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Gracelynn
Student
Turbeville, South Carolina
2
Questions
Asked
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What experiences in college helped you decide to pursue psychiatry or neuroscience, and what do you wish you had done earlier in high school to prepare?
I’m currently a high school student interested in pursuing a career in adolescent psychiatry, with plans to major in Neuroscience on a pre-med track. I’m especially interested in understanding how early academic and extracurricular experiences shape the path toward medicine and mental health fields. I’d really appreciate hearing about specific college experiences—classes, research, volunteering, clinical exposure, or even personal moments—that helped confirm your interest in psychiatry or neuroscience. I’m also curious about what you wish you had done earlier in high school to better prepare for this path, whether academically, socially, or through extracurricular involvement.
Any advice or insight you can share would be really helpful as I plan my next steps.
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1 answer
Perry Zuckerman
Psychiatrist
36
Answers
Los Angeles, California
Updated
Perry’s Answer
Hello Gracelynn,
I am an adult psychiatrist [MD].
In high school, all you need to do is complete all of the classes that are required for any college that you want to apply to. Make sure you know now what the requirements are. A college counselor can help you. Good grades are ALWAYS important. Do as well as you can on the SAT [one of those private prep courses like Kaplan may be helpful]. Do whatever extracurricular activities that your heart is into; I don't think there are unwritten "requirements" as to what specific ones you do in high school as much as there will be in pre-medical college [more on this later]. Apply to several colleges: Maybe a few that you dream of and want to try to "reach for", and maybe a few others that you know you have a realistic chance of getting into.
Now, I have a lot to say about college, really the most critical "gatekeeper" ["bottleneck"] of a desired medical career.
First, don't let anybody kid you otherwise. For all of the fine and important talk about extracurricular activities, ***of foremost importance are your GRADES throughout college and your MCAT SCORES [again, a private prep course like Kaplan will help]***. This will always be the case.
So keep on top of your classes throughout, study the material as it comes out in lectures the same day or the next at the latest, keep on top of your lecture notes and learn them well so that you don't have to cram at finals time. You do not want to be confronted with having to cram. Go to discussion groups and if you need, ask your graduate student TAs questions. Do not underestimate the TAs, they will know the material [for the purposes of your undergraduate class] as well as the Professor. You can go to the Professor's office hours. Get plenty of sleep every night. Eat well. Plenty of fluids. Exercise [I recommend at least some cardiovascular].
Now, there will probably be others who will respond here who will give you excellent thorough detailed advice about extracurricular activities, better than mine, so my comments on this aspect will be basically categorical/conceptual. But first, to answer part of your question, no, I advise against doing any extracurricular activities your first semester [if not your first year if you still feel uncomfortable]. You will just be "getting your feet under you"; that is, adjusting to the pace of classes, developing and tuning your study style, getting a sense of how much time you will need to put in studying in an average week, how to ramp up for midterms, finals, etc., etc.
What activities to do? There are unwritten "requirements". Again, broad categories here: ONE: Volunteering in at least one professor's medical or medically-related research lab or project is a must. The department offices can help guide and direct you. TWO: Volunteering in at least one or more direct patient-care settings such as a clinic setting is a must [or maybe a hospital or related]. THREE: Finally, and I cannot stress this enough: Do some activities, volunteer work and/or clubs or other things, unrelated to medicine, that you PERSONALLY like to do, following your outside passions and interests. Old passions, and you will probably develop some new ones. Things you want to do even if you were not applying to medical school. Do NOT do these things because you think they will look good on a medical school application; admissions committees are smart, they see maybe a thousand applications every year [more?], and there is a good chance that they will "see right through you" if looking good on your application is your real intent in choosing these other activities. Do not underestimate the admissions committees.
Listen to others and consider their thoughts along the way. Coming here was one good idea, but there will be many many others. Whenever someone asks me for advice about anything, I always start out by saying "The first and best advice I can give you is to ask the same question that you are asking me to at least 10 other people [10 being an arbitrary number]." Then I proceed with my personal advice.
I'm probably forgetting some other considerations/categories.
Next, as you go through college and see your likes and aptitudes, think about and prepare alternate plans for at least one [and maybe several] other career paths.
Don't forget that you will be in COLLEGE. A time of hard work, yes, but also one of the best times of your life socially. Do not doubt me that you will have many [not all, but many] social opportunities that you will never have again. Have fun; some fun every week. You will figure out how to balance this in without sacrificing the above things. This is every bit of a must as all of the above things: The fun activities you like that I discussed above. Make friends anywhere, some will become lifelong. Go to parties, dances, dorm events; campus events, maybe sports games or other entertainment events that you like with friends, anything.
Do not make the mistake of looking ahead at what seems like a whole daunting juggernaut ahead of you. Don't put "4 years of this?" in your mind. Plan ahead of course yes, but all you ever have to do, all you can do, all everyone ever could and did do, was take it ONE DAY AT A TIME. The time will pass. Yes, you have work ahead of you, some long hours of studying, but above all it will be a monumental. memorable, wonderful time.
If you put in a sustained effort all along the way, you will be fine.
As for medical school itself, I do not think that any detailed discussion of that is needed now.
