Interested in psychiatry no idea where to start

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Lpheat22

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So i'm 25 and have a BA in psychology and want to get into psychiatry. I've applied to a local community college to start working on my requisites for Pre-med but beyond that I'm not to sure what else to do. If anyone else could offer some more advice I'd greatly appreciate it.
 
It should be the same as anyone else getting into medical school. Most everyone here is somewhat removed from that process. The premed forums are helpful, but don't let it be anxiety-inducing. In short: get good grades (don't need to be perfect), do well on the MCAT, be involved with things you're interested in, and get some type of clinical/shadowing experience to get a more clear idea if medicine is something you're committed to.
 
The best thing to do is take things one step at a time. Focus on getting into medical school first. Maybe call up a few local psychiatrists and see if any of them is willing to let you shadow; this will not only give you more insight into the field, but is also a good thing to have on your med school application. Go to the pre-medical forums on this site, they are full of information, just take it all with a grain of salt.

Good luck,
 
+1. Before you can become a psychiatrist, you have to become a proper medical doctor. For the most part, you're in the same boat as all of the other pre-meds.
 
So i'm 25 and have a BA in psychology and want to get into psychiatry. I've applied to a local community college to start working on my requisites for Pre-med but beyond that I'm not to sure what else to do. If anyone else could offer some more advice I'd greatly appreciate it.

Just in case you haven't heard it before, some schools (most? All?) prefer prereqs to be completed at 4-yr institutions.
 
Just in case you haven't heard it before, some schools (most? All?) prefer prereqs to be completed at 4-yr institutions.

Yeah... even if a school didn't require it specifically, I'd imagine that admissions committees would frown on the idea of the basic requirements being completed anywhere other than a university - if I were on an admissions committee, I'd feel uncertain about that applicant's ability to get through medical school courses. Unless maybe you have a super-high GPA and MCAT score.
 
It's been conventional wisdom to do not do it at a community college, but I'd venture to guess that a lot of people don't get in to medical school with CC prereqs is a self-selection moreso than a admissions selection. I'm not saying they're equal, but I think, depending on what the goal is, the 'detriment' of CC courses is exaggerated to a reasonable degree.
 
Ditto st2205. There's a bit of fear mongering over prerequisites done at the community college level. Much like there's a bit of fear mongering over the name value of the undergrad school you went to. Medical schools want to see that you can get A's in classes. There are easy teachers and hard teachers at almost every college. That's why they have the MCAT.

My only advice would be to either not take all your prereqs at a junior college, or be sure to take a couple upper division science classes once you transfer. Do that and you're fine.

I did some of my prereqs at a junior college, interviewed widely, and it never came up. The only eyebrows you're likely to raise his from anal medical students.
 
Certainly depends on the school. Check with those you're interested in...

For example, boston u admissions is pretty clear about wanting the prereqs done at a 4-yr university.

http://www.bumc.bu.edu/admissions/applicationprocess/requirements/
Can you name another? I remember sweet Boston U. When discussing the issue of doing pre-reqs at a community college vs. 4 year school, lots of folks weigh in on how it will kill your chances of admission, but only Boston U and I believe one other med school were identified as having a problem with it. And it wasn't for lack of people looking.

Again, mix it up and you'll be fine.
 
My number 1 piece of advice to help someone get into medschool.

Just take less classes every semester and try to get As. During college I probably averaged 13 credits a semester and only took 16 one semester, this made college 20 times easier, but because I was in a "rigorous major" no ADCOMS seemed bothered that I was often taking only 4 classes, one of which would be some easy A 100 level elective.

This applies for people going back to do pre-reqs, dont kill yourself trying to do it all at once, take the time to do it right.
 
Can you name another? I remember sweet Boston U. When discussing the issue of doing pre-reqs at a community college vs. 4 year school, lots of folks weigh in on how it will kill your chances of admission, but only Boston U and I believe one other med school were identified as having a problem with it. And it wasn't for lack of people looking.

Again, mix it up and you'll be fine.

Sure...

