Psychiatry in Canada - applying, cost, age, family

[PsyHike]

---

Members do not see this ad.

(I apologize in advance, I'm not really sure which forum is the most appropriate for this type of discussion)

Good evening,

I am in process of making it through my M.A. in Forensic Psychology in US and will most likely relocate to Canada after I'm done. I am still torn between Clinical Psychology PhD and Psychiatry. I have the better knowledge base for the first, and will probably take me less years (5-7), but psychiatry seems more and more like a better fit. So I have several questions for those of you who can help 🙂

Searching for admissions criteria, is it true that medical schools in Ontario do not require 1 year of chemistry/biology/math/physics/what have you that all US schools seem to require? Is there some sort of unspoken assumption that I have to have it anyway?

It's a silly question, but do I get paid at all while doing the 4 years of residency? And on the related note, how much do medical schools cost in Ontario (ball park)?

And last but not least, I will be 30-32 when I apply. Is it very rare to have students this old at the beginning of med school? Do admissions committees prefer younger students? Also - if anyone has experience with having kids while going through med school - I would greatly appreciate if you could tell me a little about it from your perspective!

Bonus question: do you think it's better to abandon the M.A. and try and get into med school now?

Thank you!

 

[NotASerialKiller]

Your age isn't a problem if you're fine with it.

Most of your other questions can be found with Google searches. Yes, residents get paid, just a lot less than they'll make after. Course requirements are all plainly laid out on school websites. There are only 6 of them, so you can look up what each school wants. There will be no hidden requirements, if you have what they said they want on their site, you're fine. Ontario schools are 20-24k per year, roughly. Again you can look that up for each school using Google.

I would just go with being a clinical psychologist if you want to do talk therapy. Going through all of med school exclusively for psychiatry seems silly to me. Also you might be nearing 40 when you become a working psychiatrist, and it's the worst compensated specialty in medicine. Especially if you're supporting a family throughout, if you'd be similarly happy with being a clinical psychologist it doesn't seem worth it to me. You'd have to decide how much the difference between the two really matters to you.

Also this website is for US med schools, I am one of the few Canadian users. Go to premed101.com they're the equivalent for Canadian med schools.

 

[PsyHike]

Your age isn't a problem if you're fine with it.

Most of your other questions can be found with Google searches. Yes, residents get paid, just a lot less than they'll make after. Course requirements are all plainly laid out on school websites. There are only 6 of them, so you can look up what each school wants. There will be no hidden requirements, if you have what they said they want on their site, you're fine. Ontario schools are 20-24k per year, roughly. Again you can look that up for each school using Google.

I would just go with being a clinical psychologist if you want to do talk therapy. Going through all of med school exclusively for psychiatry seems silly to me. Also you might be nearing 40 when you become a working psychiatrist, and it's the worst compensated specialty in medicine. Especially if you're supporting a family throughout, if you'd be similarly happy with being a clinical psychologist it doesn't seem worth it to me. You'd have to decide how much the difference between the two really matters to you.

Also this website is for US med schools, I am one of the few Canadian users. Go to premed101.com they're the equivalent for Canadian med schools.

Thank you so much for the information! I'll be sure to visit the website you provided!

I don't want to do talk therapy, but I do want to work with severe mental illness. Clinical PhD is a little less work, but a lot less money (even if psychiatry is the worst compensated medical profession), plus - I will be more tied to the advisor and academia than I would like to be. But you're right - I will have to carefully weight the differences.