A few brief words about Psychiatry. In the large sense, three factors affected my choice of this as a career. One is my love of both psychology and biology and not wanting to leave either behind. Two is the supply and demand curve for Psychiatry; psychiatrists are in high demand. Three is the lifestyle; more livable hours and free time than some other medical specialties. But you will have a lot of time to consider Psychiatry [or not] while you are in medical school.
I encourage you to ask me any questions you may have.
Perry
I am an adult psychiatrist [MD].
In high school, all you need to do is complete all of the classes that are required for any college that you want to apply to. Make sure you know now what the requirements are. A college counselor can help you. Good grades are ALWAYS important. Do as well as you can on the SAT [one of those private prep courses like Kaplan may be helpful]. Do whatever extracurricular activities that your heart is into; I don't think there are unwritten "requirements" as to what specific ones you do in high school as much as there will be in pre-medical college [more on this later]. Apply to several colleges: Maybe a few that you dream of and want to try to "reach for", and maybe a few others that you know you have a realistic chance of getting into.
Now, I have a lot to say about college, really the most critical "gatekeeper" ["bottleneck"] of a desired medical career.
First, don't let anybody kid you otherwise. For all of the fine and important talk about extracurricular activities, ***of foremost importance are your GRADES throughout college and your MCAT SCORES [again, a private prep course like Kaplan will help]***. This will always be the case.
So keep on top of your classes throughout, study the material as it comes out in lectures the same day or the next at the latest, keep on top of your lecture notes and learn them well so that you don't have to cram at finals time. You do not want to be confronted with having to cram. Go to discussion groups and if you need, ask your graduate student TAs questions. Do not underestimate the TAs, they will know the material [for the purposes of your undergraduate class] as well as the Professor. You can go to the Professor's office hours. Get plenty of sleep every night. Eat well. Plenty of fluids. Exercise [I recommend at least some cardiovascular].
Now, there will probably be others who will respond here who will give you excellent thorough detailed advice about extracurricular activities, better than mine, so my comments on this aspect will be basically categorical/conceptual. But first, to answer part of your question, no, I advise against doing any extracurricular activities your first semester [if not your first year if you still feel uncomfortable]. You will just be "getting your feet under you"; that is, adjusting to the pace of classes, developing and tuning your study style, getting a sense of how much time you will need to put in studying in an average week, how to ramp up for midterms, finals, etc., etc.
What activities to do? There are unwritten "requirements". Again, broad categories here: ONE: Volunteering in at least one professor's medical or medically-related research lab or project is a must. The department offices can help guide and direct you. TWO: Volunteering in at least one or more direct patient-care settings such as a clinic setting is a must [or maybe a hospital or related]. THREE: Finally, and I cannot stress this enough: Do some activities, volunteer work and/or clubs or other things, unrelated to medicine, that you PERSONALLY like to do, following your outside passions and interests. Old passions, and you will probably develop some new ones. Things you want to do even if you were not applying to medical school. Do NOT do these things because you think they will look good on a medical school application; admissions committees are smart, they see maybe a thousand applications every year [more?], and there is a good chance that they will "see right through you" if looking good on your application is your real intent in choosing these other activities. Do not underestimate the admissions committees.
Listen to others and consider their thoughts along the way. Coming here was one good idea, but there will be many many others. Whenever someone asks me for advice about anything, I always start out by saying "The first and best advice I can give you is to ask the same question that you are asking me to at least 10 other people [10 being an arbitrary number]." Then I proceed with my personal advice.
I'm probably forgetting some other considerations/categories.
Next, as you go through college and see your likes and aptitudes, think about and prepare alternate plans for at least one [and maybe several] other career paths.
Don't forget that you will be in COLLEGE. A time of hard work, yes, but also one of the best times of your life socially. Do not doubt me that you will have many [not all, but many] social opportunities that you will never have again. Have fun; some fun every week. You will figure out how to balance this in without sacrificing the above things. This is every bit of a must as all of the above things: The fun activities you like that I discussed above. Make friends anywhere, some will become lifelong. Go to parties, dances, dorm events; campus events, maybe sports games or other entertainment events that you like with friends, anything.
Do not make the mistake of looking ahead at what seems like a whole daunting juggernaut ahead of you. Don't put "4 years of this?" in your mind. Plan ahead of course yes, but all you ever have to do, all you can do, all everyone ever could and did do, was take it ONE DAY AT A TIME. The time will pass. Yes, you have work ahead of you, some long hours of studying, but above all it will be a monumental. memorable, wonderful time.
If you put in a sustained effort all along the way, you will be fine.
As for medical school itself, I do not think that any detailed discussion of that is needed now.
A few brief words about Psychiatry. In the large sense, three factors affected my choice of this as a career. One is my love of both psychology and biology and not wanting to leave either behind. Two is the supply and demand curve for Psychiatry; psychiatrists are in high demand. Three is the lifestyle; more livable hours and free time than some other medical specialties. But you will have a lot of time to consider Psychiatry [or not] while you are in medical school.
I encourage you to ask me any questions you may have.
Perry
Thank you so much for the thoughtful response! I will definitely contact you if I have any other questions! :)
Gracelynn