U Miami says:

"Most admissions committees feel that there are differences between junior college courses and senior college courses. Whether this view is justified or not, you should contact medical schools in which you are interested to see how they view coursework taken at the junior college level. The Miller School of Medicine will accept junior college courses but much prefers that the premed courses be taken at the senior college level." [Will this strong 'preference' show up come decision time -- when the school has a plethora of equally qualified applicants to fill their seats? Who knows.]

http://admissions.med.miami.edu/questions/curriculum-and-gpa-questions

If OP is interested in going DO, pcom also prescribes to the "we prefer 4-yr university prereqs over CC ones". In fact, they imply that doing otherwise would render the applicant less "competitive" for admissions.

http://www.pcom.edu/Admissions/adm_FAQs/DoFaqs.html

Anticipating a response of "Can you name [yet] another?" ...I'm not going to search the forums and all admission sites in order to compile a list for the OP's (or your own) curiosity 🙂.

However, instead, I will simply reiterate what I mentioned earlier "Do your research OP before applying. Med schools can show preference for completing the pre-reqs at universities over community colleges."

Lastly, for anyone that started in the pre-allo forum, the words of their celebrity-hero adcom member (LizzyM) are appropriate to the OP's proposed plan:

"This is SDN gospel (don't take pre-reqs at CC) but it does not apply to students who start in CC and then move on to a university. It does apply to students at a university to run off to a CC to avoid a weed-out class at their home institution."

OP is a nontrad, so he already has his university degree. Will it be interpreted by the adcom that he was avoiding being weeded out at his home institution? Again, who knows...maybe he has good reason -- maybe he lives 1,000 miles away from his home institution. I don't know. Perhaps he will be best served by writing a little blurb about it in is app.

Simple enough. Pre-reqs can be done successfully at a CC -- you're living proof. However, to the OP, just be prepared to do some extra DD when choosing schools and be cognizant that you might be discriminated against when your transcript is laid out before the committee.
 
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It's not as simple as CC vs. university. You have to look at the whole picture. If this is someone with a 3.7 from a university and had a 3.5 science between university and CC, a 31 on the MCAT, meaningful clinical experience, other life experience and good letters, the issue of CC isn't that big of a deal (unless you're shooting for Hopkins, but I doubt many people with their heart set on Hopkins will opt for CC and likewise someone comfortable choosing CC is likely comfortable with a less "prestigious" medical program). If this is a 30 year old that finished undergrad in 7 years off-and-on with a 3.3, a 3.1 science, a 26 MCAT, form letters and some "check-the-box" extracurriculars, then yes, CC wouldn't look great. Then again, neither would university in the same applicant. This is only a part of the picture. The rest of the variables are far more relevant.
 
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It's not as simple as CC vs. university. You have to look at the whole picture. If this is someone with a 3.7 from a university and had a 3.5 science between university and CC, a 31 on the MCAT, meaningful clinical experience, other life experience and good letters, the issue of CC isn't that big of a deal (unless you're shooting for Hopkins). If this is a 30 year old that finished undergrad in 7 years off-and-on with a 3.3, a 3.1 science, a 26 MCAT, form letters and some "check-the-box" extracurriculars, then yes, CC wouldn't look great. Then again, neither would university in the same applicant. This is only a part of the picture. The rest of the variables are far more relevant.

Absolutely. 👍

As a community offering advice, in this case, all we have to go off of is the OP's 3 short sentences.

I agree; we don't have a lot of background info... Therefore, we might as well offer an expansive range of advice highlighting different perspectives.

Looks like that has been done successfully thus far.
 
My number 1 piece of advice to help someone get into medschool.

Just take less classes every semester and try to get As. During college I probably averaged 13 credits a semester and only took 16 one semester, this made college 20 times easier, but because I was in a "rigorous major" no ADCOMS seemed bothered that I was often taking only 4 classes, one of which would be some easy A 100 level elective.

This applies for people going back to do pre-reqs, dont kill yourself trying to do it all at once, take the time to do it right.

This is very good advice. Cal Newport writes a blog called 'study hacks" that discusses an approach to life and work with the above as a major idea (doing less but doing it extremely well).
 
