Jump to content
Premed 101 Forums

B.A in Psychology into medicine?


Recommended Posts

Fall 2019 I will be starting an Honours B.A in Psychology at UOttawa and plan on studying in medicine, completing all my science prerequisites. I know that there isn't a specific degree for medical school but every now and then I worry. Is it really a problem? Should I make the program change(if I can)? Did you or do you know anyone who has gotten into medical school with my degree?

sincerely,

a (slightly) worried pre-med student :wub:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not the best example, because I also have a Masters, but I have an honours BA in psych and I just finished medical school. There were a few people in my class who came from psychology and other BA programs, so I don't think it's an issue. If you are really worried then the best person to talk to would be the admissions department at whatever schools you plan to apply to, just to make sure you are able to plan your degree effectively in order to include any pre-requisites etc. 

EDIT: Also not a University of Ottawa student (but coming to uOttawa for residency!) so again, best to talk to admissions :-) 

Edited by MSWschnoodle
Adding clarification
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/6/2019 at 8:03 PM, studiesbyjenn said:

Fall 2019 I will be starting an Honours B.A in Psychology at UOttawa and plan on studying in medicine, completing all my science prerequisites. I know that there isn't a specific degree for medical school but every now and then I worry. Is it really a problem? Should I make the program change(if I can)? Did you or do you know anyone who has gotten into medical school with my degree?

sincerely,

a (slightly) worried pre-med student :wub:

. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Just now, porcupine said:

Did that exact pathway and interviewed for med this year. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions! :)

 

Just now, PhD2MD said:

My closest friend in med school did a completely non-science degree, got in OOP on a fluke, and then became our class superstar, publishing in the highest-end journals that exist.

Success definitely exists outside of traditional science degrees.

 

Just now, MSWschnoodle said:

I'm not the best example, because I also have a Masters, but I have an honours BA in psych and I just finished medical school. There were a few people in my class who came from psychology and other BA programs, so I don't think it's an issue. If you are really worried then the best person to talk to would be the admissions department at whatever schools you plan to apply to, just to make sure you are able to plan your degree effectively in order to include any pre-requisites etc. 

EDIT: Also not a University of Ottawa student (but coming to uOttawa for residency!) so again, best to talk to admissions :-) 

Wooow! Thank you all so much <3 That was reassuring. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 11 months later...

You definitely don’t need a major change or anything. I have a BA Honours in psychology as well and did my pre-reqs as electives or some in a 5th year (which was only cause I was interested in taking more elective courses in humanities!). I’ve received a few interviews so far, so you should have no problems!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...
On 5/5/2020 at 7:35 PM, Moonlight2 said:

You definitely don’t need a major change or anything. I have a BA Honours in psychology as well and did my pre-reqs as electives or some in a 5th year (which was only cause I was interested in taking more elective courses in humanities!). I’ve received a few interviews so far, so you should have no problems!

hi 

 

my daughter is currently doing BA Honours in psychology( 3 year). She is planning to go to Med school. My question to you is if she can take prerequisites in the 5th year and does she have to take full course load in the 5th year?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/26/2020 at 2:29 PM, Kul said:

hi 

 

my daughter is currently doing BA Honours in psychology( 3 year). She is planning to go to Med school. My question to you is if she can take prerequisites in the 5th year and does she have to take full course load in the 5th year?

not necessarily. She truly only has to make sure she has at least 70% (B) in every prereq. uOttawa takes into account only the 3 most recent full time years. Her fifth year can be full time or not if she wants. If it’s not full time, uOttawa will not take it for the calculation of her cGPA. This calculation will be based on whatever other years she has completed with a full course load.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/26/2020 at 2:29 PM, Kul said:

hi 

 

my daughter is currently doing BA Honours in psychology( 3 year). She is planning to go to Med school. My question to you is if she can take prerequisites in the 5th year and does she have to take full course load in the 5th year?

Not for Ottawa - although you would have to be careful potentially for other schools (you would have to explain to TO for instance why you took a shorter year if you what to use the wGPA policy).Médicomage is quite right about the specific to Ottawa issues. 

Absolutely nothing wrong about doing a psychology degree and going into medicine, you just have to keep up the GPA (the essays in years 3 and 4 can make that more challenging I find). I am biased of course as one of my degrees is in psychology. Actually can give you a leg up on parts of the MCAT that many people struggle with. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The reason why she isn’t taking prerequisites as electives in the 4th year because she doesn’t want her gpa to drop. Hopefully the gpa calculation will be accounted for the four years of psych degree and the 5th year courses she will take just to meet the prerequisites requirements 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/26/2020 at 2:29 PM, Kul said:

hi 

 

my daughter is currently doing BA Honours in psychology( 3 year). She is planning to go to Med school. My question to you is if she can take prerequisites in the 5th year and does she have to take full course load in the 5th year?

Hi there. 
no, she doesn’t have to keep a full course load if she doesn’t have any courses remained to take in the 5th year (except for prereqs). But she should make sure she has a full course load preferably in all the prior years, or at least in 2 years of those.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thank you for responding back. 
 

 

 

The reason why she isn’t taking prerequisites as electives in the 4th year because she doesn’t want her gpa to drop. Hopefully the gpa calculation will be accounted for the four years of psych degree and the 5th year courses she will take just to meet the prerequisites requirements 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...