Question

What is the best school to go to if you want to be a psychiatrist?

Answer 1

Just as a FYI - Psychiatry and Psychology are two different fields that intersect within the mental health field. Psychiatry requires a bachelor's degree + medical degree + residency in psychiatry. To be a clinical psychologist requires a bachelor's degree + doctorate degree in psychology + licensing exam EPPP + internship/post doctoral residency. Psychiatrists also take medical licensing exams. A psychiatrist prescribes medications and tend to focus on biophysiological aspects of mental illness and developmental concerns whereas a psychologist does not prescribe medication; however, psychologists evaluate/test (intelligence, adaptive behavior, personality/behavior, social-emotional functioning, development) and counsel people (psychotherapy, counseling). Of course, both professions do much more than what I listed, but the above was meant to differentiate between the two. Yes, psychiatrists may do counseling/psychotherapy, but they tend to focus their energies on the medical side and refer their patients to psychologists or MSW social workers for the therapy. If you want to maximize your chances to become a psychiatrist, then I would recommend that you choose a pre-medical degree program for your undergraduate years, preferably one that includes calculus, English writing composition, psychology, chemistry (including organic chemistry and biochemistry), physics, and biology (including anatomy and physiology). If you want to pursue psychiatry, then consider a dual bachelor's degree in psychology to include development (child, adolescent, adult), personality, psychopathology or abnormal psychology, research methods or experimental psychology, and statistics. You might also want to consider research projects in both psychology and natural sciences, especially those that might intersect the two fields such as biopsychology or neuropsychology.

At the same time, consider exploring your options as the fields above are quite diverse. Psychiatry, for example, can be focused on children or on the elderly. Psychologists specialize in areas such as counseling psychology, sports psychology, school psychology, clinical child and adolescent psychology, pediatric psychology, and clinical psychology (adults). You might also be interested in neuropsychology or biopsychology.

As for the colleges that would be best... Well, for your undergraduate years, go to a college that offers a solid natural sciences, pre-med, and psychology degree programs along with opportunities for mentoring and research. Then, while at college, start looking at graduate schools and medical schools depending upon whether you choose psychology or psychiatry. After med school, the residency programs are through hospital programs so they are not necessarily university based.

You can continue writing and dancing during all of this. In fact, your writing skills will come in handy for writing your doctoral dissertations and writing up your research results when you submit your journal articles to be published in research journals. Dancing is a great exercise and can be a way to relieve stress. Many universities have gym and dance facilities for use by students. You can probably take dance electives, use the facilities on your own, or take an extracurricular dance class.

Answer 2

Caribbean-Medical-University
Caribbean Medical University School of Medicine
Willemstad, Curacao