How necessary are upper division courses to be competitive for top-tier?

[glass-animal]

Right now I'm a psychology major and with my major it would be difficult to take a lot of upper division courses such as Anatomy, Physiology, Immunology, and Genetics. Would it be worth it to switch into a more traditional science major such as microbio, bio, or, biochem so I could take some of these upper division courses? Without them I would only have all the prereqs and a bunch of psych courses. I'm also thinking about doing a minor in health disparities but I'm not sure how much a minor is worth.

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[WedgeDawg]

Not necessary

 

[aldol16]

With the top schools, it's not a checklist of boxes you have to check off. It's the story you tell - your narrative. If your passion lies in psychology and that's where your narrative is, then you should be pursuing psychology. If your passion lies elsewhere, then you should pursue that. With the top schools, applicants get in because of their story, not because they have all the boxes checked off. So take upper division courses in what you are passionate about and excel in them.

 

[AnotherLawyer]

It seems like schools care about upper level courses when they have doubts about one's ability to handle rigorous science courses. If you have the GPA/MCAT to be competitive at "top-tier" schools, schools probably don't have that concern about you.

 

[efle]

If you have a straight-A's GPA and an MCAT in the top few percent, I don't think they're going to worry about you being a psych major

they even regularly admit a significant chunk that studied humanities!

 

[citykid92]

I only took the required pre-reqs (was a non-science major) and I'm going to a "top tier" in August. Never got any critical questions about it.

 

[glass-animal]

If you have a straight-A's GPA and an MCAT in the top few percent, I don't think they're going to worry about you being a psych major

they even regularly admit a significant chunk that studied humanities!

So if I have a 3.97c and and 3.95s with maybe one or two A- in prereqs I would be fine? Lol sorry this probably sounds so neurotic

 

[aaronrodgers]

you're*

your fine!

 

[DocDD425]

You don't need them, but they would make Mcat easier, and will look good on your transcript if you get straight As.


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[efle]

they would make Mcat easier

bruh you take the MCAT yet? You def do not need classes in things like A&P or immuno

 

[DocDD425]

bruh you take the MCAT yet? You def do not need classes in things like A&P or immuno

Well, I got accepted...so I guess I took it? Biochem and physiology do help.


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[efle]

Well, I got accepted...so I guess I took it? Biochem and physiology do help.

Biochem absolutely, that's a prereq. But something like Immuno or Genetics? Yield so, so low. Never worth taking this stuff just for MCAT purposes

Unless it's changed now, you used to be able to completely destroy the test with only prereqs and the review books

 

[aldol16]

bruh you take the MCAT yet? You def do not need classes in things like A&P or immuno

Anatomy might not help but physiology definitely does. If you have a good general bio class that goes through stuff like organ system function it might not help but if you're at schools whose bio sequence is one semester of molecular bio and another of (what is basically) wildlife/evolutionary bio, then you won't encounter something like renal function in those classes. I had to learn all of that from scratch.

 

[efle]

^ That makes sense. My prereqs pretty much covered all MCAT materials, if your school focuses tons of time on evolution or plants or something like that, then I can see physio being useful