Medical Education US

I'm a senior in High school and my goal has always been to become a psychiatrist but I 'm not sure what steps to take.

My response:

Thanks for your question. As a senior in High School, you will be applying to colleges soon and having to make that decision. After 4 years of college, if you are successful, you will be accepted to and attending a medical school. After 4 years of medical school, you will need to complete a 4 year residency program in psychiatry.

So, the first step is to get into a good college. Hopefully, you have done well enough in high school that you will be able to get into a decent college. While it is not critical to attend a great college, the better the school, the better you look when applying. I still believe the most important factors for getting into medical school, though, are grade point average and MCAT scores, regardless of where you went to college.

Getting accepted to medical school is probably the biggest challenge that will face you (although 3rd year of medical school can be pretty brutal). While in college, you will need to take pre-med courses. You can major in any field you want, but you will need to make sure that you take the required courses for getting accepted into medical school. The basic "pre-med" requirements include:

1 year of biology
1 year of chemistry
1 year of organic chemistry
1 year of physics

You will also have to take the MCAT. You will then be ready to apply to medical schools. It's not all that different from getting accepted into college, but a lot more difficult.

Once you go through medical school, you'll need to apply to residency programs. Psychiatry residency programs are not that competitive. Graduating from a US medical school should put you in pretty good shape for all but the most competitive psychiatry residency programs. A psychiatry residency program is 4 years. Once you are done - you are ready to start working as a psychiatrist.

If you have any more specific questions, feel free to ask.

Best of luck!

I am a Junior in high school and i want to become a child psychiatrist and one day open up my own practice. I am not sure what classes i should take once i get accepted into a college to help me become a child psychiatrist and was wondering if you had some advice. Also i am not completely sure what the difference betweena therapist and a psychiatrist is so if you can clear that up it would be great ...thank you and hope to hear from you soon.

In college, you only need to make sure you take all of the required pre-med courses. They are the same courses taken by anyone going to medical school whether they want to become a surgeon or a psychiatrist or a dermatologist, etc. Those pre-med requirements are what are what I listed in the first message of this thread. The general belief is that medical school admissions is not based on what courses you take (outside of the requirements) or what you major in. The general suggestion is to take the classes that are of most interest to you, as you may not get the chance to take those courses later in life.

Once you are ready to apply for a residency program in psychiatry (the application process starts near the beginning of 4th year of medical school), it really won't have mattered too much what courses you took in college. I was a chemistry major with a minor in philosophy. I had taken a few psychology courses, and I did do research that was very relevant to psychology, but that was because I was interested in those classes and in the research I did.

My own definition of a therapist is someone who uses a form of "talk therapy" or psychotherapy when working with a client. There are many different approaches to talk therapy, and some work better than others for specific types of problems. Different people can provide therapy - from social workers to psychologists to psychiatrists

A psychiatrist is someone who has completed medical school and a residency program in psychiatry. A psychiatrist is a physician who can prescribe medications as well as provide therapy. Most psychiatrists today spend a large part of their clinical time doing medication management for clients as opposed to therapy, but many psychiatrists also use psychotherapy when working with clients.

wht if i decide to go in oxford university nd they hv department of psychiatry there...?..

i cn do it directly frm thea' right?..i dun hv to go to ny medical school.. o college thn... do i?

aaa wrote:wht if i decide to go in oxford university nd they hv department of psychiatry there...?..

i cn do it directly frm thea' right?..i dun hv to go to ny medical school.. o college thn... do i?

I am not familiar with UK medical school programs or their requirements for psychiatry in England. My information in this thread was intended for US high school students interested in pursuing a career in the US in psychiatry.

Ok so im going to be a sophmore im september 2009
I want to know what type of courses i should take throughout my last 2 years
Should i also take either physics and/or chemistry and/or biology?
Would anthropology be good?
What would be the best choice? These are the courses my school offers in social sciences: (and is social sciences helpfull in this career choice?)
-Issues in Human Growth and Development
-Individuals & Families in a Diverse Society
-Challenge & Change in Society
And last question, in university could i pursue psychology,sociology,child psychology? -are those the right courses to take?

I have many questions because i am VERYYY interested in becoming a psyciatriste.

Please answer me back as soon as possible! Thanks

my e-mail address is
miss_caitlyn_0515@hotmail.com

Miss Caitlyn,

As you are very early on in high school, I would suggest you focus on doing as well as you can in the classes that most people take. I would say it is important and typical to take general biology, chemistry, and physics - but the main goal should be to take the classes necessary to get into a good college. You should take classes that are of interest to you if you have elective time. I really can't comment on the specific classes you mentioned - I would go with what you find interesting.

Hopefully your school has a college counselor you can talk to, as that would be a very useful thing to do at this point. Find out what courses you should take to make sure you are prepared for college.

