Medical Education US

I am a freshman in college and the best thing for those of you still in high school is go to your school counselor and talk to them. Some things to keep in mind is take alot of science classes you will be trying to get into medical school at some point. As you look at schools you have to go and get a 4 year degree in psychology so i would do that first then you can also go for pre-med too. After that is med school the best thing to get in is go to a large university they typically acccept students from their school first into med school, and med school is very very competitive so any leg up will help. You also have to maintain a high GPA shoot for a 3.5. Join club especialy a psychology club in college, there is an honors club you can apply for in you last year of college called psi-chi and for that you have to have a 3.5. Volenteer, get internships and participate in studys at your university. However DO NOT get psychiatrist and psychologist mixed up. A psychiatrist is a M.D. (medical doctor) they perscribe medication, a psycologist has either a Ph.D. or a Psy.D.(Doctorate of either philosphy or psychology). If you want to be more one on one with people you will be looking at either counceling or clinical psychology. In alot of states insurance only covers so much of your mental health bills so most of the time you see a clinical psychologist twice at the begining and the end, other than that you talk to a counselor. No matter how much mental heath services your insurance pays for you typically only see a psychiatrist twice to evaluate. A psychiatrist is in school for 8 years then has an internship of 4 years after. To be a psychologist you have your four year degree then you masters 2 years then you doctorate 6-8 years so no mater what you are in school for a while, but again if you really want to help people go into counceling that is where you will be able to do the most.

Guest wrote:Hi, Im a Freshmen in High school and I've been wanting to be a psychiatrist for a long time and now I have to do a project on career search and I cant find any thing about how to become a psychiatrist or how long I have to go to schoolto be one.Please give me some kind of web sight I can go to to find info.

Thesputopia wrote:
Hi. I am a junior in high school and I am really interested in becoming a psychiatrist, but I need a lot of information. I need grounds and info, but I'm not sure where to find it. If anyone could help me out and give me advice on the steps to getting to where I want to be, that would be much appreciated. Really, any information would help. I'm just really naive in this area and I would like to have more knowledge about it. Thanks.

guest wrote:I am a freshman in college and the best thing for those of you still in high school is go to your school counselor and talk to them. Some things to keep in mind is take alot of science classes you will be trying to get into medical school at some point.

I agree you should talk to your school counselor. However, you shouldn't just take a lot of science classes. If you are considering medical school, you should take the required pre-med science courses:

1 year biology
1 year general chemistry
1 year organic chemistry
1 year physics

guest wrote:As you look at schools you have to go and get a 4 year degree in psychology so i would do that first then you can also go for pre-med too.

That is wrong - you don't need to get a degree in psychology. You can major in any field that you'd like and still get into medical school as long as you have taken the above pre-med science courses and done well enough to get accepted into a medical school.

guest wrote:After that is med school the best thing to get in is go to a large university they typically acccept students from their school first into med school, and med school is very very competitive so any leg up will help.

I don't think most medical schools give that much preference to students who have attended their undergrad program. Perhaps if you do research with someone in the medical school and they give you a personal reference, you may get an edge, but I'm not aware that going to a large university will give you any worthwhile advantage in getting into medical school.

The rest of your information was mostly accurate and I think explained in detail elsewhere on this site.