Being an "unconventional" pre-med

When people first hear that I'm a pre-med student majoring in psychology, their usual reaction is, "Oh, that's great - you get to follow your interests while still fulfilling your requirements." Once they hear that I'm a double-major in two non-science departments, their eyes start to bulge out a little =P

Since a lot of you admits have asked about being pre-med at Yale or the neuroscience track in psychology, I decided to write this post as a case study of my experience in both of those areas. The goal is not to argue that everyone should avoid being bio majors if they want to go to medical school, but that it's definitely possible to fulfill pre-med requirements while taking full advantage of all the great academic options that Yale has to offer. An advance warning: this is going to be a REALLY long post.

Just for fun: An aerial shot of the Silliman courtyard
Some general notes about double-majors: (1) A maximum of two credits can count toward both majors, not including pre-requisite courses. Therefore, a requirement for major A can count as a pre-requisite for major B, and it won't count as one of the two credits. (2) If you want to do one senior project for both majors, they expect that the single project will be the equivalent amount of work as two separate projects, so it better be reeeeeally good. (3) You can't have double-major combinations like "Math and Economics" (a composite major) with Math or Economics (either of the component majors). Similarly, you can't double major in things with parallel tracks, like I wouldn't be able to double major in the Psych-Neuroscience track with the MCDB-Neurobiology track (too much overlap!). (4) Some majors can ONLY be a second major, such as international studies. There are a couple other rules and regulations, so check this page if you're interested.

Ok, so how did I double-major in two non-sciences and fulfill my pre-med requirements? First, I should note that I started off as a bio (MCDB) major), but after taking developmental psych my freshman fall and getting involved in psych research, I decided I'd rather be a psych major. Looking at the Blue Book, I learned about the "Neuroscience" track, which seemed to be the perfect mix of biology and psychology that I was looking for. There is a parallel "Neurobiology" track in the MCDB department, but the class and senior projects requirements are slightly different (scroll down to the bottom of the link). I decided to stick with the psych version because there were more interesting-looking classes in the psych department (which is a generally good way to gauge whether or not you should major in something).

This is how I fulfilled the Psych-neuroscience requirements - it's actually a screenshot of my "track worksheet," which I would bring to Professor Schafe each semester to show how I was planning to finish the major:
Some explanatory notes: I got out of pre-requisite intro psych and the intro bio courses because I had scored a 5 on the AP Psych exam and AP Bio exam, so that was 3 credits I didn't have to take. "List A" classes are more standard psych courses - I counted Developmental Psych (140) and Social Psych (150). After that, they ask for an "advanced" psychology course (anything above 200) - I counted 371, Lab in Animal Cognition (basically working in the Comparative Cognition Lab). Credits 9-12 are all advanced science classes, usually higher-level bio courses (200 or higher) relating to animal or human biology, but they can also include higher-level math or computer science classes. The last entry, CSCC 363, was a residential college seminar called "Frontiers of Neuroscience." To fulfill my senior requirement (not listed on the worksheet), I took PSYC 413: Mind, Brain and Society, which was an awesome seminar, and my final paper for that class counted as my psych senior essay. Total: 11 credits.

Dissecting sheep brains in research methods (PSYC 240)

At the beginning of my junior year, I decided to add History of Science, History of Medicine (HSHM) as a second major. I had originally started taking HSHM classes to fulfill my humanities distributional requirement, but found them surprisingly enjoyable. What makes the major so great is that it's super flexible: there's just one required class. Here are the requirements and how I fulfilled them:

1) Pre-reqs: 1 semester math (I took MATH 120 freshman spring) and 1 year science with lab (I counted organic chemistry)
2) Four HSHM courses: HSHM 242 (Molecular Bio in the 20th century), HSHM 210 (Magic Bullets and Wonder Pills), HSHM 727 (grad-level seminar on colonial public health), and HSHM 235 (Epidemics and Society since 1600)
3) Required HSHM seminar: HSHM 328 (Methods in HSHM)
4) HSHM or History seminar: HSHM 451 (Cardiology in America)
5) Five more electives, chosen in consultation with your faculty adviser: Two bioethics classes (offered through Political Science), MCDB 240 (Bio of Reproduction), CSTD 331 (a college seminar), and PSYC 413 (Mind, Brain, and Society).
6) Senior essay: Everyone registers for HSHM 490 and HSHM 491, so your senior essay grade becomes the grade for these courses at the end of the year. I wrote my essay about the development of chemotherapy at Yale, which is somewhat discussed in an earlier post.