Thanks for the advice everyone, I'm a lot more informed now then I was before, I didn't do so hot during college, did good in my psych classes but my regulars ones not so hot 🙁 i'm at a 2.48 ya I know not great at all, being an unfocused kid playing baseball didnt help. I'm hoping to stay in california for school so I guess I'll start looking at the requirements for those programs. Thanks everyone
 
Thanks for the advice everyone, I'm a lot more informed now then I was before, I didn't do so hot during college, did good in my psych classes but my regulars ones not so hot 🙁 i'm at a 2.48 ya I know not great at all, being an unfocused kid playing baseball didnt help. I'm hoping to stay in california for school so I guess I'll start looking at the requirements for those programs. Thanks everyone

Well, California can be quite competitive actually. If you graduated with a 2.48, then a few community college classes won't get you over the hump for getting into med school. The only options would be to either get a master's degree (with a high GPA) or to go to an offshore medical school.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone, I'm a lot more informed now then I was before, I didn't do so hot during college, did good in my psych classes but my regulars ones not so hot 🙁 i'm at a 2.48 ya I know not great at all, being an unfocused kid playing baseball didnt help. I'm hoping to stay in california for school so I guess I'll start looking at the requirements for those programs. Thanks everyone

Your low GPA is toxic for med school admissions in all 50 states, and it is fatal in California, probably the most competitive state.

You should explore all avenues to a career in health care, including nursing, physician assistant, psychology programs, etc. I don't know about DO GPA standards, but for MD, your grades are extremely low, and it is very difficult mathematically to raise that GPA after 4 years of credits - think of it this way: you need to take another 4 years of credits with a 4.0 average to raise your cum GPA to the 3.2 area, pretty much the minimum GPA to be realistically competitive. Impossible? No, but pretty close.

Graduate school grades are not a substitute for a poor undergraduate GPA. You have to repair your GPA, and anyway you have to take the science pre reqs at the undergrad level.

Good luck.
 
My number 1 piece of advice to help someone get into medschool.

Just take less classes every semester and try to get As. During college I probably averaged 13 credits a semester and only took 16 one semester, this made college 20 times easier, but because I was in a "rigorous major" no ADCOMS seemed bothered that I was often taking only 4 classes, one of which would be some easy A 100 level elective.

This applies for people going back to do pre-reqs, dont kill yourself trying to do it all at once, take the time to do it right.
This is great advice.

This is another myth that often gets propogated on SDN. If you spend much time on the pre-allo forum, you'll see a lot of posts about "you need to show that you can handle a challenging courseload so don't have semesters where you're less than XXX." Terrible advice.

Surftheiop is right: more pre-meds kill their ambitions through indigestion than starvation. Med schools look at MCAT and GPAs. They look at the undergrad you graduated from. They look at your ECs. The belief that anyone is going to look at your application semester by semester to find out if you got better grades because you had a few light ones isn't familiar with the admissions process. Likewise, no one is going to care a lot about a sob story of why you got bad grades because you bit off more than you could chew (a very bad strategy, because it raises the question if med school is more than you can chew).
 
Sorry, Blais, I didn't mean for you to do homework on this. I'm curious if there are any schools that do not accept community college courses for pre-reqs in medical school. This was a big deal on the non-trad forum for a while, since lots of working professionals are left with the option of doing community college vs. special masters vs. private postbac. Lots of places don't have much in the way of night classes in the sciences outside of the community college system.

The verdict, after a whole lot of collective research, was that Boston University was the only one that flatly didn't accept them. You'll find lots of programs that specifically state they prefer 4 year over community college coursework. Some are a little more subtle, but you can read between the lines ("we prefer that you take you pre-requisite courses in the most challenging environment possible").

As a whole, I think most folks familiar with the process would be comfortable saying that you will be best served by taking your classes (pre-requisite and otherwise) at the most reputable college you can successfully attend. Prereqs at Duke are better than prereqs at Backwater U. At the end of the day, will anyone care? Probably not. Likewise, with the exception of Boston U (still haven't found others), your prereqs from a community college will be accepted. Will it come up in adcoms? Who knows? It sure didn't come up when I participated in the med school admissions at my program. Mine was a solid public med school, it might be different at the Columbia's.

