I want to become a Psychiatrist but I have a few problems..

[EternalDream]

Hello,

Well just to get you guys up to date on my little journey, I had to leave school at a young age (14) to look after my family, and finally over the past few months I've had time to think about doing something else, rather then just doing cash in hand jobs to keep the roof over our heads and food on the table. I want to become a Psychiatrist but at the moment, I dont even have the basic qualifications to get into even the simplest of degree's, I have no GCSE's or A-levels as I was not at school during these years, and I was just wondering, is there any other way to get into university?


Thank you

Eternal

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[ocularphd]

It's been good to hear your story and how you are trying to make a better life for you and your family.

Some university medical schools accept Higher Education Diplomas or
eg. The University of Nottingham website recognizes Open University Qualifications:
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/mhs/undergraduate-courses/medicine-undergrad/index.php
but you probably need GCSEs or A Levels to get into those courses too. Contact the Open University for more info.

Contact each medical school as they will all have different requirements. The most straight forward way is to probably take GCSEs and A Levels, and enter medical school via the traditional route.

Just google-ing the net, various independent colleges exist that offer GCSE and then A Level courses.

It will be a long, but hopefully rewarding career.

Best of Luck!

 

[EternalDream]

thank you for your reply, I shall look into these routes ASAP, if anyone else has anymore information they would like to share, I would be more then delighted to read it, thank you.

 

[Dr Noodle]

Have you checked out access courses as well? Don't know details but there's some in London and Norwich I think (for UEA). Don't think you need specific qualifications to get on to these, just determination I guess 🙂

Okey dokes some links to keep you busy...

http://www.sussexdowns.ac.uk/xpurpose/feature_access-to-medicine.asp

http://www.mancat.ac.uk/adult/courses/course_details.asp?sa=01&cat=oracle&leaflet=103

Even Cambridge have an access scheme though it doesn't say whether it's just for school leavers or whether mature students can apply.

http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/apply/index.html#csas

http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/courses/fabs/foundation/certificatescience/index.asp

UCL only accept the course from the College of West Anglia

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/medicalschool/prospective-students/entry-reqs/index.htm#f

http://www.col-westanglia.ac.uk/atm-content.htm

 

[EternalDream]

I cant thank you guys enough, I am checking all this stuff out now, thanks again.

 

[EternalDream]

It seems asif the Open University is my only route at the moment, As i am only 17, I do not have a chance to get in on the Access course, and I do not hold any GCSE or A/A2 qualifications, if anyone has anymore information, please feel free to post here.

Thank you!


Eternal

 

[Dr Noodle]

Ah didn't realise you were only 17. The Open University is great but takes a lot of self discipline as it's a course you do at home. The science foundation one is good. It starts off simple enough but it's quite fast paced so you need to put a lot of work in to keep up. The materials are great. You get videos, books, CD roms and DVDs and the books aren't written in stuffy English.

That being said, GCSE's and A-levels are probably your best option. You're young so age isn't something to worry about (I thought you might be older and looking for the fastest option). I'll be going on 21 when I start (without a degree). If you start the GCSE's this year, you'll probably be around the same.

Was talking to someone on another forum before. He dropped out of school after GCSE's, worked for a while, went back to school at 20 I think, did his A-levels, was predicted 4 A grades at A2 level and now has four offers for medicine and an offer for genetics so definitely do-able 🙂

 

[Sage880]

Eternal - not to burst your bubble at all but are you sure psychiatristry is what you're interested in? Psychiatrists are medical doctors. That means you need to get into a university for medicine. Not that it's impossible to get into med school but it's a bit tough even if you do have all the required exams and grades. After you finished medical school and become a doctor, you need to get accepted to a psychiatry program

An alternative career dealing with mental illness is psychology. It's a university course as well. I'm not 100% sure about over here, but back at home (canada) psychology is an arts degree at a university. That means if you've graduated secondary school or have the equivilant exams, you should find somewhere to get in. It's a lot easier to get into than medicine.

Psychiatrists are doctors. And while a select few still practice intensive psychoanalysis, the vast majority just manage acute patients, see patients to review medication, and refer patients to psychologists for therapy sessions (like CBT). So, if your dream is to work with patients more intensively 1-on-1, psychology might be an easier and more rewarding route for you to explore.

I'm not trying to shut down your dreams or anything. If being a psychiatrist is really what you want then I wish you all the best. I just thought I'd share this with you in case you weren't 100% sure what you wanted to do.

