making up undergrad deficits

[vallaboop]

Hi all,

I'm trying to make up for some deficits in my undergrad transcript. While I just graduated with a MS in psychology (GPA 4.0), I want to make up for some of my hard science deficits that occurred during my pathetic senior year of undergrad. Has anyone taken online classes at the University of New England? What was your experience/is there a way to get help with funding? Or would it be acceptable to get a certificate from EdX or Coursera courses instead? Any advice is much appreciated! 

[PsyDuck90]

If you have an MA, schools won't really care about your undergrad as long as you meet the pre-reqs. 

[vallaboop]

19 minutes ago, Hk328 said:

If you have an MA, schools won't really care about your undergrad as long as you meet the pre-reqs. 

I'm just worried because my MS doesn't neatly fit with the PhD programs I'm interested in. I just want to make sure there is no question that I can excel in hard science courses (biochem, physics, etc) and not just psychology courses. 

[PsyDuck90]

What kind of PhD programs are you applying to? The average clinical psych or counseling psych programs don't emphasize hard sciences that strongly. 

[vallaboop]

30 minutes ago, Hk328 said:

What kind of PhD programs are you applying to? The average clinical psych or counseling psych programs don't emphasize hard sciences that strongly. 

Behavioral neuroscience, or neuroscience programs with research in psychiatric diseases. I'm interested in the neurobiological side of mental illness. So some of the programs I'm looking at are part of the psychology department, while others have interdepartmental collaboration. 

[PsyDuck90]

Yeah, that's definitely a specific niche. I would see if you can maybe reach out to someone in the departments, like a current student, and see if you can get an understanding of how heavily they look at undergrad science courses. A lot of times research experience and GREs really trump undergrad course work anyway. You definitely want to make sure your quant score is up there. I would stay away from online classes for the hard sciences anyway, as you miss the lab component of the class. Maybe look into a community college course? 

[vallaboop]

52 minutes ago, Hk328 said:

Yeah, that's definitely a specific niche. I would see if you can maybe reach out to someone in the departments, like a current student, and see if you can get an understanding of how heavily they look at undergrad science courses. A lot of times research experience and GREs really trump undergrad course work anyway. You definitely want to make sure your quant score is up there. I would stay away from online classes for the hard sciences anyway, as you miss the lab component of the class. Maybe look into a community college course? 

Thanks for the advice! I have a lot of research experience so that is working for me, and luckily some of the programs I am looking at no longer require the GRE (yay!). I will look for local courses and see what I can find.