SAMPLE PRE-MEDICAL PATHS IN PSYCHOLOGY

The psychology concentration is an ideal one if you are planning a medical career. The concentration has five different pre-medical paths: General (regular or thesis option), Life Sciences (regular or thesis option), and Mind/Brain/Behavior (thesis option only). A pre-medical curriculum consists of coursework in biology (two half-courses), general chemistry (usually two half-courses), organic chemistry (two half-courses), physics (two half-courses), and mathematics/statistics (usually one half-course and Psy 1900 qualify for most medical schools). Some medical schools also require coursework in behavioral/social science (one half course), and an additional biology half course.

Because pre-medical courses can count toward more concentration requirements in the Life Science and MBB tracks than in the regular tracks, only these are shown below.  There are a number of acceptable variation to the following paths. Because alternatives may also involve pre-medical courses (labelled "P" below), and because the order in which these courses should be taken is important, you should consult a pre-medical adviser in your House as you develop variations on the sample paths below. These categories are given in parentheses below, and other courses that will fulfill these requirements are listed at the end of this section. These lists vary from year to year; each year some courses are bracketed, and some require the instructor's permission to enroll.

© by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
Last updated 26 September, 2008