Undergrad Neurosciencevs pharmacotherapy and abnormal psych vs social psych?

[b.nguyening]

Hello everyone, I am currently in my last semester of undergrad and I am wondering if I should take neuroscience or pharmacotherapy and abnormal psych or social psych? These are all undergrad upper division courses. My overall goal is go prepare for med school while maintaining my gpa. My gpa is currently 3.74, which is kinda low. Please give me some feedback on which courses I should take.

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[WedgeDawg]

Whichever you find most intellectually stimulating

 

[b.nguyening]

Whichever you find most intellectually stimulating

To be honest, I would enjoy all of the courses. I'm just wondering which one may be more beneficial in the long run.

 

[WedgeDawg]

To be honest, I would enjoy all of the courses. I'm just wondering which one may be more beneficial in the long run.

The one that will be ultimately most beneficial in the long run is the one that will be most intellectually rigorous, challenging, and stimulating. Taking content knowledge to medical school is of very limited value because you're going to learn everything you need to know in medical school anyway, often in different ways than you do in undegrad, in a different context, and at a different pace. Taking a class that will "warm you up" to a proper study schedule and allow you to challenge yourself will help prepare your study habits for medical school and give you an edge more than any sort of content review will.

 

[Lawpy]

To be honest, I would enjoy all of the courses. I'm just wondering which one may be more beneficial in the long run.

Either of those three will do. What matters is how you did on the prereqs and how you performed on the MCAT. You can take any upper division courses you wish.

To help you out, ask yourself if you're interested in more psychological/behavioral side of things or you're more curious about hard sciences. If you like the social sciences more, social psych is the way to go. If you want to show adcoms you can handle science classes, neuroscience is a good option.

 

[JustAPhD]

Eh, 'most beneficial' will probably be a moot point. Personally I'd take neuroscience but I'm incredibly biased...I also hated social psych. It's all up to you.

 

[Wolfpack93]

3.74 is kinda low? In what world?

Pharmacotherapy and abnormal psych might be helpful if you haven't taken the MCAT. If your pharmacotherapy class has a strong biochem focus then I could see it helping with enzyme kinetics/inhibition. Abnormal psych could help with the different mental disorders. If you've already taken the MCAT then it's a moot point.

 

[PB&Jam]

Personally, I'd take neuro and abnormal psych. Neuro because it is an area of particular interest for me (and it is also my major) and abnormal psych because I am one of those imperfect premeds who has had a mental illness. But do what you would most enjoy. If you really can't decide, flip a coin. If it lands on the one you subconsciously wanted to take, you'll be happy. If it lands on the one you subconsciously didn't want to take, you'll realize you actually didn't want to take that class.