Highschool Senior with a few questions

[Levi]

Good afternoon ladies and gent's, my name is Levi and I reside in West Palm Beach Florida (A little too much info? ). As stated in the title I'm currently a highschool senior. I plan on moving to Berkeley, California to attend the Berkeley City College in hopes of transferring to UC Berkeley after 2 years.

More than anything I would love, like, hope, dream, to become a Psychiatrist. I know that it'll be a bumpy road, but I am prepared for it. It's something I would like to do as a life-long career. However I'm trying to figure out what kind of classes I should take in college, also what should I major in.

During the 2 years at BCC (Berkeley City College) I will be taking courses that will help me transfer to UC Berkeley as a psych major. I want to major in psych, but if I need to major elsewhere in order to become a Psychiatrist so be it.

I've been told 'Pre-Med' would need to be my major if I plan on becoming a Psychiatrist. Is this true? If so I have no problem with it.

If I'm a pre-med student what kind of courses am I looking at?
At which point in college and or med school do you focus on what you want to do as a career? In my case Psychiatry.

I await your valued responses,
Levi

(Edit: I realize this was posted in the wrong section, excuse me.)

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[lookitssara]

You can be any major you want to go into med school, but you do have to take certain courses (chem, biochem, bio, math, physics, etc). Many pre-med students major in a social science but take all the necessary prereqs to med school.

Because med school (and not a PhD grad program) is your goal, then you should post in one of the forums on this board that's more specific to med school. I'm fairly certain that psychiatrists go through ALL of the same medical training as other doctors (like internal physicians) and that the real specializing comes in at residency. Just something to keep in mine.

Hope that helps some.

 

[PrisonPsych]

Pre-Med is not necessarily a major at all schools, but basically it means that you're going to be taking a LOT of science classes, particularly biology classes, but also Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, etc. However, it is not necessarily to be a "pre-med" major (if such a thing is offered at a given school) in order to get into medical school. Most medical schools will require you to have taken certain classes (e.g. lab courses, Organic Chemistry), but you can have majored in anything you want as long as you take the requisite courses as well. I would recommend you take a look at the admissions info on the websites for some different medical schools to get an idea of the requirements. In addition to coursework you will also need to take the MCATs (a placement exam, typically done in your junior or senior year of college) and try to get some volunteer clinical experience.

You need to think about whether or not you really want to become a psychiatrist, which is a specialization you would choose towards the end of your medical school training. It's a lot of work and in this day and age often means you are doing little more than 15 minute medication checks. It rarely involves doing any kind of therapy.

 

[cara susanna]

If you want to be a psychiatrist and not a psychologist, yes, you should prepare for med school by going pre-med.

I focused on my future career from day one of college. I remember talking to the head of the dept my first week of freshman year about clinical psychology PhD program admissions. Of course, that is often not the case for many people.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

MOD NOTE: Moving to the Psychiatry Forum. -t4c

 

[Levi]

Thank you very much everyone. Now I know I can deffinitely still major in Psychology and have a shot of getting into Med School. I actually plan on volunteering at the nearest hospital very soon. I know Psychiatry is definitely more than asking someone if they took their meds that day. Much much more.

However as for speaking to a dept. head, I'll be attending Berkeley City College for 2 years. I don't think there is any kind of department. If I'm correct, I believe community college is mainly for knocking out pre-req's and such.

 

[futureapppsy2]

If you want to be a psychiatrist and not a psychologist, yes, you should prepare for med school by going pre-med.

I focused on my future career from day one of college. I remember talking to the head of the dept my first week of freshman year about clinical psychology PhD program admissions. Of course, that is often not the case for many people.

Wow, I admire that focus!


I got a late start in psych (mid-fall of my freshman year), though, ironically, I started doing psychopharm research my freshman year through the biomedical department.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Wow, I admire that focus!


I got a late start in psych (mid-fall of my freshman year), though, ironically, I started doing psychopharm research my freshman year through the biomedical department.

A "late start" is deciding midway through year 4 of medical school--or as some on this board have done, partway through residency in another discipline...

 

[HCE]

A "late start" is deciding midway through year 4 of medical school--or as some on this board have done, partway through residency in another discipline...

OPD, you mean everyone doesn't just flip a coin days prior to ERAS season? Boy am I out of touch.

 

[deleted176373]

Thank you very much everyone. Now I know I can deffinitely still major in Psychology and have a shot of getting into Med School. I actually plan on volunteering at the nearest hospital very soon. I know Psychiatry is definitely more than asking someone if they took their meds that day. Much much more.

However as for speaking to a dept. head, I'll be attending Berkeley City College for 2 years. I don't think there is any kind of department. If I'm correct, I believe community college is mainly for knocking out pre-req's and such.

