I am considering Psychiatry

[timewilltell]

I am currently a sophomore working towards a degree in psychology. Psychiatry was my first career choice, but the length of medical school scared me away. However, after realizing I'll have to go to graduate school to do anything in psychology anyways, I am reconsidering psychiatry. Can someone give me advice on what I need to do to be considered competitive since I'll be applying to med school with a psychology degree, which I know is not seen as being rigorous. Also, I am a little worried about how to pay off student loans. How have you guys been able to repay them?

Also are there any useful tips, general information, or anything I should know before pursuing med school or psychiatry?

Thank you!

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[st2205]

Being competitive won't be any different with a psych degree than it will with any other degree. The premed forum has a lot of good resources for this (with a good amount of BS mixed in). The debt is a separate issue and very complicated. It depends what you're comparing it against but in short you will pay off your loans barring some strange, unforeseen event.

 

[DOC PENGUIN]

Please remember. Psychiatry is a medical field, full of science, clinical faculty and other stuff. YOU MUST know a good amount of IM, Surgery, Neuroscience, Histography, Anatomy, Dermatology and other stuff in order to be an M.D. So, i hope you love science, delivering babies and other essential items to be called a doctor, or you will have *******s ay it is useless. It is busy, it is hard, and unless you get into Hopkins, Harvard or Perelman, (those schools: primma donna) you will be worked harder than dirt and fear the numerous exams. And do well.

 

[splik]

what is histography??

 

[diagonal]

what is histography??

It's analysis of the topography is histological specimens. You must be from a foreign medical school.

 

[splik]

ha! i did go to a foreign medical school but since it is the medical school on which much of what still constitutes US medical training is based, I can't tell whether you are joking! i tried googling histography and can't find it!

 

[timewilltell]

Please remember. Psychiatry is a medical field, full of science, clinical faculty and other stuff. YOU MUST know a good amount of IM, Surgery, Neuroscience, Histography, Anatomy, Dermatology and other stuff in order to be an M.D. So, i hope you love science, delivering babies and other essential items to be called a doctor, or you will have *******s ay it is useless. It is busy, it is hard, and unless you get into Hopkins, Harvard or Perelman, (those schools: primma donna) you will be worked harder than dirt and fear the numerous exams. And do well.

Fortunately I do love science. It has always been my favorite subject and one that I do well in. I am aware psychiatry is full of it and I am okay with that. I'm that weird type of person who loves to learn, so I am really looking forward to med school and the hard work that goes into it.

 

[sunlioness]

I don't think histology has come up since medical school. Which is a shame since I really did like it. I didn't like delivering babies, so I'm glad that has also not come up since medical school.

 

[Leo Aquarius]

What the hell is Perelman? It's called Penn, and it doesn't belong with Harvard and Hopkins. These 2 stand far far above the rest. The others come and go in the top 5.

(As an aside, my small gripe: letting big corporate businessmen put their big fat names on the titles of schools, especially esteemed medical schools. Perelman is a businessman who engages in greenmail, and was tied to Monica Lewinsky. I would hate having that name on my med school. I'm tired of all these fat cats putting their greasy names on medical schools. What's next, the Trump School of Medicine at the University of Chicago? It denigrates the school, and I feel sorry for Penn. They made a huge mistake doing that.)

Haha "histography". You gotta know your Dermatography, Radiography, and Endocrinography too! ... I kid I kid.

 

[diagonal]

ha! i did go to a foreign medical school but since it is the medical school on which much of what still constitutes US medical training is based, I can't tell whether you are joking! i tried googling histography and can't find it!

just joking

 

[splik]

good i thought so! for a minute i missed out on something...i never went to any of the histology classes except the liver one... and hence failed histology, so thought i missed out on something! so you deffo don't need to know histology to get through medical school

 

[sunlioness]

Histology is like medicine's version of art history. One of few pre-clinical courses that I aced. *wistful sigh*

Brown changed their med school name, too. I went there for undergrad though so I'm not super invested in what they decide to call their med school. I already kinda thought it was dumb because of the whole PLME thing.

