the electrical activity of nerve cells, or evaluate the effects of drugs on behavior; there are any number of directions your research may lead you. or try majoring in a language such as spanish. Learning another language expands your communication skills and allows for you to explore new options in whatever field you may choose. If you chose psychiatry, you would be able to expand the types of patients you could treat. For example if spanish was your major, you could cater to the latin community as well as the english-speaking community.

Answer 7

I am guessing if you are going to medical school, a science major like biology or biochemistry would be good.

On the other hand, you could choose a humanities major to be a well rounded student.

Graduate school for me was cool, fun, enlightening, but yes, hard :)

Answer 8

for your purposes, biology.

but i did know one med student who had a bs in nursing which added an incredible element to their perspective on care.