I want to be a psychiatrist. What should I major in while in college?

[bltrn]

Hi, my name is Alicia and I am new to this forum. As of now i want to be a psychiatrist. I wanted to be a psychologist at first but then realized it wasn't M.D. As of now I am going to attend a community college in the fall and then hopefully transfer to the University of Illinois, and my current major is Molecular and Cellular Biology. I only chose that because my counselor told me to so I can get into med school. I originally wanted Psyhology. So my question is, can I only major in Chemistry or Biology to get into med school? if not, then why didn't my counselor let me major in psychology, is it the courses required? The thing is I am afraid I wont do too good if i major in science because even though I got A's in my math and science classes in high school i always struggled. What would you recommend? Also, is there still time in case i change my mind and decide to get into another field in medicine that is not psychiatry? As of now i am very confused in how the whole college system works since I am the first one in my family to graduate from high school. Thank you so much.
Oh by the way, if it is possible to major in psychology, will it be competitive when applying to med school?? :S I am just very afraid I wont get in.

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[notdeadyet]

Major in whatever interests you. If nothing else, people tend to do better in subjects that interest them, and you need to have a strong GPA to get in to medical school.

You sound like you're graduating high school and looking to attend a community college, yes? You will find that most advisors will be focused on getting you into a great four year, not medical school. Use your time at the community college for what it's meant for: take your general education requirements. Take a few electives in a field that interests you.

I'd also recommend completing a year of General Chemistry (with lab). You will be required to complete a year of Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physics and Biology to apply to medical school, and Chemistry is a prerequisite for OChem, so knocking it out in your first two years is wise. You may be required to take Biology for your Gen Ed requirements, but if not, I'd leave it and the other science classes for when you transfer to a four year, as it's better to have done your science prereqs in a four year environment, particularly if you're going to be majoring in something other than science.

Pick up a Getting into Medical School book. Community college advisors are great, but it's not their job to get you into med school, so it's not their specialty.

Make sure you want med school, though. I'm a little troubled by your interest in becoming a psychologist until you found there was no MD attached. Or the fact that you struggled with science. Take your Gen Ed but if you don't enjoy Chemistry or Biology and have trouble with it but continue to love Psychology, there's absolutely nothing wrong with going the psychologist route.

 

[fMRI]

Hi, my name is Alicia and I am new to this forum. As of now i want to be a psychiatrist. I wanted to be a psychologist at first but then realized it wasn't M.D. As of now I am going to attend a community college in the fall and then hopefully transfer to the University of Illinois, and my current major is Molecular and Cellular Biology. I only chose that because my counselor told me to so I can get into med school. I originally wanted Psyhology. So my question is, can I only major in Chemistry or Biology to get into med school? if not, then why didn't my counselor let me major in psychology, is it the courses required? The thing is I am afraid I wont do too good if i major in science because even though I got A's in my math and science classes in high school i always struggled. What would you recommend? Also, is there still time in case i change my mind and decide to get into another field in medicine that is not psychiatry? As of now i am very confused in how the whole college system works since I am the first one in my family to graduate from high school. Thank you so much.
Oh by the way, if it is possible to major in psychology, will it be competitive when applying to med school?? :S I am just very afraid I wont get in.

Dear Bltrn,

CONGRATULATIONS first of all for graduating from high school and being the first in your family to do so, they must be proud of you!

What "not yet dead" says is all great advice. Your college library might have the book "Getting into Medical School", or get it for you (ask the librarian for help).

You ask a great deal of questions that trouble most pre-meds, and there is an entire section where pre-meds discuss major fields of study, required courses, the issues around community college, etc. It is called the pre-allopathic forum.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=10

As for your major, you can get your degree in anything you like, as long as you complete the required courses (see medical school entrance requirements) and do well on a test called MCAT. Most medical students (to be) are interested in the sciences, that's why there is a large proportion of chemistry, biology, etc. majors but that is, as you quite rightly suspected, not required. To be competitive, you don't only need a great college GPA, but also some extracurricular activities that give you some exposure to research or something "medical". With your interest in the "psych" field, there are many things that you might enjoy doing. Working with mentally handicapped children and adults, volunteering at a rape crisis center, helping out at special needs summer camps, mentoring children from poor neighborhoods, etc. Again, the pre-allopathic forum will give you great ideas about what others are doing -- and you'll surely find something that you will enjoy, too!

