Psychiatrist Education Questions?

M

Meg

New member
I am looking to go to college for psychiatry but I have some questions about this career choice, which are as follows:

How hard is it to get into a college for psychiatry?
What would be an acceptable high school GPA?
How high in demand is this job (will I be able to find a job fairly easy)?
How many years of college should I expect to have to take?

Thanks in advance, any other information you feel like sharing about psychiatry would be greatly appreciated! =)
Also, what should I expect the total cost of my college education to be?
 
A psychiatrist is a medical doctor.

You will have to go to college for 4 years majoring in something like biology or chemistry. You will need something like a 3.5 or higher GPA in your college work and at least a 25 or so on the MCAT (to get into a good medical school). Once in medical school, it is four years (2 of classwork, 2 years of clinicals). Doctors are in very high demand, including psychiatrists. Psychiatry is one of the lesser paid physician specialties, but it's still six-digits. Total, you will be in school 8 years (4 years of college+ 4 years of medical school) then a 3 year residency in Psychaitry (which you get paid for, but it's less than $50,000 year).

Depends on where you to to school as far as the cost. Undergrad, the average debt is something like $30,000....and medical school will be a MINIMUM of $80,000, but probably more because you have to pay for books, rent, etc as well. You will come out of school as a psychiatrist with at least $100,000 in debt, but hopefully you can get some grants and scholarships along the way.

Definitely job shadow a psychaitrist before going into it. Do it more than once. Look one up, call them and let them know that you are thinking about it as a career choice, and see if you can follow them around for a day or two. You may have to call more than one to find one that will let you do it. Medical school is hard, but you can do it if you set your mind to it.

If you are interested in being a Psychologist, however, you would need a 4 year degree in psychology, 2 year masters, and preferably a Psy.D. A Ph.D. is really for those who want to teach psychology...a Psy.D. is a clinical doctorate more appropriate for counseling in an office setting.

A psychiatrist prescribes drugs. A psychologist cannot.
 
Psychiatrists are Medical Doctors, so you would need a Bachelors Degree to begin with, then 4 years of medical school, plus 3 or 4 years in a residency, plus a possible year or two in a fellowship. You are looking at 8 years of schooling, plus a minimum of 3 or 4 years as a resident.

If you were inquiring about a "Psychologist", you would need your 4 years to earn your Bachelors, then most earn a Masters (average 2 years) then they work on their Doctorate. So, for a PhD, you're looking at a minimum of 8 years.

Your high school GPA would not really matter by the time you got to medical school, so you need to look at what college or university you plan to attend to get a Bachelors and see what their average GPA for admission is.
 
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