I find the community college issue most heated with folks who never went. The folks I know that went that path (and there are more than you think) never expressed it having a hard go of it, other than the ones that were in "rescue" mode. I find the vehemence about the dangers of taking community college credit akin to the folks who talk about the "danger" of going to a less reputed undergrad when you have the chance at going to a bigger name university. Likewise, this vehemence tends to come from folks who went to the bigger name universities. Interesting stuff.
OP is a nontrad, so he already has his university degree. Will it be interpreted by the adcom that he was avoiding being weeded out at his home institution? Again, who knows...maybe he has good reason -- maybe he lives 1,000 miles away from his home institution. I don't know. Perhaps he will be best served by writing a little blurb about it in is app.
Yikes, very bad advice. DO NOT use the little valuable space you have in your personal statement to draw attention to a less than strong aspect of your application. DO NOT explain why you did some of your prereqs at Downtown Community College because you were testing the waters before quitting your job. DO NOT explain why you went to Backwater U instead of Stanford because you didn't want to take out the loans. DO NOT explain why you had a semester with 2 C's because you were WAY into water polo. Very, very bad idea. No... one... cares... Your personal statement should be positive and portray you in a shining light. The ONLY exception to this should be if you have a truly fatal flaw that you need to address if not spin ("Boy, I learned a lot during my incarceration at Pelican Bay...").
 
Thanks for the advice everyone, I'm a lot more informed now then I was before, I didn't do so hot during college, did good in my psych classes but my regulars ones not so hot 🙁 i'm at a 2.48 ya I know not great at all, being an unfocused kid playing baseball didnt help. I'm hoping to stay in california for school so I guess I'll start looking at the requirements for those programs. Thanks everyone
You're SOL for any allopathic program and even if you did another 4 years starting at scratch at another college and got straight A's, you'd wind up with a 3.24, which would make you ineligible at the reputable DO schools. shan564 and NYCMS2 are giving good advice. I'd personally look into altenate career paths.

If you really, REALLY have your heart set on medical school, I'd consider looking at a special master's or post-bac program designed for folks with poor GPAs. Will this get you into a U.S. med school? No, not with that GPA. But you will either succeed or fail. If you fail, you can walk away with $25K in loans and know with confidence medicine was not for you. If you succeed (and it will take a lot of hard work), it might be enough to qualify you for one of the more reputable Caribbean schools.

I WOULD NOT take prereqs willy nilly via community college or extension and apply abroad. Regardless of how bad you do, you'll find a Caribbean school somewhere that will gladly take your money. And without doing the training ground of a challenging post-bac or special master's, you'll find yourself most likely in an exploitive environment that will happily cash your checks and string you along until you fail out with the Step I and come back to the U.S. with $150K in debt and nothing to show for it.

You need to do some navel gazing and decide what kind of sacrifices you're willing to make for long odds.
 
This is another myth that often gets propogated on SDN. If you spend much time on the pre-allo forum, you'll see a lot of posts about "you need to show that you can handle a challenging courseload so don't have semesters where you're less than XXX." Terrible advice.

Surftheiop is right: more pre-meds kill their ambitions through indigestion than starvation. Med schools look at MCAT and GPAs. They look at the undergrad you graduated from. They look at your ECs. The belief that anyone is going to look at your application semester by semester to find out if you got better grades because you had a few light ones isn't familiar with the admissions process. Likewise, no one is going to care a lot about a sob story of why you got bad grades because you bit off more than you could chew (a very bad strategy, because it raises the question if med school is more than you can chew).

Yeah, I did that in undergrad. Definitely a mistake.


To the OP - I think you might have the mistaken idea that the path to becoming a psychiatrist is substantially different from the path to becoming any other kind of doctor. You don't go through med school thinking "I'm training to be a psychiatrist"... you go through thinking "I'm training to be a doctor." Everybody here has given some good advice, but overall, I think you could benefit more from talking to pre-med experts. Most of us haven't looked at med school applications for several years.
 
