
I really enjoyed being an undergraduate in the Psychology department at UCB. Because of this I took more of the courses offered than was required and planned to become a psychologist I made A's in the most difficult courses for majors. As a lower division student, I enrolled in a theory course for upper division and graduate students. The teaching assistant gave me an A on one exam in which I was to criticise a then popular personality theory.. The teacher didn't like my criticism of the personality theory which he personally liked, and lowered my grade to a B. Nonetheless, he was a terrific instructor and I learned more from him than any other teacher In the department, despite his obvious bias and dislike of truly critical thinking.
I graduated with departmental honors. But when I applied to the Psychology Graduate Division, I was quickly rejected. When I asked my undergraduate advisor about the reason, he told me it was because I hadn't enrolled in rat running classes, and had been unwilling to give up my weekends to care for the laboratory rats I would have used in these classes. I had enjoyed the experiments and research we had done in other classes with human (undergraduate) subjects. Years later in Medical school, one of my teachers got a lot of laughs when he stated (about animal research and it applicability to humans) that "A rat is not a man!"
My rejection made me immediately subject to the draft, but I was quickly accepted into another social science graduate program, and made a research assistant the following year, because of my critical and statistical skills. I had to enter the Reserve Armed Services, and on my return I had a change of mind, and took some pre-medical courses I needed to enter medical school.
I received my MD degree at another institution, and eventually became a Psychiatrist. I am now retired. So I thank the department for indirectly pointing me io my very satifying professional career.