Once you are in college, you can major in any field you would like and take whatever courses you like, as long as you also take the required premed classes: 1 year biology, 1 year chemistry, 1 year organic chemistry, 1 year physics.

Okay thanks for your help,
yeah im very interested in psycholgy and really want to persue it.
and yes i will talk to a counseller at my school.

thanks again

Hi,
I am a senior in high school and i have taken some steps to becoming a Psychiatrist. I have already applied to colleges and have gotten accepted. I have put my major either as Biology or Pre-Med but the college i really want to go to does not have Biology as a major they have Biological Sciences and/or Chemistry... While i am pretty good in Chemistry i really love Biology more. My question is... Is there a difference between being a Chemistry major verses a Biology major? And if so should i just chose another school that has my major or just suck it up and take Chemistry as my major? Please help i'm lost...

Alesha

Ms. Pre-Med? wrote:Hi,
I am a senior in high school and i have taken some steps to becoming a Psychiatrist. I have already applied to colleges and have gotten accepted. I have put my major either as Biology or Pre-Med but the college i really want to go to does not have Biology as a major they have Biological Sciences and/or Chemistry... While i am pretty good in Chemistry i really love Biology more. My question is... Is there a difference between being a Chemistry major verses a Biology major? And if so should i just chose another school that has my major or just suck it up and take Chemistry as my major? Please help i'm lost...

Alesha

Alesha,

A major in biological sciences would be the same as a biology major - it sounds like the school just has a different name for it. You will need to take general chemistry and organic chemistry as part of the pre-med courses, and if you don't like chemistry then I'd suggest you don't major in it. There is a difference between a biology major and a chemistry major.

I would suggest you call the college and see if they have a guidance counselor - ask them if they have experience with students that are pre-med. If so, ask them your questions. If they dont' have any guidance counselors experienced with pre-med students then you may want to consider a different college. If it is a major university, I'd be surprised if they don't have someone who can answer you questions about the pre-med curriculum.

Best of luck and let me know what you hear.

Thanxs I'll let you know

Hello Dr.Admin, I came up with a few questions.

1. How long would it generally take for someone who is post-residency to pay off their student loans? (Considering that the student went through college and then straight to medical school and residency)
1a. How long did it take you to pay off your student loans and at what rate?

2. As a psychiatrist, what do you normally do every day?
2a. What kinds of patients do you generally see - and what problems do they have?
2b. How do you respond to your patient's needs? Is talk therapy involved? How long does a session usually take?

3. Although I am more interested in clinical/counseling psychology, I am considering psychiatry for "higher education" and ultimately higher pay. Is it worth the time and effort to go through medical school/residency for this?

Thanks
~Kevin

Student loans are a big issue as you'll likely have loans from both college and medical school. It can vary significantly based on your family's financial situation, the cost of the schools you go to, whether you qualify for financial aid, and whether you get any scholarships. I think most people view their school debt as if they had a mortgage on a second property, and they pay it off over 20-30 years.

As far as psychiatrists go, I think my practice is a bit different from most. Most people do mostly outpatient work with some inpatient work. I'm doing 100% inpatient work, working at a state psychiatric hospital with a medium security forensic population. I mostly work with individuals who were found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI). I am essentially the team leader along with the other psychiatrists for my unit. We head a multidisciplinary team including social workers, psychologists, nurses, and activity therapists. We evaluate, treat, and make recommendations to the court. I mainly work with medication management issues, but also do some talk therapy. Even when I'm doing medication management sessions, some talk therapy is involved. When I do talk therapy, I usually spend between 15 and 30 minutes with the individual, as I tend to do more focused types of therapy. Some individuals I meet with several times a week, and some people once a week. Because the individuals I work with have been found NGRI, they tend to have very serious mental illnesses. The majority of the people on my unit have either schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder with psychotic features. Many of the individuals also have personality disorders and substance abuse disorders.

It's hard for me to say whether it's worth the time, money, and effort for you to pursue psychiatry over psychology. If you really only want to provide talk therapy, going to medical school and doing a residency is a HUGE undertaking. In my case, I never really considered being a psychologist. I knew I was going to be a physician before I knew I would be a psychiatrist. While I had been doing research in psychology through college and medical school, I hadn't seriously considered being a psychiatrist until I did my clinical rotation my 3rd year of medical school. I loved the experience, but I also really liked internal medicine. I wound up doing a combined residency in both internal medicine and psychiatry. It just so happens that the opportunities that were of interest to me after residency were in psychiatry and I really like the work I'm doing now.

hi im a junior in highschool im not quite sure what colleges to apply for to become a psychiatrist my GPA is below 75
i also want to know how many years it takes to become a psychiatrist.
thnkz