Is it possible to still go to medical school to become a psychiatrist??

[Jason1910]

I am about to be a junior and my GPA is currently 2.7. I was in college thinking a lot about my major and I was undecided with what I wanted to do but I recently decided that I was interested in medical school and becoming a psychiatrist. My current major is in Accounting and I am interested in knowing if I have a chance. I know that I have to take the prerequisites and to possibly change majors. did not get to take any pre requisite classes yet and I don't have any volunteer hours because I was thinking about this career just recently. I also have about 5 W grades so I had to withdraw from 5 classes due to some personal issues and mistakes. If I calculated the highest GPA that I can get by graduation, it will be around 3.3. Is it possible for me to get accepted anywhere? What should I do to stand out?? I had to withdraw from Calculus 1 twice due to bad professors but I am thinking about trying to pass all of the prerequisites and to succeed. I am mostly scared about the W grades, which will hinder me a lot in applying to anywhere. Is it a chance to get in or am I just wasting my time?



Edit: I am not that stupid to start applying to medical school right after college. Is there any other ways to increase my chances for strictly an MD school in the United States?? What can I do? Just keep it honest and if I can't get in to U.S medical school, what other parts of the healthfield can I try??

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[Goro]

Read this:

Goro's advice for pre-meds who need reinvention

Ws are not Fs. A semester that's all Ws implies you did what they're for, which is a smart thing.

 

[hamstergang]

You've asked the same thing about being a PA and a physical therapist and now about being a psychiatrist. The answer isn't going to be all that different -- it's going to take a lot of work from you to correct your deficits, and I wouldn't count on being able to ace all your courses going forward.

That being said, it's also probably worthwhile figuring out what you actually want to do. Changing your mind every few months isn't going to make it easy to do well.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Get a CPA to fall back on. You should always follows your dream but the biggest mistake I’ve seen here and on Reddit is people putting all eggs into one basket. You should always have a backup plan. Work on app while gaining experience that applies beyond medicine

 

[Jason1910]

Get a CPA to fall back on. You should always follows your dream but the biggest mistake I’ve seen here and on Reddit is people putting all eggs into one basket. You should always have a backup plan. Work on app while gaining experience that applies beyond medicine

So I recently left college midway and I am thinking about changing my major from accounting to a different major so that I can do a master's in either finance or something else. But I am thinking about strictly a MD school, not DO or Caribbean.

 

[Goro]

So I recently left college midway and I am thinking about changing my major from accounting to a different major so that I can do a master's in either finance or something else. But I am thinking about strictly a MD school, not DO or Caribbean.

Beggars can't be choosy. As someone who will need significant reinvention for the GPA, you will need DO schools on your eventual list.

You will still need to show excellence in the med school pre-reqs, at a minimum.

 

[candbgirl]

So I recently left college midway and I am thinking about changing my major from accounting to a different major so that I can do a master's in either finance or something else. But I am thinking about strictly a MD school, not DO or Caribbean.

Why on earth would you get a Masters in finance? Why would you get a Masters period? Currently you are not competitive for any med school except Caribbean so don’t go putting out unrealistic goals. Get your degree. Take as many prereqs as you can. Get as close to all As from now on as you can. After you graduate you will need a post bacc of 2-3 semesters of upper level science . And this is when you can finish your prereqs. Work on your ECs, take the MCAT and get ready to apply. For someone with no MCAT and a 2.7 GPA to say they only want MD is totally unrealistic. You should be asking what can I do to get into any American med school.

 

[Apprentice of St. Luke]

I am about to be a junior and my GPA is currently 2.7. I was in college thinking a lot about my major and I was undecided with what I wanted to do but I recently decided that I was interested in medical school and becoming a psychiatrist. My current major is in Accounting and I am interested in knowing if I have a chance. I know that I have to take the prerequisites and to possibly change majors. did not get to take any pre requisite classes yet and I don't have any volunteer hours because I was thinking about this career just recently. I also have about 5 W grades so I had to withdraw from 5 classes due to some personal issues and mistakes. If I calculated the highest GPA that I can get by graduation, it will be around 3.3. Is it possible for me to get accepted anywhere? What should I do to stand out?? I had to withdraw from Calculus 1 twice due to bad professors but I am thinking about trying to pass all of the prerequisites and to succeed. I am mostly scared about the W grades, which will hinder me a lot in applying to anywhere. Is it a chance to get in or am I just wasting my time?