 

[pre med 2014]

The only thing you have to do to be a good psychiatrist is wear a bow tie and mumble phrases like "I see". The actual practice of psychiatry does not involve any actual science.

 

[rolltide487]

Don't feed the troll.

 

[rolltide487]

What the hell is Perelman? It's called Penn, and it doesn't belong with Harvard and Hopkins. These 2 stand far far above the rest. The others come and go in the top 5.

(As an aside, my small gripe: letting big corporate businessmen put their big fat names on the titles of schools, especially esteemed medical schools. Perelman is a businessman who engages in greenmail, and was tied to Monica Lewinsky. I would hate having that name on my med school. I'm tired of all these fat cats putting their greasy names on medical schools. What's next, the Trump School of Medicine at the University of Chicago? It denigrates the school, and I feel sorry for Penn. They made a huge mistake doing that.)

Haha "histography". You gotta know your Dermatography, Radiography, and Endocrinography too! ... I kid I kid.

UChicago DOES have a named medical school, the Pritzker School of Medicine....the Pritzkers being the family that owns Hyatt Hotels, among other holdings.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Don't feed the troll.

Aww--but they're so CUTE when they're young...

I just want to keep him a little Pre-Med well beyond 2014...maybe forever.

 

[toothless rufus]

The only thing you have to do to be a good psychiatrist is wear a bow tie and mumble phrases like "I see". The actual practice of psychiatry does not involve any actual science.

Haha, obviously not true but if it were: what an awesome way to make 200-250K a year! Low liability! No acutely ill patients! No life-threatening emergencies (genereally)! Low-acuity, low volume call! And you can help people! Win-win-win!!

 

[billypilgrim37]

The only thing you have to do to be a good psychiatrist is wear a bow tie and mumble phrases like "I see".

Clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Neurologists wear a bow tie and mumble disinterested phrases. Psychiatrists have beards and sweater vests and ask you how you feel. Rookie mistake.

That goes for the men and the women, of course.

 

[toothless rufus]

Clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Neurologists wear a bow tie and mumble disinterested phrases. Psychiatrists have beards and sweater vests and ask you how you feel. Rookie mistake.

That goes for the men and the women, of course.

Bearded ladies RULE!!

 

[vistaril]

What the hell is Perelman? It's called Penn, and it doesn't belong with Harvard and Hopkins. These 2 stand far far above the rest. The others come and go in the top 5.
.

what nonsense....Harvard/Hopkins as med schools do not stand "far above" places like UCSF/Penn/Columbia/Duke in american medical school education in any useful way. Looking at a UCSF match list and a Hopkins match list they look exactly the same.

Heck, even though it helps some when applying for comp specialities(of which psych isnt one), in terms of what you actually learn there is no advantage to going to a top10 med school over a typical state allopathic med school.

 

[notdeadyet]

Heck, even though it helps some when applying for comp specialities(of which psych isnt one), in terms of what you actually learn there is no advantage to going to a top10 med school over a typical state allopathic med school.

Agreed. The quality control and strict regulatory guidelines make what is actually taught in medical school very similar from one allopathic school to the next. There is no magic sauce.

 

[radoxme]

50 years ago the biggest perceived threat was sex and drugs. Religious practice was seen as the cure.

Today religious practice is perceived as the biggest threat and sex and drugs are seen as the cure.

If you can go for complete u-turns like this in a mercenary way as an enforcer you will make a great psychiatrist.

 

[michaelrack]

Also are there any useful tips, general information, or anything I should know before pursuing med school or psychiatry?

Thank you!

Do you want to be a voluntary psychiatrist or an involuntary psychiatrist?

 

[annie501]

The only thing you have to do to be a good psychiatrist is wear a bow tie and mumble phrases like "I see". The actual practice of psychiatry does not involve any actual science.

Wait. I thought that my job was to walk around taking innocent people's rights away

 

[annie501]

Clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Neurologists wear a bow tie and mumble disinterested phrases. Psychiatrists have beards and sweater vests and ask you how you feel. Rookie mistake.

