Majors for psychiatry and interested minors too?
I’m a high school senior who is planning to attend CSUN as a freshman in Fall 2010. I want to become a psychiatrist but Im not exactly sure of what all the majors I should choose to reach for it until I go to medical school? But, for minors I really, really wanted to minor in Pan African studies, philosophy, religious studies, and political science, so is there a way on how to organize this in a way to effectively work because I passionately want to figure out the majors for psychiatry and add my interested minors as well?
Thank you so much for your help!
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July 1st, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Jeff is wrong a psychologist is an individual who obtains a PhD in psychology, PsyD in clinical psychology, EdD in counseling psychology, or EdD in school psychology. Once the individual completes their degree and the required training they are eligible to apply for licensing as a psychologist. Whereas a psychiatrist is a medically trained doctor who holds a MD, the relevant licenses to practice medicine, and has completed the required training. On average a psychologist takes 9 - 10 years to complete full-time and a psychiatrist takes at least 11 years to complete. Both routes have similar GPA requirements. However a psychologist does not require the MCAT for admission but may require the GRE.
This means for you if you want to be a psychiatrist your undergraduate major is anything you choose in which you complete the required courses for admission to medical school, maintain a minimum GPA of 3.5, and have an acceptable MCAT score. This also means you can select any minor you want for your degree. However in order to meet the required courses for medical school many students major in natural sciences, mathematics, or engineering.
My advice to you would be to get some experience, either paid or volunteer, in health care and pick a major that will allow prepare you for medical school. Regarding a minor I believe choosing a minor might be possible if you pick a major in the natural sciences. Should you choose a major in another field then I suspect completing a minor will be nearly impossible due to the course requirements for medical school.
July 1st, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Jeff is wrong. You DO need to go to medical school to be a Psychiatrist. You don’t need med school to be a psychologist, therapist, counselor, etc.
The most logical major choice is Psychology, since that will be your area of specialty, however technically you can major in anything (because all majors are eligible for med school).
As for a minor, you won’t be able to study ALL of those things, especially since all of your elective credits will be taken up by pre-med courses. Taking all of those minors would keep you in school for an extra 2 years or so. So just choose the one that you are most interested in.
July 1st, 2010 at 2:14 pm
First of all… psychiatrists do attend medical school. Clinical psychologists are the ones who go to graduate schools.
Your majors do not need to be limited to psychology because medical schools will not really care about what your major is as long as you have successfully completed your science courses and have a high MCAT, etc. Obviously it is helpful if you have accumulated impressive clinical experience and research background and that comes best from majoring in some form of empirical science such as psychology (get a BS, not a BA, if it’s offered at your school), neuroscience, biology, chemistry, etc.
As for minors, remember that if you overload yourself you will hurt your GPA and also be at a disadvantage compared to people who have more time to study and to do research/other healthcare-related activities. Make sure that you have ample time to complete all your medical school requirements (talk to your school’s career center to plan ahead, but it’s 1 year of math, 1 year of bio with lab, 1 year of inorganic chem with lab, 1 year of physics with lab, 1 year of organic with lab, and optionally 1 year of English and 1 year of biochem with lab. This will substantially limit the number of courses you can take unless you major in chemistry or biology).
If you are really interested in the humanities and social sciences and do not want to spend your entire college experience in the lab, it may be to your benefit to just major in whatever and then do a post-bacc program. But that will push you back some time and may not make financial sense.
Lastly, make sure you consider your options in terms of whether you want to be a psychiatrist or a psychologist - there are lots of websites for this.
July 1st, 2010 at 5:38 pm
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