Knocking out pre-reqs... What I did was CLEP ( College Board Tests - http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/clep/about.html ) everything I could and went to a college that had a liberal acceptance of CLEP tests. CLEP tests are far easier to deal with than community college and cheaper too.

UTSA (University of Texas at San Antonio) never met a CLEP test they didn't like... so I had 56 credit hours completed by examination in 6 weeks, instead of two years in school. Two tests a week. Never stepped foot into an core class of any sort (no basic science, no history, no english, no macroeconomics, no intro to psych, etc.) An important caveat is that medical schools will require that you have actually taken the science classes and not gotten credit via CLEP. So you will have to take the actual science classes. The tests are EASY, get a study book and study for the subject as if it was an AP exam. I found that I could effectively study for these tests in 2 to 3 days at most.

Good luck, and don't waste a bunch of money on classes if you can pass a $70-80 test. That's less than you'll spend on books for these classes. Make sure you know what CLEP tests you're school will or will not accept and if there is any maximum number.

Mark

 

[notdeadyet]

I'd strongly suggest checking out the High School Forum on SDN. Good advice on exactly the kind of thing you're looking for. Pre-Allo forums can be helpful to as you make the transition, though keep in mind that a good 15% of posters are pretty much completely nuts.

Asking for getting-into-med-school advice on residency forums can be a mixed bag. Good advice for getting into a particular specialty, but information you get on successfully matriculating into med school can be 5, 10, or 15 years out of date. It's very much an evolving process...

 

[futureapppsy2]

A "late start" is deciding midway through year 4 of medical school--or as some on this board have done, partway through residency in another discipline...

Well, I meant for clinocal psych, not psychiatry.

 

[masterofmonkeys]

my (relatively strong) psych background has been a huge benefit to me in personal and professional development. Do you need to be a psych major? No. Should you be if you are 100% sure you want do psych (I was about 75% sure at your age...planned my life that way anyway)? I think so. Pre-med prereqs are easy enough to handle no matter your major. it might be harder, but not impossible by any means. Certainly not as hard as med school itself or residency. For me, I decided to graduate in three years so I coudl pursue graduate school in evolutionary biology. So I didn't. But if I'd stayed a 4th year, I definitely would have. Whopper also majored in psych I believe.

More importantly, psychiatry doesn't always talk to psychology or basic neurobiology when it comes to research. Cog psych, biopsych, and basic neurobio have a tremendous application to psychiatry. There's a lot of research from those fields that is un- and under-applied to psychiatry. You could easily make a name for yourself by applying some of that knowledge to spychiatry in a research career. You might also gain a bigger appreciation for the wide range of psychotherapies out there that we go underexposed to in psychiatry.

I second Markp's advice on getting pre-reqs out of the way with APs and CLEP tests. Even if you don't have a ton of AP credit, you'd be surprised at how easy a lot of CLEP tests are. More importantly, a CLEP test doesn't go into your GPA. A clep test 'pass' is better than a B in a science class. You can skip a lot of weed-out classes that could hurt your GPA (gen chem and intro bio comes to mind).

That said, psychology won't count toward your science credits when it comes to your application (which was maddening for me as I aced my biopsych classes...whihch are very much science). So you'll need to rock the science classes you take.

 

[notdeadyet]

A clep test 'pass' is better than a B in a science class. You can skip a lot of weed-out classes that could hurt your GPA (gen chem and intro bio comes to mind).

Noooooo, this is not good. Many if not most medical schools will NOT accept CLEP test for your core four science courses. I would strongly advise NOT to do CLEP in bio or gen chem, because you'll have to take them again unless you want to really limit your medical school options.

CLEP's are fine for boosting up your number of credits if you're in a hurry to graduate, but you should definitely NOT use them for any medical school pre-requisites.

 

[billypilgrim37]

CLEP's are fine for boosting up your number of credits if you're in a hurry to graduate, but you should definitely NOT use them for any medical school pre-requisites.

The only possible flip-side is if you wanted to CLEP out of the intro classes in order to have more time to take some advanced classes. So if you CLEP gen chem but then take Analytic Chem and Physical Chem, that would be great. But otherwise, you could run into some trouble.

 

[notdeadyet]

The only possible flip-side is if you wanted to CLEP out of the intro classes in order to have more time to take some advanced classes. So if you CLEP gen chem but then take Analytic Chem and Physical Chem, that would be great.

No, some schools will not ACCEPT CLEP for intro classes, even if you've taken more advanced classes. Several schools are very up-front about this: you must take in-person coursework for all pre-reqs. Testing out of your requirements, either via SAT, CLEP, AP or any other method, is not permitted.

Again, students should be very careful about this. Assuming CLEP clears you could limit your choice of medical schools or cause you to have to defer admission for a year. Beware...