That goes for the men and the women, of course.

This made me laugh.

OP, I was a philosophy major, and it didn't hurt me. It was actually helpful and different not only in medical school applications, but in residency applications and came up on every interview.

Most medical schools will also calculate a GPA based on basic science classes (I think it may even be part of AMCAS), so even if they think your major is so much fluff, it shouldn't really matter.

I would get in touch with a pre-med advisor.

 

[sunlioness]

Oh cool. I was history.

 

[vistaril]

Please remember. Psychiatry is a medical field, full of science, clinical faculty and other stuff. YOU MUST know a good amount of IM, Surgery, Neuroscience, Histography, Anatomy, Dermatology and other stuff in order to be an M.D. So, i hope you love science, delivering babies and other essential items to be called a doctor, .

oh please......you think most psychiatrists(or hell internists for that matter) know anything about surgery or delivering babies?

 

[michaelrack]

oh please......you think most psychiatrists(or hell internists for that matter) know anything about surgery or delivering babies?

We did have to know the basics at one time- when taking USMLE step 3 and when doing med school rotations.
I agree that psychiatrists don't know much about surgery or delivering babies. While most practicing internists don't have to know much about actually delivering babies, there were several questions regarding medical complications of pregnancy on my recent IM recert board exam.

 

[JourneyAgent]

oh please......you think most psychiatrists(or hell internists for that matter) know anything about surgery or delivering babies?

A consistent error on this board is experienced psychiatrists trying to counsel premeds on the specifics of undergraduate medical training and admissions. You guys are extremely adept at advising those of us pursuing training in the field, but too much time has passed for adequate engagement of premeds beyond showing them what you do for a living--which is important, but only instructive from Q to Z. Not A to Q. And premeds are at A. Just starting out. Yet to take basic sciences.

I don't try telling my OB attending vaginal exams aren't going to be important to my career as a psychiatrist or that I really needn't retract for hours on end while being pimped on surgical anatomy. I've learned not to ask advice on these things from psychiatrists who graduated medical school in the carter administration. And know for certain, even somewhere in the middle, I've already forgotten too much about being a premed to be that useful to one. And am damn glad of it.

 

[michaelrack]

A consistent error on this board is experienced psychiatrists trying to counsel premeds on the specifics of undergraduate medical training and admissions. You guys are extremely adept at advising those of us pursuing training in the field, but too much time has passed for adequate engagement of premeds beyond showing them what you do for a living--which is important, but only instructive from Q to Z. Not A to Q. And premeds are at A. Just starting out. Yet to take basic sciences.

I don't try telling my OB attending vaginal exams aren't going to be important to my career as a psychiatrist or that I really needn't retract for hours on end while being pimped on surgical anatomy. I've learned not to ask advice on these things from psychiatrists who graduated medical school in the carter administration. And know for certain, even somewhere in the middle, I've already forgotten too much about being a premed to be that useful to one. And am damn glad of it.

Agree. Another consistent error is college students asking on this forum about becoming a psychiatrist. They should ask in the premed or allopathic forums about becoming a med student. The most us experienced psychiatrists can do is give advice about getting from med school into a psychiatry residency (and some of us are far removed from that process).

 

[JourneyAgent]

Agree. Another consistent error is college students asking on this forum about becoming a psychiatrist. They should ask in the premed or allopathic forums about becoming a med student. The most us experienced psychiatrists can do is give advice about getting from med school into a psychiatry residency (and some of us are far removed from that process).

Yeah that's a weird situation. It seems like a lot of psycology people considering medical school come here already developed or developing in neuro- and behavorial sciences expecting some sort of lateral career shift. Ignoring that it takes years of preparation to put together an application just to get into medical school. And then years to even get back to where they were. To the theoretical lateral shift their asking about. From people who are more familiar with their psychology comrades than all those that put their stamp on their md/do degree.

So a natural distortion of reality seems inevitable.

The psych board seems unique in several types of nonpsychiatry frequenters. It seems none of the other fields get this degree of odd traffick. No anti-surgery person logs onto sdn to mix it up and so forth. Weird.