 

[whopper]

I only chose that because my counselor told me to so I can get into med school

I don't know if your counselor was right or was trying to weed you out.

You can be any major you want to be. You can be a history, art, basket weaving major so long as you have the pre-med classes.

Several counselors I've seen suggest extremely difficult majors such as biochemistry or the major you have did so only because they wanted to shoot that candidate out of the water. Schools known to have vicious pre-med weed out philosophies such as NYU & Rutgers do that which IMHO is a disservice to the students because counselors are supposed to work on the auspice that they are for the student, not the university. I've also heard horror stories of people in schools such as NYU & Rutgers where the counselor did outlandish things such as put $500 on the table in a condescending manner and say to the student, "I'll bet this much money you don't make it in" even though the person had a decent GPA & MCAT score.

Now to be fair, I don't know what school you went to, and there are advantages to what your counselor mentioned. You might be in a school that does not follow out the weed out philosophy in any way.

While you can be of any major, having taken several of the courses in medschool while in undergraduate (anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, histology, pathology, microbiology etc) are of extreme advantage should you get into medschool because the curriculum is to the point where you get about 1 week's material in undergraduate in about 1 day. To have known this material ahead of time is a definite advantage, though at the same time I've seen several do well who had a non-science major. I remember myself, a history major, and an engineering friend of mine all feel lost during lecture--and we had a bad lecturer. The majority of the class already knew the material. I remember during my Immunology class, several people kept muttering "the only reason why I did well was I had this in undergrad. That lady can't teach for beans." Yeah well for me & my engineering friend never had it before, so we were at a big disadvantage.

A disadvantage to such a major is if you're in a weed-out school, most of the classes in those curriculums are weed out classes which will have a strong impact on your GPA. Getting into medical school is a numbers game. You have to have a strong GPA & MCAT score as if nothing else matters. In most cases, nothing else does matter unless your GPA is above a 3.5, and your MCAT is above a 30. Only then do medical schools seem to care about your personality. I remember people being in courses such a physical chemsitry or Biochemstiry, and the average grade being on the order of a 40%, which by statistical standards wasn't even a fair representation of what they knew, yet the university had no problem failing 1/3 of the class--which in effect would've destroyed their chances of getting into medical school.

Medical school is tough, but its not the point where they're failing out 1/3 of the class.

This is why IMHO its little surprise when I hear of so many medical students that went to small schools for undergraduate not known for academics because such schools usually do not have a weed out philosophy.

There are also advantages of a non-science major, though they will not make your life easier in medical school. There is a room for the humanities in medicine, unlike what several cold left brain doctors sometimes say. I've seen several medical school professors project onto students, and want them to be cold, calculating and schizoid people. I knew of one medical professor who held it against candidates if that person came in with a smile to the interview. Perhaps needless to say, but this was a very unhappy person who I thought would make a terrible physician (he was a pharmacologist).

IMHO primary care & psychiatry should teach more sociology & psychology than it currently does. Certainly someone with a background in these disciplines could contribute to medicine.

Again you can be any major you want to be-I mentioned the pros of having a strong biomedical science background, as well as majoring in another field.

 

[Encephalopathy]

Consider psychobiology as a major if your college has it. It's a good mix of psychology classes, with enough bio to meet the prerequisites for med school.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Consider psychobiology as a major if your college has it. It's a good mix of psychology classes, with enough bio to meet the prerequisites for med school.

Keeping in mind that some institutions may call it physiological psychology, or behavioral neuroscience, or whatever, depending on the particular mix of departmental politics involved...

