Medical Education US

Ok, so I am graduating high school this year and it's come time for the "what i wanna be when i grow up" session. I am really interested in psychology and psychiatry, mostly abnormal mental illness. However I can't decide what i want to actually pursue. I'm not exactly math and science savvy, being more of a music, art, and writing whiz. Im worried that if i go into psychiatry i won't have what it takes to get into and through medical school, but if i go into psychology I wont have the immersion in abnormal mental illness that i'm looking for. Eventually I want to become a full time free lance novelist and writing about mental illness is interesting so, i guess, what i'm really wondering is, which field is more interesting?

Rissa,

I'll start with your last question - and that is that both areas are equally interesting, but perhaps differently to different people. The two areas are obviously very much related.

I think that you really don't need to worry about psychology not allowing you to have a deep enough immersion into serious mental illness. As a psychologist, you would have many different choices as to what type of area you want to focus. You also have a lot of time to sort out what you want to do as a career.

You can always try some of the pre-med coursework in college to see if you are able to handle the work load - assuming you may be interested in going to medical school. If you are pretty sure you don't want to go to medical school, then just take intro to psychology your freshman year of college and go from there.

If you truly believe you will wind up being a writer, then going to medical school is really unnecessary. However, I would strongly encourage you to also pursue a field where you can more easily support yourself than being a writer (and psychologist fits the bill). I would think it would be very difficult to make a living as a writer, but some people are able to do it. I always think it is good idea to keep your options open.