completing majority of pre-reqs in 8 months?

[Erica1990]

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I am a 22 year old junior who has just decided that I want to become a child psychiatrist. I will begin taking the science pre-reqs winter session 2012 and have the opportunity to complete all of them by summer session 2013 by taking a heavy course load (18 credits spring semester and 8 credits each summer session). I will only have organic chemistry 2 to take next fall. I am good at science so these classes won't be as hard for me as for someone with no experience in the field, hopefully 🙂.

So is it a good idea to do all the classes in as short a period of time, have only a year of clinical volunteer work (starting in October), and take the mcat once august 2013, and be able to apply right before my senior year, or should I spread out the classes and apply spring semester of my senior year (which will cause me to have to take a year off before entering)? I want to be done as soon as possible since I have had a change of career plans so late in my college years.

 

[Ashley1989]

It's going to be hard to pull off. If you really want to reach your goal I would slow down and allow yourself some time to do well and grasp the information. In the big picture, what is one more year in order to do well and reach your goal. Lastly, you shouldn't be saying you like science to justify your heavy load when you haven't even taken the heavy classes yet let alone your pre requisites.

 

[McBatCommander]

Sounds like a bad idea, but if you really think you can successfully pull it off, do it. I would say it may even look good to the schools to see that you can handle such rigorous in a very small amount of time. Just prepare to have a very bad time during those months lol.

 

[theseeker4]

I am a 22 year old junior who has just decided that I want to become a child psychiatrist. I will begin taking the science pre-reqs winter session 2012 and have the opportunity to complete all of them by summer session 2013 by taking a heavy course load (18 credits spring semester and 8 credits each summer session). I will only have organic chemistry 2 to take next fall. I am good at science so these classes won't be as hard for me as for someone with no experience in the field, hopefully 🙂.

So is it a good idea to do all the classes in as short a period of time, have only a year of clinical volunteer work (starting in October), and take the mcat once august 2013, and be able to apply right before my senior year, or should I spread out the classes and apply spring semester of my senior year (which will cause me to have to take a year off before entering)? I want to be done as soon as possible since I have had a change of career plans so late in my college years.

A gap year is not the end of the world. Don't try to cram so much in, you will have a high risk of tanking your GPA and facing a much bigger gap while you try to repair the damage. Plan on a gap year, and use that time to do something you won't ever have the chance to do again. As is often repeated here, medicine is a marathon, not a sprint; if you are really concerned with a single additional year before you start, to the point you are willing to try to cram all these weed out courses in at once, you are looking at it the wrong way and could easily end up hurting yourself.

 

[xXIDaShizIXx]

Bad idea OP. Take it easy, medical schools aren't going anywhere.

 

[Revolver1045]

If you can handle it do it. People have done it before.