Total credits: 13, beyond the pre-reqs. MCDB 240 and PSYC 413 were the two classes I counted as overlaps with Psych.

Now, you might ask, how does this match up with pre-med requirements? Pre-med reqs usually include 1 year (or equivalent) of general chemistry, biology, organic chemistry, and physics, all with lab. School also usually ask for a year of math, a year of English, and some require biochem. Here's how those matched my major requirements:

1) General chemistry - I took CHEM 118/119 (one-semester general chem with lab), since I had a 5 on the AP Chem exam. For some schools, this would have been enough, but just in case, I took one semester of biochem (MB&B 300) with lab (MCDB 251). Conveniently, MB&B 300 counted as an advanced bio class for neuroscience!
2) Organic chemistry - fulfilled my HSHM pre-req for a year of science with lab
3) Biology - MCDB 205 (Cell Bio) and MCDB 240 (Bio of Reproduction) both counted as advanced bio classes for neuroscience. As I mentioned earlier, I double-counted Biology of Reproduction for an HSHM elective too. For labs, I took the intro bio labs (MCDB 121 and E&EB 123) last summer, since I was serving as a YSS counselor and got one free course credit.
4) Physics - I also took this in the summer (2007), only paying for two of the three credits because I was a YSS counselor. I could have counted this toward the HSHM pre-reqs instead of organic chemistry if I wanted to.
5) Math: I took MATH 120 (multi-variable calculus) after getting a 5 on the BC Calc exam, then since I had to take Statistics for neuroscience anyway, just counted that as my second semester of math. As noted earlier, I counted MATH 120 toward my HSHM pre-req.
6) English: I took one English course freshman year, and a literature course senior fall.

Thus, the only EXTRA things (that I didn't count toward either major) were one semester of general chemistry with lab, my bio labs, physics with lab, and English (7.5 credits total). I could have streamlined this further, e.g. if I took more advanced bio labs, they could have counted toward the neuroscience requirements. Also, most people don't realize that it's not absolutely necessary to finish pre-med requirements before you apply, although it's advisable to finish the sciences before you take your MCAT (for obvious reasons). You just have to finish them before you actually enter medical school.

Total credits: 11 (Psych) + 13 (HSHM) + 7.5 (finishing pre-med) = 31.5. Wow, I still had room for other stuff! Remember, 36 credits is only the MINIMUM to graduate from Yale - many students end up taking more. The only distributional requirement left after all this was foreign language, which I finished with 3 credits worth of Spanish.

In general, my experience as a non-science pre-med has been overwhelmingly positive. I was never stuck in lab plating cells or pipetting (although I could have done that kind of research too), and I feel I have a much more balanced view of medicine from my classes in psych, bioethics, and public health (something to talk about during interviews!) Of course, there are a couple caveats: I had AP scores that allowed me to skip out of 4-5 credits, and I took summer classes (I would recommend spending at least one summer in New Haven anyway). However, the the bottom line is still that you CAN be a non-science major and still be pre-med...some of my friends have majored in History, English, Political Science, or even Theater Studies and went to/are going to medical school =)

For general pre-med advice, Undergraduate Career Services has a lot of resources, including student's impressions of schools from their interview days and first years. You HAVE to go through UCS for the med school application process, but I've usually found them to be slightly too cautious/pessimistic in their advice. (I can attest to this from personal experience - I was accepted to a medical school even though my GPA was significantly lower than their average, although my MCAT score is higher than their average). Talking to upperclassmen is much more helpful, even more so through informal means (rather than through some of the pre-med organizations, which are mostly dominated by what I call "crazy pre-meds" obsessed with obtaining the highest possible GPA and having the perfect resume).

On a final note, some of you may be especially interested in the Medical Humanities program at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. My friend who is a Theater Studies major is entering MSSM as part of this program next year, so if you have questions, I can certainly put you in contact with her.