Psychology or premed major?

[Kayhend314]

what did you major in in college to become a C&A psychiatrist or psychiatrist? Which major is best to major in?

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[Psychotic]

The major that you can excel in and make As. Seriously.

Of course you have to take the med school pre reqs - and need to make mostly As in those - but for your major, it can be anything. Anything at all.

My UG major was in a foreign studies / language discipline. About as far removed from science or pre-med as you can get.

 

[MrWonderful]

Doesn't matter. Major in whatever you'll get the best grades in. If that's art, sociology, chemistry, or voodoo, just do it. And get good grades in your mandatory science classes. And kill the mcat. Rest won't matter

 

[clausewitz2]

Med school admissions is a soulless numbers game. Do the prereqs and rack up the numbers otherwise.

 

[675015]

what did you major in in college to become a C&A psychiatrist or psychiatrist? Which major is best to major in?

Like everyone said, just get good grades. Or something you really like. Nothing in undergraduate will help you particularly 9 years from now when you start as a CA psychiatrist.

 

[InvegaSustenna]

I did bachelor of science in psychology. We had two tracks - BA or BS. With the science one, I was required to take 2 semesters of bio and 2 semesters of chem which was nice because I had to take those anyway as pre-reqs. I would actually recommend this for anyone who is pre med and interested in psych.
Also, be sure to take as many bio classes as you can before medical school. It will help you learn how to handle that type/larger amount of information and will prepare you for medical school. Do not fall for the classic advice of "don't worry, you will learn it in med school". Learn as much as you can before med school so that you can recall and learn it better in med school which will help to get better class rank and better board scores.
I would recommend these courses:
Biochem (at least 1 semester)
Anatomy (absolutely take it)
Physiology (did not take this, but wish I had)
Cell bio/molecular bio
Microbio
Neuroscience/neurophysiology
Embryology (embryo is confusing, definitely recommend)
Pharmacology (if your school offers it)
Pathology

 

[TexasPhysician]

If I could do it over again, I would have majored in nursing. Higher percentage of women plus I could have been moonlighting in med school.

 

[hamstergang]

I majored in Computer Science. Feel it was a good choice since I now know a lot about computers and can do programming/web design. The major itself has no bearing on getting into med school or my current work, but it has provided me with a hobby, essentially.

 

[Shikima]

Underwater basket-weaving. It doesn't matter.

 

[st2205]

I majored in psychology. If I could do it again, I'd major in automechanics or culinary arts. In theory, I think having a degree in stats would be great, though I only say that in hindsight. I wouldn't have appreciated it then and it would likely have been more stress than I'd want (I went through undergrad at a very fast pace to speed up the lengthy process). The most beneficial classes from the psychology curriculum for psychiatry are the stats / research methods and testing courses. Naturally, you likely won't find those fun at the time but are beneficial in hindsight. They also likely won't scratch your itch, so things like abnormal psychology may be interesting to many.

Regarding taking advanced classes for medical school, I side with the common consensus that you should enjoy your time and very little would be obtained from "preparing" for medical school. I only did the prerequisites, but did nearly all of the neuroscience classes my university offered (had a separate major that, had I completed all the biochem and other classes would have been near completing). That being said, I felt it helped a little with familiarity of stuff in med school but really, what we were studying was much different.

I think it's natural to feel unprepared and overwhelmed. I think it's easier in those circumstances for those without a biology degree to attribute those feelings of being overwhelmed to being unprepared.

You can certainly load up on biology classes, which may provide a small amount of benefit in medical school, but you'll do 4-5x as much work and have more stress on undergraduate for a very negligible (in my opinion) benefit in medical school.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Can I just add, that since it doesn't matter what you major in, that you also give strong consideration to anything you can do to reduce, limit, or eliminate the amount of debt that you incur in this undergraduate period? A public university will prepare you for the MCAT just as effectively--and it makes NO sense to begin med school already saddled with a six-figure educational debt.

 

[clausewitz2]

Can I just add, that since it doesn't matter what you major in, that you also give strong consideration to anything you can do to reduce, limit, or eliminate the amount of debt that you incur in this undergraduate period? A public university will prepare you for the MCAT just as effectively--and it makes NO sense to begin med school already saddled with a six-figure educational debt.

Yeah, probably still best to take all the formal prereqs at a four-year institution, but the more distributional requirements you can grind out at a CC prior to transfer to that four year institution, the better.