Yikes, very bad advice. DO NOT use the little valuable space you have in your personal statement to draw attention to a less than strong aspect of your application. DO NOT explain why you did some of your prereqs at Downtown Community College because you were testing the waters before quitting your job. DO NOT explain why you went to Backwater U instead of Stanford because you didn't want to take out the loans. DO NOT explain why you had a semester with 2 C's because you were WAY into water polo. Very, very bad idea. No... one... cares... Your personal statement should be positive and portray you in a shining light. The ONLY exception to this should be if you have a truly fatal flaw that you need to address if not spin ("Boy, I learned a lot during my incarceration at Pelican Bay...").

I think we have a misunderstanding on our hands...or maybe we just disagree. 😀

I did not advise OP to write about his academics in his PS. By "writing a blurb in your app", I was referring to addressing the matter on secondaries. In retrospect, I should have been more clear. Most secondaries these days have a surplus of space available under prompts such as "Is there anything else you would like to inform the committee about?", "If you are not entering medical school immediately after graduating from college, please explain.", "Are there any parts of your academic record that you will like to further discuss?", etc., etc.

Of the pre-meds that actually have something to write for these prompts, most don't end up using the whole character limit. The real estate is "cheap" in this neck of the woods.

And perhaps this is where we still disagree, but I feel OP would be best served by addressing (i.e. "writing a blurb about") WHY he has chosen to take his prereqs at a CC instead of his home institution or any other local university for that matter.

Today, with the way AMCAS/AACOMAS presents applicant information, the order in which he enrolled in his schools will be patently obvious (in other words, "drawing attention to it" is a moot point; the attention will already be there). With that information glaring in the face of whatever person is sifting through thousands of applications, considering which app should get an II over which app, OP would be wise to nip the suspicions in the bud... Of course, this is assuming that OP has a legitimate reason for choosing a CC at this stage (i.e. caring for family member and the closest university is 100 miles away, etc.)

OP, as others have alluded to, your GPA, as it stands, is a deal breaker. Considering the diminishing returns of improvement with 100+ credits already on your transcript, it would take many (MANY) years of straight-A's to have a decent shot at MD schools in the 50 states.

If you really, REALLY have your heart set on medical school, I'd consider looking at a special master's or post-bac program designed for folks with poor GPAs. Will this get you into a U.S. med school? No, not with that GPA. But you will either succeed or fail. If you fail, you can walk away with $25K in loans and know with confidence medicine was not for you. If you succeed (and it will take a lot of hard work), it might be enough to qualify you for one of the more reputable Caribbean schools.

"Yikes, very bad advice." I'm only half-joking. Per the Official SMP Guide,

SMPs are generally programs designed for several different populations of students
1) Those who completed their science requirements in college and need to improve their academic standings (mostly low GPA issues).
2) Those who completed their science requirements in college and will have a "gap" year(s) between graduation and their intended year of matriculation into medical school
3) Those who have graduated college a while ago who have their basic science coursework completed (either through a postbac or through their alma mater) and need to demonstrate that they can still handle the coursework years after such an academic atmosphere. These are nontraditional applicants and often, career switchers.
4) Those who have both a low GPA and a low MCAT.

It doesn't sound like OP matches any of those descriptions, nor has the science foundation in place. Furthermore, throwing 25-35k of loans in the mix with interest compounding over the next 8 years of training in hopes of matriculating to a Caribbean school (most costly option -- add on another 300k+ in loans accruing interest through school/residency), in hopes of specializing in psych (generally-speaking lower paying option) is not a financially sound decision...depending on his deferral of payments during residency, he could end up 400k+ in debt :scared:. Especially disturbing, given that the original science coursework can be completely satisfied as an informal post-bac for < 8k at a state university (don't ask me how I know 😉 ) and DO schools aren't out of the question (see below*).

Also, his academics might be too low even for SMP's to begin with. Bryn Mawr's admissions page indicates "In general, accepted students have better than a B+ (3.3) average at the college level and standardized test scores consistent with that level of performance" (http://www.brynmawr.edu/postbac/admission.shtml) Cinci states "Applicants usually have an overall GPA of at least 3.0 and total MCAT score of at least 28." A ~2.4 GPA is way below that point, obviously...and, no, I'm not doing the research for the other programs, haha.

