I want to become a Psychiatrist? What should I major in?

Answered

I have a bit of advice since I also want to go into healthcare (different career though)

Psychiatry requires an MD (because they are allowed to prescribe medications and delve a bit deeper into the medical side than psychologists.) You also have to go to med school, but the good part about that is med schools don't really care what you major in, as long as you get good grades, and take the necessary math, science, English and humanities courses. That and you have to pass the MCAT.

I do suggest philosophy as a possible major/minor because it teaches you HOW to think, develops critical thinking (something a lot of people can't do,)and goes in depth about ethics, which is something that healthcare values greatly, especially in today's world. Also, med schools like to see this as a major(or minor!) since not a lot of people(only .5% !) apply with this major, and as such are more likely to be accepted into med school. It's also partly due to the fact that they don't want hardcore science folks saturating their admissions pool. They want to be more diverse in terms of education backgrounds.

link explaining more about philosophy : https://philosophy.ucdavis.edu/undergraduate/career-information/pre-law-and-pre-med-studies

There are some colleges with an accelerated 6 or 8 year medical program(BS/MD programs) if you want to look into those. Brown and Campbell are two examples. On average, it takes 12 total years of education( 4 years college + 2yrs for a masters, 4 years med school, 4 years psychiatry residency). If you do a 6 year program or graduate college a year early (very much possible. one way to do this is taking summer classes during the off semesters), this might shave off a year or two once you get to med school.

here's a link for some 6/7/8 year programs: https://students-residents.aamc.org/medical-school-admission-requirements/medical-schools-offering-combined-baccalaureate-md-programs-state-and-program-length-2021-2022

another link: https://blog.collegevine.com/best-bs-md-programs/

Ultimately, do a major in something that interests you (it doesn't have to be a science major, do literally any major you want), make sure you get good grades in college, and do decent on the MCAT when you get there.