Edit: I am not that stupid to start applying to medical school right after college. Is there any other ways to increase my chances for strictly an MD school in the United States?? What can I do? Just keep it honest and if I can't get in to U.S medical school, what other parts of the healthfield can I try??

As a fellow "pre-med" - I hate that term (for me, a non-traditional one - I have been one longer than some of you have been alive, actually), may I suggest first you narrow down what it is you want to do? I saw some of your other posts.

The pathways for MD and PA may be similar, but not the same in terms of prerequisites and professional education - physicians in the U.S. must do at least some residency for licensure, and with few exceptions, complete one for hospital privileges. (I do not know about the prerequisites for PT as I have never been interested in that profession.) And the level of medical authority is not - it will depend on your state/territorial/District of Columbia laws and hospital medical staff bylaws, but when I shadowed a PA (in a rural area in the Texas panhandle - a town of roughly 2,000 population about one and a half hours to the nearest major city, population roughly 200,000), any admissions that needed to be done by him had to be through a physician (as long as what the PA does is legal, the actual amount of authority a PA has will differ from each physician - PA team to another, but in no state that I know of is a PA able to practice as such without physician or sometimes podiatrist supervision/collaboration of one sort or another). Anyway, not to derail this thread, but rather to encourage you to think through your choices.

Finally, unless you wish to work in another country which doesn't recognize DOs as physicians as opposed to limited scope osteopaths (and the list that does is slowly growing, including the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia, as well as some countries in Africa - check with the American Osteopathic Association to learn more), I would suggest giving DO schools a chance.

 

[YCAGA]

How many math and science credit hours do you have? If you have only a handful of math classes as an accounting major and get your ____ together for your science pre-reqs, you can actually be one of the rare people with a sGPA that is much high than their cGPA and all other GPA.

Now that just addresses the GPA side. Motivation wise you need to decide on a specific field in healthcare and go for that. It’s okay to consider the options before deciding though

 

[YCAGA]

Why on earth would you get a Masters in finance? Why would you get a Masters period? Currently you are not competitive for any med school except Caribbean so don’t go putting out unrealistic goals. Get your degree. Take as many prereqs as you can. Get as close to all As from now on as you can. After you graduate you will need a post bacc of 2-3 semesters of upper level science . And this is when you can finish your prereqs. Work on your ECs, take the MCAT and get ready to apply. For someone with no MCAT and a 2.7 GPA to say they only want MD is totally unrealistic. You should be asking what can I do to get into any American med school.

I normally agree with 99% of stuff you say, but I’m curious about an aspect of this. If OP has a 2.7 cGPA and like 8 math and science credit hours from some accounting math classes, they could end up (theoretically) with a sGPA of 3.9+ just from premed pre-reqs. So even if their cumulative GPA is in the low 3’s, a great sGPA much makes up for that if someone skims their app. Of course this also assumes an MD competitive MCAT. So a lot of assumptions here but my train of thought is that a post-bacc is not required in a case like OP’s.

 

[candbgirl]

I normally agree with 99% of stuff you say, but I’m curious about an aspect of this. If OP has a 2.7 cGPA and like 8 math and science credit hours from some accounting math classes, they could end up (theoretically) with a sGPA of 3.9+ just from premed pre-reqs. So even if their cumulative GPA is in the low 3’s, a great sGPA much makes up for that if someone skims their app. Of course this also assumes an MD competitive MCAT. So a lot of assumptions here but my train of thought is that a post-bacc is not required in a case like OP’s.

Maybe but this person has so many decisions to make I don’t see a way to a 3.9 sGPA. But who knows. If they can manage to decide to change majors and pick a new one I guess anything can happen. I guess we just wait until there is a new thread asking what is needed to be a nurse, OT, etc.

@Apprentice of St. Luke love your screen name.

 

[Apprentice of St. Luke]

@Apprentice of St. Luke love your screen name.

Thank you, @candbgirl !