HOWEVER, OP, despite what the others have said and depending on what your actual transcript looks like, DO school is still a very real possibility a la their utilization of *"grade replacement". For example, if you have a handful of D's and F's that are absolutely destroying your GPA, you can retake those courses today and the grade will be completely replaced in the eyes of DO schools (and to think that some people still claim magic isn't real, heh)...

If you could boost yourself up to a 3.1-3.2 overall GPA, have a good science gpa, and a good mcat (27+) you would have a decent shot at many DO schools. Unfortunately, if you were a consistent C+ student longitudinally across your undergrad career, this option is less viable (I don't know any applicants that retook tons and tons of courses).

The answer to that question ("are you a prime candidate for grade replacement") will have a huge bearing on if med school is a viable path or not.

If so, your hypothetical timeline would look like this:

One year of retaking undergrad courses -> Two Years of satisfying pre-reqs -> Apply DO.

1) You will be ~28 when entering med school. Not "too late" by any stretch of the imagination.
2) You will have saved yourself a decent chunk of change (stress) by avoiding SMP's and Caribbean.
3) You will graduate with a respected medical degree and not have to worry about not matching.

The real beauty of this route is that it is predicated on the first step being both the cheapest and the most important step (i.e. retaking those courses). If you cannot retake and improve your GPA to 3.1-3.2, you know that the game might be over and perhaps it's time to save yourself a lot of debt and look at other professions.

EDIT: Also, keep in mind, OP, with your standing academic record, those pre-reqs at a CC will look even more suspect and I can say with near-certainty that med schools are going to prefer your pre-reqs done at a 4-year institution.

(ALL as I originally claimed/advised, btw 😉 ).

OP, feel free to PM me if you want to talk more about things.
 
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So i'm 25 and have a BA in psychology and want to get into psychiatry. I've applied to a local community college to start working on my requisites for Pre-med but beyond that I'm not to sure what else to do. If anyone else could offer some more advice I'd greatly appreciate it.

You've presented for something. And then just casually mentioned you have a metastatic brain cancer history.

Not inoperable. But will require heroic efforts for an outside shot.

You do your homework in the premed arena first. Although your advisors have been kind. Admissions is a game with moving goal posts. Options change. Who the heck knew what an smp was 5-10 years ago.
 
So far i'm picking up that I'm pretty much screwed even if I go back and re-take the courses that I got D's in.

The reason I decided on a CC is that I decided to start in the spring and didn't feel like waiting for the fall to start but if it's better that I go to a 4 year then I would def do that instead.

My mind set is a lot more different now that when I was in college, I didn't study much just went by what I did in class and believe me I wish I didn't do that now but I'm sure I can't be the first one who joked around and then decided to get my act together.

I appreciate all the advice because my mind is a lot more clearer then before.
 
Also, I know this is the last thing you want to hear (its was the last thing I wanted to hear as a premed also).

But depending on your interests in varying aspects of mental health, (ex. you really want to do a lot of psychotherapy) you might want to consider other options such as going to a therapy heavy MSW program. If you did that you could be doing psychotherapy full time in probably as little as 2.5 years. If you go the psychiatry route the soonest you would be doing any actual psychotherapy would likely be 8 years given your current educational standing and it would be atleast 11 years till you were making a "psychiatrist salary".
 
If it were just one semester and you followed it up with a couple good years at a university, then the semester of CC likely isn't a deal breaker. The other stuff, however, is another story. Outside of the Caribbean, I'd say the only opportunity is getting great grades from here on out, getting some meaningful experience (get a job in a clinical setting), do well on the MCAT (30+) and prepare yourself to enter a masters program affiliated with a DO school that has a strong history of direct-admission into that program (LECOM and ATSU come to mind). If the road to getting there has some snags, I'd bail. Think about what it is you want to do and if an MSW, PA or NP could achieve that.
 
You've presented for something. And then just casually mentioned you have a metastatic brain cancer history.

Not inoperable. But will require heroic efforts for an outside shot.

You do your homework in the premed arena first. Although your advisors have been kind. Admissions is a game with moving goal posts. Options change. Who the heck knew what an smp was 5-10 years ago.

Well said!
 
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