 

[billypilgrim37]

The requirement is usually something like "a year of general chemistry." If your year of "general chemistry" is analytical chemistry with lab and physical chemistry with lab, that will satisfy the requirement. There may be an exception somewhere, but I really wouldn't want anything to do with a school that short-sighted.

 

[notdeadyet]

The requirement is usually something like "a year of general chemistry." If your year of "general chemistry" is analytical chemistry with lab and physical chemistry with lab, that will satisfy the requirement. There may be an exception somewhere, but I really wouldn't want anything to do with a school that short-sighted.

You'd be ruling out a lot of schools.

If you read into the requirements of most schools, they're very specific about requiring a year of General Chemistry, not a year of general Chemistry. General Chemistry as a course. Physical Chemistry doesn't satisfy that pre-req.

No biggie. Pre-med advisors and all the advising books out there are pretty clued in to making sure applicants have pre-reqs satisfied. Some schools may be flexible and waive requirements, but most won't.

LOTS of students end up petitioning admissions for exemptions on this. "I thought I could take ___ instead." or "Why can't I use my online learning course?" or "My school doesn't offer ___ with a lab." Maybe some schools are softies for this kind of thing, but I think you'll find most are pretty big on RTFM.

 

[kugel]

If I was doing it over again, I think I might CLEP some science/math courses that I'm scared of, but then ALSO take the classroom course (more likely to ace it if I already know some of the material). I did audit Organic Chem during summer session so that I was ahead when I took it for real. But you could maybe also CLEP some of the English, history, etc. that are NOT part of the Med School prerequisites.

Most Universities have a Pre-Med office that helps with exactly these kinds of questions. Try calling or emailing the Pre-Med office at UC Berkeley to find out what they think about CLEP and for what kind of courses.

Also, find out if you can periodically meet with them at the while you are a student at the Community College, since you are planning to transfer to UC Berkeley.
Here's the career counseling website:
https://career.berkeley.edu/Info/MakeAppt.stm

 

[masterofmonkeys]

The only possible flip-side is if you wanted to CLEP out of the intro classes in order to have more time to take some advanced classes. So if you CLEP gen chem but then take Analytic Chem and Physical Chem, that would be great. But otherwise, you could run into some trouble.

yeah I should have said this. It is easier to make an 'A' in an intermediate level bio class than it is in intro bio at my, and many other, schools. Which is actually what I was trying to say.

 

[billypilgrim37]

Maybe some schools are softies for this kind of thing, but I think you'll find most are pretty big on RTFM.

If true, that's pretty sad. Other than my mediocre state school (where I did undergrad), I didn't apply to any med schools that weren't in the top 20 of the then-USNWR research rankings. It did seem like Mediocre U was much more of a stickler for ridiculous things, which alienated me pretty fast.

 

[notdeadyet]

If true, that's pretty sad. Other than my mediocre state school (where I did undergrad), I didn't apply to any med schools that weren't in the top 20 of the then-USNWR research rankings.

That might be why our results differ. I only applied to a couple of top 20 schools. And that was much in the same way when I go to Vegas, I stop and put a $5 chip on my wife's birthday on the roulette wheel: it's not going to happen, but hey, why not?

I did the whitebread recs, but I've talked to several applicants who ran into trouble with prereqs at various schools. Some tested out of them (via CLEP or APs) and were forced to scramble to a community college class the summer before matriculation, even being science majors with lots of upper division coursework. I had to do this for doing an online learning prereq in Calculus I took. Another friend had to do this for testing out of Freshman-freakin'-Comp due to high SATs.

I don't know how many of those were due to top 20 schools (I have a weak grip on the rankings), but several I'm pretty sure were top 40's (UCs and two pretty good privates that I know of for sure).

It did seem like Mediocre U was much more of a stickler for ridiculous things, which alienated me pretty fast.

Yeah, the UCs are definitely like this. Might be more a reflection of Public U rather than Mediocre U. The Army seems looser on interpretations of policy than your public academia.

 

[billypilgrim37]

Heck, one of my friends in medical school was a Navy submariner up until just a few weeks prior to matriculation. We had a biochem class "requirement." Since he wouldn't be able to take the class, they basically just sent him a link to what biochem book to get on Amazon, and told him to read it before he came. This was in fact a state school, but to their credit, they didn't really get the memo that they were a state school, at least with regards to being maliciously strict on requirements.

 

[Regnvejr]

It really doesn't matter what you major in, as long as you show you can learn. Much better to study something interesting, as long as you take the core classes. And yes, do the full year on these cores. Take some biochem and microbiology if you can get good grades, else just audit. Makes 1st year of medschool a lot easier.

My undergrad degree was economics, and last this came up, there were a lot of other majors represented in this forum as well. So have fun and just learn to be comfortable with science.