Psych/Biology Double Major: is worth it?

If you are thinking about double-majoring In biology and psychology this post is going to be very helpful for you.

 In this post, we’re going to talk about the most interesting thing you should know before double majoring in biology and psychology. Also,  you will discover some tips you should follow if you decide to take a double major program.

Does it worth double majoring in psychology and biology?

 having a double major in biology and psychology could be useful due to the overlap these majors have. It could be useful to reduce for you some pre-med school subjects. But it won’t add the chance of getting accepted in premed school or something or make you more marketable.

You would have a good experience double majoring in biology and psychology especially if you are interested and passionate about these both majors. It won’t be bad if you like to challenge yourself and you think you are good enough to absorb the combined program with Biology and psychology.

If you aren’t sure about yourself getting good grades by double majoring in biology and psychology, don’t do that.  because you might lose completely your chances to apply for pre-med schools that are usually based on the grades that you would get from your degree.

So you have to be sure of yourself of getting at least a 3.0 GPA, is even better to get a 4.0. Because this domain is so competitive if you want to ensure, and higher your odds to be accepted. 

 But if you think that having a double major degree in biology and psychology will give you some advantages to joining the medical field you are wrong. 

 pre-med schools don’t care about how Majors you have more than showing good performance in your results which means getting the highest grades.

other than that if you arent interested to join premed school double major in biology and psychology doesn’t have any crucial importance in your career.

Double major in biology and psychology: full curriculum

These are the principal subject that you will be going to study if you double major in biology and psychology:

1 – Biology

Biology is the most interesting and heavy subject that you’re going to study by double majoring in biology and psychology, That being said you will study a lot of subjects that involve a lot of memorization and Analytics.

In general, you will be required to complete the biology   theme this following subject:

  • General Biology Lab
  • Human Biology
  • Human Biology Lab
  • Microbiology
  • Genetics
  • Microbiology Laboratory
  • Introductory Biochemistry
  • Biochemistry Laboratory
  • Human Physiology
  • Cell Biology
  • Biological Literature
  • Biology Colloquium

2 – Chemistry

The second confusing subject that you’re going through in this double major program is organic and analytical chemistry.  These subjects are totally easy to absorb they require solid basics in chemistry. But finally, they are still doable if you love chemistry.

That being said you will be studying the following subjects in chemistry:

  • Organic Chemistry I
  • Organic Chemistry II
  • Analytical Chemistry

you could read this related article Is analytical chemistry hard ? (solved)

3 – physics

Physics isn’t hard in the double major biology and psychology program, you won’t go deeper and study these complicated physics subjects. In other words, you would be studying General physics topics which are normal in this case.

In this case, you will focus on these 3 principal subjects:

  • General Physics I: Mechanics
  • Gen Physics II: Elect&Magntism
  • Gen Physics III for engineers

4 – math

you will be also studying mathematics subjects in this double major, But it doesn’t require you to be very good in math like engineering majors. having good foundations in high school mathematics, especially calculus and statistics will be enough.

In other words you will be required to take these mathematical classes:

  • calculus 1
  • calculus 2
  • statistics

5 – psychology

psychology is one of the most interesting subjects, it is the second interesting subject that double biology and psychology students take in their program. So you will be expected to study theses following subjects:

  • research method and behavioral science
  • Intro to Psychological Science
  • Industrial Psychology
  • Intro to Psychopathology
  • Social Psychology
  • Applied Correlation/Regression
  • Psychological Testing
  • Neural & Biol Bases Behavior
  • Cognitive Science
  • Child Development
  • Adult Development

6 – humanities

Finally, you will need to complete some humanity subjects that have a big importance in this program. Such as:

  • Industrial Culture
  • Age of Darwin
  • Life Stories
  • Digital Culture

if you want to discover more details about double major in biology and psychology curriculum you could visit this website.

2 tips about double majoring in biology and psychology

1 – Take credits

As we discovered in the curriculum above double majoring in biology in psychology focus on 6 subjects:

The 3 principal ones that you should focus on are:

biology, psychology, and humanity

The secondary ones are:

mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

So the principal recommendation is to take credit in these 3 secondary ones, like taking AP exams in physics, math and why not chemistry. Therefore you will have a lot of space to focus only on the main subjects.

You could do that by taking some summer classes to lighten the load of the course. Or taking some special courses to gain additional credits before you go to this major.

you could find more details by clicking on this link.

2 – Ask for a help

The second thing to consider is to take the advice of both psychology and biology advisors. Because they have a lot of experience helping you schedule effectively your program.

Conclusion

If you think double majoring in biology and psychology will help you Financially your are wrong, you will have the same chances as the ones with single degrees majoring in psychology or biology.

But it will gain additional information and open more doors if you want to choose to shift totally to biology or psychology. But you have to be ready for a huge amount of the workload you have to support.

So in general if you love and have an interest in these both majors, but if you look for financial reward, it will be not a good investment.

yassin.ajanif

Yassin ajanif is a physics graduate and electromechanical engineer width more than 5 years in the field. My goal and my team are to share our experience to help you succeed in your career as a stem major. we talk about all tips, problems, and struggle STEM students face in their career and how to overcome them.