 

[Psychotic]

I did bachelor of science in psychology. We had two tracks - BA or BS. With the science one, I was required to take 2 semesters of bio and 2 semesters of chem which was nice because I had to take those anyway as pre-reqs. I would actually recommend this for anyone who is pre med and interested in psych.
Also, be sure to take as many bio classes as you can before medical school. It will help you learn how to handle that type/larger amount of information and will prepare you for medical school. Do not fall for the classic advice of "don't worry, you will learn it in med school". Learn as much as you can before med school so that you can recall and learn it better in med school which will help to get better class rank and better board scores.
I would recommend these courses:
Biochem (at least 1 semester)
Anatomy (absolutely take it)
Physiology (did not take this, but wish I had)
Cell bio/molecular bio
Microbio
Neuroscience/neurophysiology
Embryology (embryo is confusing, definitely recommend)
Pharmacology (if your school offers it)
Pathology

I have to disagree with this well intentioned but essentially false advice, no matter how logical it appears to be to people who have not been to medical school.

First, to accomplish this, it would add at least one year of undergrad to your plate and debt load above and beyond any of the pre-reqs you have to take. If you majored in, say, a foreign language or some other non-trad pre-med major, you may already be in the unenviable position of having to take an additional year or more to get the basic pre-reqs done. That was the case for me - I took all the pre-reqs in rapid fire order in a post-bacc setting, took 2 semesters and one summer. And I did not take a single additional science course, and it did not matter one bit in med school as far as I could tell.

Personally I think you would benefit by taking some econ classes, a statistics class, and anything in the business realm instead of piling on more science to the pre-req load. Use undergrad electives for stuff like this, not more science - you will get all the science you can stand in med school.

 

[clausewitz2]

Advanced science classes in undergrad will make your first week of each block more comfortable. Then you will be frantically treading water like everyone else.

 

[thoffen]

To answer the primary question as everyone else has, a BS/BA in psychology is not particularly helpful if pursuing psychiatry. You are best suited to studying what you find interesting and accessible enough to perform well in (which may be psychology!).

RE: extra classes, it's a benefit/risk discussion. The benefit (with what InvegaSustenna suggested) would ease med school, but the risks would include more time, more money, more likelihood of low pre-med performance...

 

[Ceke2002]

Reassuring to see a diversity of undergrad degrees and some excellent advice on just doing what will get you the numbers to get into med school. Right now, for a variety of reasons, I'm pretty much down to Archaeology as the only viable option I have of being able to do an undergrad I have any chance of getting med school entry level type grades in - but then again I love Archaeology and spending 3 years studying something I love in order to (hopefully) spend another 4 years studying something I love even more, sounds like a good deal to me.

 

[sunlioness]

It doesn't matter. Seriously. Do something you love and that you'll never get the chance to do again. I majored in History.


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[Doctor Bagel]

It doesn't matter. Seriously. Do something you love and that you'll never get the chance to do again. I majored in History.


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Me, too! Totally what I would major in again, too.

 

[Shikima]

If I could do it, I'd get a degree in Brewing like over at UC Davis.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

Embryology, advance biochemistry, and anatomy in addition to the pre-med stuff does help lighten the load of an MS-1, but these can be taken within any major. Some of our psychology faculty has said that we should prefer psychology BS applicants because they do better in therapy training. I highly doubt this is because of their undergraduate education, but largely due to the inherent interest in learning about therapy among psychology majors.

Here is a good web site for shopping.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/52545/33-unusual-majors-your-college-probably-didnt-offer

Maybe Cannabis cultivation with a minor in theme park engineering?

 

[DD214_DOC]

Embryology, advance biochemistry, and anatomy in addition to the pre-med stuff does help lighten the load of an MS-1, but these can be taken within any major. Some of our psychology faculty has said that we should prefer psychology BS applicants because they do better in therapy training. I highly doubt this is because of their undergraduate education, but largely due to the inherent interest in learning about therapy among psychology majors.

Here is a good web site for shopping.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/52545/33-unusual-majors-your-college-probably-didnt-offer

Maybe Cannabis cultivation with a minor in theme park engineering?

This is true. I more or less already thought like a shrink before switching to psychology as my major; it's self-selective to either those with an inherent interest in the field or blonde sorority girls without any better ideas for a major.

Honestly, though, pick something you'll enjoy learning -- it'll make it easier. Also, something that would get you somewhere in life in the event you do not get into medical school.