What type of schooling did you go through to become a psychiatrist?

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Kayhend314

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*Primarily Looking for answers from anyone who majored in psychology to become a psychiatrist, but any answers from any type of psychiatrist is fine*

I'm currently in college majoring in psychology to become a child/adolescent psychiatrist. Many people have told me to major in pre-Med but I know I won't excel in that major because of the difficult science courses, so I decided to do something I'm more interested in, psychology.

Anyways, as I'm looking through med school admission requirements, I see most of them require science courses. How am I going to get into any med school w/o the proper science courses if I don't want to major in pre-med and deal with the science classes?

What type of schooling did you go through to become a psychiatrist?

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You're going to want to post this in the psychiatry forum; this forum is generally frequented by master's level therapists.
 
*Primarily Looking for answers from anyone who majored in psychology to become a psychiatrist, but any answers from any type of psychiatrist is fine*

I'm currently in college majoring in psychology to become a child/adolescent psychiatrist. Many people have told me to major in pre-Med but I know I won't excel in that major because of the difficult science courses, so I decided to do something I'm more interested in, psychology.

Anyways, as I'm looking through med school admission requirements, I see most of them require science courses. How am I going to get into any med school w/o the proper science courses if I don't want to major in pre-med and deal with the science classes?

What type of schooling did you go through to become a psychiatrist?

I agree that posting this on the psychiatry board would be helpful.

However, to become a psychiatrist, you first have to become a physician. That means you have to complete medical school, including all of those science courses, general anatomy, etc. Typically (from my understanding), you then you complete a general residency (3-4 years), followed by a psychiatry fellowship (the ones I am familiar with take two years). So... if you don't want to be pre-med because you don't want to take science courses... that will be a pretty terrible path for you. Psychiatry training includes many years of general physician training and is extremely heavy in natural sciences coursework.

It's not impossible to get into med school with a psychology major, but you would need to take additional prerequisites or double major in a hard science. Or, of course, complete a second bachelor's degree once you finish your degree and realize it's not sufficient to get you where you want to go.
 
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How am I going to get into any med school w/o the proper science courses if I don't want to major in pre-med and deal with the science classes?

You don't have to major in "pre-med," but you do need to take the science prerequisites. There is no way around them. The basic science courses in medical school are far more intensive, so at a minimum you need to demonstrate an aptitude for these subjects. But you can major in anything you want as long as you take your biology, general chem, o-chem, etc. In fact, you should major in something you enjoy, and psychology is a fairly common major for pre-meds. Your major will not be an impediment to medical school admission as long as you also nail the prerequisites, do well on the MCAT, and get the kinds of extracurricular experiences that med schools like to see in their applicants (eg, research, volunteering, etc.).

Just out of curiosity though, if psychology is interesting to you, have you given any thought to becoming a psychologist?
 
You say "pre-Med" major.... I'm planning to finish my major in BioChem would that be a good major or should i consider a different major?
 
You say "pre-Med" major.... I'm planning to finish my major in BioChem would that be a good major or should i consider a different major?

Again... a good major for a pre-med is anything that you enjoy studying and will perform well in. However, regardless of your major, you need to do very well in your science pre-requisites and maintain a high GPA overall in order to be competitive for medical school admissions. Check out the pre-med forums for further advice.
 
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*Primarily Looking for answers from anyone who majored in psychology to become a psychiatrist, but any answers from any type of psychiatrist is fine*

I'm currently in college majoring in psychology to become a child/adolescent psychiatrist. Many people have told me to major in pre-Med but I know I won't excel in that major because of the difficult science courses, so I decided to do something I'm more interested in, psychology.

Anyways, as I'm looking through med school admission requirements, I see most of them require science courses. How am I going to get into any med school w/o the proper science courses if I don't want to major in pre-med and deal with the science classes?

What type of schooling did you go through to become a psychiatrist?

How are you going to be physician if you don't like, and aren't good at, science?
 
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One of the determining factors for me (when choosing psychiatry vs. psychology) was the idea that before I could even study psychological principles in depth (on the psychiatry route) I would have to complete medical school *4 years* plus residency *3 years* before even delving into a fellowship touching on psych. You will spend 7-ish years (minus your psych class(es) ) drilling anatomy, microbiology, biochemistry, and pathology into your brain. If you have zero interest in science courses, the med school route will likely... stink. You have to wade through a lot of medicine before a brief swim in the psychology pool then back to regular medicine for quite some time.
 
*Primarily Looking for answers from anyone who majored in psychology to become a psychiatrist, but any answers from any type of psychiatrist is fine*

I'm currently in college majoring in psychology to become a child/adolescent psychiatrist. Many people have told me to major in pre-Med but I know I won't excel in that major because of the difficult science courses, so I decided to do something I'm more interested in, psychology.

Anyways, as I'm looking through med school admission requirements, I see most of them require science courses. How am I going to get into any med school w/o the proper science courses if I don't want to major in pre-med and deal with the science classes?

What type of schooling did you go through to become a psychiatrist?
Med school. They are first and foremost MD's. Then they specialize. A few states give small amount of prescriptive authority. By and large, you have to be a physician to prescribe. Another path is as an advanced nurse practitioner, which is still a doctorate in a completely different direction.
 
Med school. They are first and foremost MD's. Then they specialize. A few states give small amount of prescriptive authority. By and large, you have to be a physician to prescribe. Another path is as an advanced nurse practitioner, which is still a doctorate in a completely different direction.

NPs are master's level. Also, PAs can prescribe.
 
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