Important Steps to a Medical Career that Requires a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology
- Overall GPA.
- Psychology GPA minor (if you have one).
- GPA last two years in college GPA.
- Maintaining a high GPA from your freshman year on
- If you do not get an A or B in a course you should probably repeat the course, especially if it was a Psychology course.
- Get research experience related to legal issues to show you are motivated to study legal issues.
- Get even more involved in research by doing a Senior Honors thesis or some other research where you can get your name on a conference presentation or journal publication. This kind of recognition is rare for an undergraduate and will really boost your standing when you apply for a job.
- You can get involved in research as part of Independent study course and thus earn credit hours and possibly increase your GPA if it counts as a graded course or volunteer.
- An advantage to working in a lab is that you get to know a faculty member who can write you a strong letter of recommendation when you are ready to apply for jobs. Given you need more than one letter of recommendation, it is probably best to work in two different labs as an undergraduate.
- By doing an internship you can again show your high level of motivation for a job.
- This internship can be with an with an on-campus clinic/organization or off-campus clinic/organization dealing with medicine.
- There are a number of skills you can develop in addition to what you learn in classes and by conducting research-- computers, writing, and oral communication skills.
- You can volunteer at various places that involve legal issues: a law clinic, law office, local, state, or Federal court, etc.
- This involvement demonstrates a high level of motivation and interest in Psychology and medicine. Any involvement just adds to your overall record and makes you a more competitive applicant.
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This can include Psi Chi (the National Honor Society In Psychology) or any Psychology club on campus and neuroscience organizations.
- Once again, this involvement demonstrates a high level of motivation and interest in Psychology and in medicine. Any involvement just adds to your overall record and makes you a more competitive applicant.
- It is not critical that you are employed in a medical context (such as those listed above) as an undergraduate, but if you can get such a job that is a real bonus.