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Psychology vs Psychiatry (medical course)


saya

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Hi! I have just started my IB Year 1 and thought that it would be nice if I started thinking about universities before I have too much of a workload and am stressed away. I hope I am allowed to open this thread or something. If I am not, I apologize for it.

Anyways, as I said, this is my first year and I am taking
HL- Chemistry, Biology and Psychology
SL- Maths, French B, English A1

In the future, I would like to either be a psychologist or a psychiatrist. So do you know what I require to enter unis from all over the world (I am interested in american and australia ones)? I am lost. I was trying to sort things out from all the stuff in IB Survival but ended up in a chaos so I just thought that opening a thread would be a good idea.

So there goes my tiny problem. Hope you can provide me with information...looking forward to your replies!

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Hi! :crying:

Your subjects are fine both ways, for psychology and psychiatry. So no worries. :giveheart:

If you're interested in US universities, either in the US itself or around the world, then you have to do four years of premedical studies. For more information on this, click [url="http://www.ibsurvival.com/forum/index.php?s=&showtopic=232&view=findpost&p=1329"]here[/url]. If you pass the MCAT exam, then you'll continue with four years of medicine and then specialize in psychiatry if you like to.

As far as the Australian universities are concerned, I hope that a fellow IBer would be kind enough to share his/her knowledge with you, as I don't really know much about them. :D

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  • 1 month later...

[i]As far as the Australian universities are concerned, I hope that a fellow IBer would be kind enough to share his/her knowledge with you, as I don't really know much about them. :P [/i]

g'day mate :)
its funny you are pretty much exactly the same as me, except i'm doing music HL instead of a second science. i'm also considering both these options for australian unis. the deal here is one of:
- take a bachelor of arts or science and major in psychology [need a score of around 35]
- take a 4 year uni degree called 'psychology' [need a score of around 40]
- take medicine (or if you're considering melbourne uni: biomedicine then medicine) for 5 or 6 years and then specialise in psychiatry. [usually 40+]

personally i'm leaning towards the psychology options, just because it gives you more freedom with your studies (you can do other subjects alongside psych in an arts or science degree) and also takes a little less time to complete. plus i don't know about you but i don't really want to spend the majority of my time at uni learning a lot of medical things that i will never need. psychiatrist is really a psychologist who can prescribe ssri's.
hope this helps :)

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Oh thank you so much BIO-AQUA and ibscrewed for your answers. It's been more than a month that I have been doing IB and more or less, I have made up my mind on studying Psychology and not psychiatry, because I am really enjoying the course...and, besides, I don't really want to get into a hiper competitve school where I don't enjoy myself. I study for a living, I don't live for studying. So there.

Most probably I will be applaying to US unis, since they offer more scholarships and I need financial aid for my studies.

I have my eyes set on University of Pennsylvania, because they came to our school and the environment seems pretty relaxed and flexible, YET they seem to do good work. And it is ranked in the TOP 10 in this list [url="http://www.socialpsychology.org/ranking.htm"]http://www.socialpsychology.org/ranking.htm[/url] (concerning psychology).
But I am also thinking of other small unis, which don't have a HUGE reputation, but still can offer me a scholarship and a good education. Any ideas on that front?

Thanks again for the replies guys...

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[quote name='ibscrewd' post='25032' date='Sep 22 2008, 08:37 PM']- take a bachelor of arts or science and major in psychology [need a score of around 35]
[b]- take a 4 year uni degree called 'psychology' [need a score of around 40][/b]
- take medicine (or if you're considering melbourne uni: biomedicine then medicine) for 5 or 6 years and then specialise in psychiatry. [usually 40+][/quote]

Maybe I just don't know the particular course you're talking about that needs a 40? I have friends applying for Psychology and my sister also studied it, and I've never heard of it ever needing a 40. Especially considering how the score converts, it's always hovered at around 30+ points, but I've never heard of an Australian university asking for a 40+ to study Psychology. Unfathomable, really. So I'm hoping that you can enlighten me, that's quite interesting.

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  • 1 month later...

[size=3][font="Arial"]
I wanted to do something that was either psychology or psychiatry as well, but then I decided that I really don't want to spend the next 10 years of my life studying, so I decided that I will study psychology. There is a huge difference between psychology and psychiatry, because for Psychology you only need to study for about 5 years (if you do the accelerate major, available in some unis), while for psychiatry you need to go into premed, then med, and then specialization... I think that psychiatry would take way too long, and I can't afford to be in school for another 12 years... What are you planning on doing after university? Just curious

And all the universities I've looked at want 30+ for psychology (in the UK), and none of them wants 40+... [/font][/size]

Edited by Chesire_Cat
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Hey Chesire_Chat.

Well I guess unis ask for 30+, but then, if you really want to make it, you need more, especially with the huge amount of competition going on nowadays...

Anyways, I am considering psychology more than psychiatry. Me neither, I don't want to remain the rest of my life in school...i mean, c'mon!!

But the thing is, what you do after psychology? I have thought of different options...
1.be a journalist (like one friend of mine wants to, had no clue you could become one with psychology...)
2.be a psychiatrist
3.be a psychology teacher
4.be a researcher

i dunno...what about you?

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[quote name='saya' post='27767' date='Nov 4 2008, 02:07 PM']Hey Chesire_Chat.

Well I guess unis ask for 30+, but then, if you really want to make it, you need more, especially with the huge amount of competition going on nowadays...

Anyways, I am considering psychology more than psychiatry. Me neither, I don't want to remain the rest of my life in school...i mean, c'mon!!

But the thing is, what you do after psychology? I have thought of different options...
1.be a journalist (like one friend of mine wants to, had no clue you could become one with psychology...)
2.be a psychiatrist
3.be a psychology teacher
4.be a researcher

i dunno...what about you?[/quote]

[size=3][font="Arial"]


I want to get a degree in either Neurology or Forensics Psychology+ Chemistry with forensics science...
My options would be:

1. Neurologist
2. Forensic Psychologist (crime scene)
3. Forensic Scientist (which I would combine with forensic psychologist)
4. Teaching Psych seems like it would be a lot of fun, and being an international teacher isn't that bad, you get accommodation and free ticket to your home country + salary...
5. Clinical Psychologist (normal psychologist)

and yes, you need psychology for A LOT of things... it's probably the most useful subject to take. (but then again, I love it, so this is just my opinion)

[/font][/size]

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[quote]and yes, you need psychology for A LOT of things... it's probably the most useful subject to take. (but then again, I love it, so this is just my opinion)[/quote]

Same here. I just love the subject, so I think it is the most useful thing in the whole world. But then my mom really thinks it's kind of useless...she thinks that you end up sitting in a room listening people talk about their stuff... *shrug*

[quote]4. Teaching Psych seems like it would be a lot of fun, and being an international teacher isn't that bad, you get accommodation and free ticket to your home country + salary...[/quote]

Oh I didn't know that about international teachers...that's so cool!

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