 

[bltrn]

Hi! I want to thank you all for replying so fast. You were all of great help. And the reason why I want to be a psychiatrist (M.D) is because I think being a doctor would be such a sweet thing, helping other and it would also be a great personal achievement.
I will try to talk to my counselor as soon as possible to try and change my major to psychology (this would be the second time I change it haha). Also, do I have to LOVE science and math to become a doctor? Because I do like those subjects, I think they're interesting, but I wouldn't really say I LOVE them. I loved math back in the algebra days, until I took calculus in high school. I ended up with a B because I struggled.

 

[notdeadyet]

I will try to talk to my counselor as soon as possible to try and change my major to psychology (this would be the second time I change it haha).

Keep in mind your major doesn't really mean much while you're at the community college. And most college students end up changing their major 3-4 times. Don't worry about it.

 

[bltrn]

oooh, ok! Oh gosh, medical school always seemed so out of reach but this website and you guys make it seem more real =) since almost everyone I tell that I wanna go to med school says stuff like "Good luck (ur gonna die)" haha. You are all alive! hehe

Thanks again.

 

[billypilgrim37]

Med school isn't so out of reach. All you have to do is give up the best years of your life to bake under fluorescent lights. If you live somewhere where the weather is bad, this is almost tolerable!

 

[whopper]

I didn't like medschool. Studying for 80-120 hrs a week while breathing in formaldehyde, or getting yelled at by a guy who is doing so because his teachers did the same. I don't mind working hard, getting told I need to do better, but I do mind some guy yelling at me or putting on that cold shoulder because they got no life & are taking it out on you.

That however thankfully appears to be dying in medical educational culture. If you do decent in medschool, you will have more pull in keeping out of a malignant program. I wasn't in a malignant residency program, though some of my clinical rotations were in hospitals that did have malignant programs.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Med school isn't so out of reach. All you have to do is give up the best years of your life to bake under fluorescent lights. If you live somewhere where the weather is bad, this is almost tolerable!

Billy--you really need to get out more....

 

[Regnvejr]

Right now, just focus on college and getting good grades. I do have an F on my college transcript, but it was in Accounting III, so nobody cares, unless you want top schools. If you just want to eventually treat people, then just be sure to learn something that interests you. Because (1) IF you don't get into medical school, then you still learned interesting and possibly useful things. And (2) You will almost certainly get better grades in classes that interest you. My undergrad degree is in Agricultural Economics, a field that has nothing to do with medicine at all

You just in those 4 years need to take a year each of chemistry, biology, physics and organic chemistry (and you don't have to take them after each other, except organic chemistry comes afterregular chemistry. The subjects from these classes will also be on the MCAT, the big, day-long test that medical schools think are important. Not for showing you will be a good doctor, but more to be sure you know enough science, and also that you just are showing that you can learn stuff.

So know that bit of science, and know it quite well. And the rest of the time, just have a great college experience. The really grueling and hard study comes the first 2 years of medical school anyway, so you won't miss out of that

Now if you find that you actually have a love for college science, taking a bit of anatomy, biochemistry and possibly a microbiology class will make med school a little bit easier. But unless you are frying your brain with to much partying in college, then you really don't need it.

Medical school is not really about the subject being to hard, it is about there being to much of it. So if you learn easily, then there really is no problem. That's what it all comes down to. ANYTHING can be learned, there is nothing mysterious and secret about medicine, you just have to study a lot.

If you are the first in your family to make it to college, then you definitely got something extra in you, so I don't really think you will have any problem at all. Its easy to go to college when that's the family tradition and everybody expects that off you, but if you make it as the first, you probably got something extra that can make you better than anybody else. You may found that your grades are in the top of the class for anything you chose to study.

So listen to college counselors, they know stuff. But they typically don't know YOU. Only YOU are the expert in your life and know what is right for you. SO go with what your expertise and strength is.

 

[notdeadyet]

I agree with all of your post except for this:

So listen to college counselors, they know stuff.

Alicia's counselors are community college counselors. They work very hard at their job, but their job is to get folks transferred into the best four year they can. Any knowledge they have about med school admissions is going to be second-hand, incidental, and possibly suspect. The fact that her counselor told her it was necessary to major in science to get into med school should be a big red flag.