One final point, you don't need any degree what-so-ever to be called a "therapist" or a "councilor". When people are talking about their therapist or councilor, about 70% are going to see a licensed psychologist and the other 30% are seeing someone that is not actually licensed or monitored by any government agency at all. Many countries do have some college of clinical therapists that do some kind of accreditation that you can join as a private therapist but these are all private organizations that have no actual power. One area that has more than there fair share of non-psychologist councilors is addiction counciling. I have met a couple excellent addiction councilors who have either a degree in sociology or no qualifications at all.

I know I've over simplified a couple things here (especially the role of out patient psychiatry in the community) but I think it's a good general starting point for someone thinking of starting a career in some kind of cognitive therapy.

Best of luck!

 

[EternalDream]

Thanks for replies guys, I was wondering, what is normally the difference in pay between a psychiatrist and a psychologist?

 

[EternalDream]

Sorry to double post, I had one more question, do you guys know anyplace where I can get a list of all the Universitys that accept the Open University courses as a valid qualification to get into the University?


In particular I would now like to look into the possible options for Psychology, and then way up the pro's and con's against Psychiatry, thanks alot!

Eternal

 

[Dr Noodle]

Basic difference- psychiatrist prescribes drugs, psychologists don't.

My dad did child psychology with the OU, he loved it. Not sure if you need GCSE's for it but you'll probably at least have to show you have some basic skills. Give them a call anyway.

Also you seem to be specifically interested in this area and medicine is a long winded way to go about it. Of course there's also the option of doing psychology as your undergrad degree and going the graduate route for medicine if you find this is what you really want.

Try the UCAS site for what qualifications different colleges accept. Otherwise ringing and/or emailing each individually would be your best bet.

 

[Dr Noodle]

Oh just realised you said difference in pay. That depends on where you work. My housemate is planning on doing psychology so he checked out some pay scales. Apparently there are some prison jobs going in the US where you get paid $80,000 upwards. Though that's a very high amount for psychologists. Don't know what the average is. Psychiatry- you could probably find out by typing it in google. I've come across sites before showing pay scales for other medical specialities.

 

[EternalDream]

thanks alot Dr Noodle, I appreciate all the help you are giving me.


Eternal

 

[EternalDream]

hey,

after doing alot of research into these options, I wanted to ask, what are the chances of me getting into medical school with Open University qualifications, against a person who has AS qualifications or so.


Thanks!


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Im also looking into doing a Biology Degree, I havent been able to find out too much information on this degree yet. If you know anything about the Biology degree, and what are the job prospects please let me know 🙂

ty

 

[Dr Noodle]

If I were you, what I'd do now is check out the OU courses, how many credits you get for the courses you're interested in etc. Then, armoured with this information, email all the medical schools you're interested in applying to, asking about these courses and explaining your situation. Hopefully they will mail you back with a helpful reply. Do you have an friend who finished their A-levels or an old school teacher who can help you? It's pretty hard to research all this on your own.

Come to think of it, now is probably not a good time to email universities if you hope to get a swift reply as the results came out today. Maybe leave it until the end of August.

Considering your age and experience though, enrolling at your local college and sitting GCSE's is probably the best place to start from.

 

[EternalDream]

Hi drnoodle, thanks again for the reply, I wanted to ask, if I did for example Psychology degree at Open University and got a 1 or 2-1, do you think I would be accepted into a high ranking University for my Ph.D etc?

I just want to make sure that people respect Open University, as I havent seen it ranked in any University rankings thus far.

Thanks!

 

[shefali]

Hi drnoodle, thanks again for the reply, I wanted to ask, if I did for example Psychology degree at Open University and got a 1 or 2-1, do you think I would be accepted into a high ranking University for my Ph.D etc?

I just want to make sure that people respect Open University, as I havent seen it ranked in any University rankings thus far.

Thanks!

i m an arts student. i have taken psychology half subject and half subjects as sociology.
currently doing final year B.a. i want to become a psychiatrist. how can i persue.
plz reply me immediately as i m in great confusion and i want to take a quick decision

 

[shefali]

i m an arts student. i have taken psychology half subject and half subjects as sociology.
currently doing final year B.a. i want to become a psychiatrist. how can i persue.
plz reply me immediately as i m in great confusion and i want to take a quick decision.

i m an arts student. i have taken psychology half subject and half subjects as sociology.
currently doing final year B.a. i want to become a psychiatrist. how can i persue.
plz reply me immediately as i m in great confusion and i want to take a quick decision.
i m an arts student. i have taken psychology half subject and half subjects as sociology.
currently doing final year B.a. i want to become a psychiatrist. how can i persue.
plz reply me immediately as i m in great confusion and i want to take a quick decision.