Important Steps to a Medical Career that Requires a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology

Important Steps to a Medical Career that Requires a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology

Take the right courses, besides typical PSY courses (Intro, Research Methods, Stats)
  • Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Math
  • Physiological Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Learning
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Lab course in Physiological or Cognitive Psychology
  • Seminar in Physiological or Cognitive Psychology

It is critical to do well in your courses.

  • 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 involved in research

  • 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.

Do a medical-related internship

  • 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.

Develop critical skills

  • 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.

Get involved in extracurricular activities related to medical issues

  • 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.

Be active in Psychology and Neuroscience organizations

  • 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.

Get work experience in a lneuroscience context if you can

  • 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.

Interact with your Professors

  • It is very important that you start to interact with Professors right away. This can occur by making contributions in class or just going up to your Professors and having a conversation about issues in the field.
  • These interactions can lead to being able to work in a Professor’s research lab, hearing about job opening that may be available in the Psychology department, and a letter of recommendation.
  • Remember, if a faculty member does not really know you or had you in one class, there is a lower likelihood that the Professor will agree to write a letter for you or knows you well enough to write a letter.
  • There are two important things to keep in mind with regard to letters of recommendation. First, a short letter of recommendation from a faculty member who does not know you well can sometimes be worse than no letter at all. Second, It is almost always better to have a letter of recommendation from a full-time Professor than an Instructor. For better or worse, the latter simply has higher status than the latter.

Other scoutiescareersinpsychology.org links:

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Click here to see career salary information.

Click on the links below to read about other Medical careers that only require an undergraduate degree:

Government Worker

Pharmaceutical Sales

Medical Lab Technician

Click on the links below to read about other Medical careers that require a graduate degree:

MA/MS Experimental Psychology

Medical Doctor

Neuroeconomist

PhD in Experimental Psychology

Dentist