Grendarab said:
Well I plan on becoming a Psychiatrist, and I'm having some difficulty choosing a major. I chose psychology, but I had a friend tell me that if psychiatry didn't work out, I'd be left with a major that is essentially useless, while if I went into Nursing, at least then I could become a Psychiatric Nurse.
I've put some research into it, and it seems that college's will chastise me for choosing an "easy" major, although the reason I'm majoring in it is because it correlates with Psychiatry to some extent.
Nursing on the other hand is evidently frowned upon, as if one applies to med school immediately after undergrad, then it shows that the individual had no intention in becoming a nurse, and rather that they may have just used the major as a backup.
Any ideas?
It seems like you're aware of the dilemma. Practical majors with good starting salaries like engineering and nursing give you the option of a good career if you don't get into medical school. However medical schools want high (3.5+) GPAs that are extremely difficult to get in those majors, but are extremely easy to get in useless majors like psychology. This is one of the many ways that medical school is biased towards the children of the rich: students who don't need to carry student debt don't need to worry about having a back up plan to pay off their loans, so high GPAs are more easily accessible to them. Be aware that if you choose a harder major no one is going to take that into consideration when you get a sub 3.5 GPA.
A good compromise might be a major with some earning potential but a relatively high average GPA. This is a school specific decision but a business major paired with a multi-semester Co-Op is probably a good option. A series of Internships is less ideal, but can work in place of the Co-Op. The best way to maximize your options out of college without sacrificing your GPA is always to get as much work experience as possible. In my opinion
every premed needs to have at least two semesters of full time Internship or Co-Op work experience in an actual office (not a research lab). This also gets you a real view of white collar life outside the bubble of medicine.
There does also seem to be a consensus option (which may be wrong) that nursing is particularly looked down on, ostensibly because ADCOMs want to know why you would reject another healthcare career but actually because physicians think about nurses pretty much the same way that that mongooses think about cobras. The word 'nursing' is tied up in every physician's mind with a dozen bad associations that would then be associated with you, regardless of whether you've ever actually worked in the field of nursing. If you want the strongest possible back up plan I would try engineering. Nursing is kind of a miserable field anyway: too many boses and way too many check boxes.
BTW in general I think the worst thing you can do with an undergraduate major is to try to get a head start on the skills they're going to teach you in medical school. Don't do a psychology degree to prepare for psychiatry, your psych rotations and resideny will take care of that. I think that good things for a premed to do with an undergraduate major include:
1) Developing a backup plan: Nursing, engineering, computer science, accounting, statistics, or some form of business. Lots of Internships or a multi-semester co-op a must.
2) Develop tertiary skills for medicine not taught in medical school: Foreign language skills (especially Spanish), basic accounting and business skills, computer skills, and Epidemiology and public health.
3) Develop your sense of culture and have fun: history, theology, anthropology, art, etc.
If you're taking out lots of student loans I recommend plan #1. If you're going to be debt free, or close, plans 2 and 3 are more acceptable but I would still recommend at least 2 semesters of full time work experience.
