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Can I take pre-req courses for psychiatry in community college, after I graduated with a psychology degree?

I will be graduating this year in June with a concentration in Psychology. However, I will be taking a gap year and build my resume. I would like to go to medical school to study psychiatry but I am well aware that I have not taken any science/math courses expect Pre-Cal and Stats. #psychiatry #healthcare

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Suzanne’s Answer

Congrats, Nicol, on graduating with a degree in psychology. I assume you mean that you now have a bachelor's degree from a 4-year college or university. In order to apply to medical school (which would be your next step in seeking a career as a psychiatrist) you need to have taken and done well in the basic pre-med prerequisite courses. Typically medical schools require you to have a. minimum of one year of biology with labs, one year of general chemistry with labs, organic chemistry, physics, and calculus. If your local community college offers these classes you could certainly take them there during your gap period but do double check with a pre-med advisor to be sure the classes you take will be considered acceptable to medical schools. The pre-med advisor may be at the community college or you can contact the person who holds this position at the college/university you just graduated from. After medical school (typically four years) if you want to be a psychiatrist, you then do a residency in Psychiatry which is typically another four years.

Suzanne recommends the following next steps:

Find a pre-med advisor you can review your plans with (either at a local community college or at your prior college). Make an appointment, talk.
Look at the websites for medical schools you might want to attend. See what their specific admission requirements are.
Look at website for AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) https://students-residents.aamc.org/navigator/
See if there is a pre-med or pre-healthcare club at your school and attend some meetings. Talk to other students on the same career pathway.
Realize there are also career paths in psychology which do not require going to medical school to become a psychiatrist.
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Jazhel’s Answer

Hello Nicol,

I am not sure how a medical school would evaluate credits and I am assuming that you mean lower level credits. What I do know is that most universities will not accept or transfer lower level courses from other schools. You should check with the med school that you are applying to and find out if lower level credits offered at a community college would transfer to their school.
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Yasemin’s Answer

Hi Nicol! I know that some medical schools can evaluate credits differently from CC. You are doing a career change so this is different; usually when you start as a premed student you can take some cc courses over the summer that are premed but it is advised to be limited as these are shorter over the summer. As a career change, however, it can be a DIY post bacc, but I would make sure to maybe speak with a premed adviser. When you apply to medical school, ad coms also look at your application holistically; you want to make sure you also volunteer and get shadowing experience as well. There are premed students who complete a DIY post bacc after graduation usually to strengthen their GPA. I think taking premed courses after graduation at cc will be fine but I would still speak with a premed adviser. Also, if you feel that you are doing a career change and need more help with the application such as extracurriculars, MCAT, recommendation letter and advising a formal post bacc would also be helpful. I would check AAMC.org to obtain more information about post bacc programs. A formal can be costly but it can help secure certain aspects to be a better applicant to medical school!

I hope this helps!
Best of luck!

Yasemin recommends the following next steps:

check out AAMC.org
Speak with premed adviser
Consider DIY vs formal post bacc
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