Psychology Undergrad Hoping to Be a Psychiatrist

[wob8ly]

Hi,

I have some queries. I am a psychology major who would be graduating in about one and a half years and i am planning for the future. My plans in mind now are 1) clinical psychology or 2) psychiatry. For clinical psychology, i know which post grad path to take, i am just confused about the second option. Some questions.

1) can a psychology undergrad enter med school if i take my mcat? (planning to take if its possible)

2) what is the approximately the time needed? like how many years in each area. i understand that for psychiatry you have to undergo 4 yrs of residency.

3) is there something like post med courses? like post grad schools, but for medicine?

I am confused because I am in asia and i my undergrad is a australian university. Please advise.

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[loveoforganic]

1) you also have to take the premed perquisite classes (gen chem 1/2+labs, intro bio 1/2+labs, intro physics 1/2+labs, organic 1/2+at least one lab, depending on your school, and sometimes a college level math/calc, but that's less common. To be competitive, you also need extracurricular, e.g. ShAdowing, volunteering, etc

2) 4 years med school, 4 years residency

3) They're called fellowships, and they're how you subspecialize, e.g. Becoming a forensic or child and adolescent psychiatrist

 

[Daftrage]

My major in college was psychology also and I was having to decide between the two. the poster above gave you the answers to the questions you asked. I would add to that though that you may want to take more science classes than that to help your MCAT and make the transition to medical school easier. I took the minimum requirements and it hurt me in my first year curriculum.

I ultimately decided to take the medicine route because I felt that it would give me many more tools to use when helping your patient. In addition to being able to use therapy, you can also use medications Electroshock Therapy, and can treat a more broad category of people with mental illness (like adding Delirium, Dementia, ect).

 

[wob8ly]

My university is probably rather different from what you are describing. I am in Singapore, and for most of my peers, they go into med school straight. I am in an australian university though. Everything seems so different because i dont get to choose to take other science based modules to aid in my mcat or help in my transition in med school. Which is why I am currently in the middle of the road, wondering if i can enter med school with my psychology bachelors.

thanks for your help.

 

[st2205]

wondering if i can enter med school with my psychology bachelors.

Without those prerequisites, not anywhere in the US. If you're talking about medical school outside of the US, then it sounds like from where you're coming from that seems to be the norm, apparently. I have no clue, though, just basing that off what you said.

 

[whopper]

3) is there something like post med courses? like post grad schools, but for medicine?

You can enter medschool so long as you took the MCAT, biology, chemistry, organic chemsitry, physics and calculus, you apply, you graduated with a bachelor's and someone is willing to take you.

There are post med courses but they are rare. Some colleges have created a specific type of program for people who realize they want to enter medical school after they graduated from undergraduate, or figured it out too late in the undergraduate process.

Those programs offer premed courses and allow you to take all of them in a post-bachelor's program.

Other programs offer medical school classes for those who want to enter medical school but haven't gotten in yet. They are also few and far between. Doing well in these classes gives you some training in these very hard classes, and if you do well, proves to medical schools that you can take these classes.

To my knowledge, NY Medical College and Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine offered these courses, but this was at least 6 years ago. I don't know if they still offer them.