I have nothing against community college counselors, but it's important to understand their job. I'd know more bank on advice from one for getting into med school any more than I'd trust a high school guidence counselor's advice for getting into law school. Not their job.

Buy a good Getting Into Med School, Alicia. Their advice is usually pretty solid...

 

[TenaciousGirl]

Hi, my name is Alicia and I am new to this forum. As of now i want to be a psychiatrist. I wanted to be a psychologist at first but then realized it wasn't M.D. As of now I am going to attend a community college in the fall and then hopefully transfer to the University of Illinois, and my current major is Molecular and Cellular Biology. I only chose that because my counselor told me to so I can get into med school. I originally wanted Psyhology. So my question is, can I only major in Chemistry or Biology to get into med school? if not, then why didn't my counselor let me major in psychology, is it the courses required? The thing is I am afraid I wont do too good if i major in science because even though I got A's in my math and science classes in high school i always struggled. What would you recommend? Also, is there still time in case i change my mind and decide to get into another field in medicine that is not psychiatry? As of now i am very confused in how the whole college system works since I am the first one in my family to graduate from high school. Thank you so much.
Oh by the way, if it is possible to major in psychology, will it be competitive when applying to med school?? :S I am just very afraid I wont get in.

It's definitely awesome that you have a good idea of what you want to do after you get your undergrad degree. I went into undergrad kind of lollygagging around. This lack of foresight on my part sucked once I was getting ready to finish up undergrad. I always had an interest in becoming an M.D. but I also had interests in many other things ... art, music, psychology, etc. So, throughout undergrad I kind of bounced from one thing to the other until I settled on something that fit me well and that I really enjoyed. I even planned on going to gradschool in that subject and guess what? I'm in a doctoral program for something else, haha. I guess my point is, it's good to set everything out on the table now so that you know what you'll have to do to get from point A to point Z. If you major in a non science area in undergrad, you'll still have to take those classes to apply for med school. Many schools do offer postbacc programs (programs where you can do all the prereqs for med school after you already have a bachelors in something) which is an option if you don't mind a 1-2 year delay. goodluck with everything.

 

[TenaciousGirl]

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[bltrn]

Hey, thank you so much for all of your advice I really appreciate it . It motivates me to keep moving and hopefully one day be a med student too. As for me being the first one in my family to make it to college, well everyone in my family is very proud I just hope I don't let them down . I am looking forward to staying in this forum and maybe one day I'll help someone as a medical student the way you all helped me. Thanks!

 

[notdeadyet]

I am looking forward to staying in this forum and maybe one day I'll help someone as a medical student the way you all helped me. Thanks!

Like fMRI suggested, be sure to haunt Pre-Allo as well. Once you rule out the half that is neurotic, you'll find a lot of good suggestions, tips and motivators for trying to get in to medical school...

 

[TopSecret]

Hi, my name is Alicia and I am new to this forum. As of now i want to be a psychiatrist. I wanted to be a psychologist at first but then realized it wasn't M.D. As of now I am going to attend a community college in the fall and then hopefully transfer to the University of Illinois, and my current major is Molecular and Cellular Biology. I only chose that because my counselor told me to so I can get into med school. I originally wanted Psyhology. So my question is, can I only major in Chemistry or Biology to get into med school? if not, then why didn't my counselor let me major in psychology, is it the courses required? The thing is I am afraid I wont do too good if i major in science because even though I got A's in my math and science classes in high school i always struggled. What would you recommend? Also, is there still time in case i change my mind and decide to get into another field in medicine that is not psychiatry? As of now i am very confused in how the whole college system works since I am the first one in my family to graduate from high school. Thank you so much.
Oh by the way, if it is possible to major in psychology, will it be competitive when applying to med school?? :S I am just very afraid I wont get in.

I know a psychiatrist who majored in economics and an ER doc who majored in English. Totally unrelated field of study but they're quite good at what they do. Study what you enjoy and things will fall into place. Also, build your repertoire of skills with extracurricular involvement. That's key.

 

[sunlioness]

I majored in history. Follow your heart and study what you want to study. This is your last real chance to do that. And take your pre-med requirements in addition.