<p>If you have a MS degree in Psychology, how many years of medical school do you have to do to become a psychiatrist?</p>
<p>I initially wanted to do earn a PhD and become a psychologist but I would rather do an MD and become a psychiatrist. How many more years would I have? What are my best options?</p>
<p>I did my Master's at Walden University and I currently have a 3.8 GPA (I have 1 more course left). My MCAT scores were not very good.</p>
<p>Undergrad: Acadia University; Wolfville, NS (Canada)-- Biology Major - GPA: 2.46
GRE: 480-V; 330-Q, 3.5-AW</p>
<p>MCAT 05/21/2010
Verbal Reasoning (VR) - 4 Physical Sciences (PS) - 3 Writing Sample (WS) - N Biological Sciences (BS) 4 Total 11N</p>
<p>Medicine is a 4 year degree regardless of what level of degree you hold upon entry (BS/MS/PhD)</p>
<p>Psychiatry requires an additional 4 years of residency, plus 1-2 years for sub-specialty fellowships.</p>
<p>So a minimum of 8 years of training. 9-10 if you want to specialize within psychiatry.</p>
<p><a href=“https://residency.wustl.edu/CHOOSING/SPECDESC/Pages/Psychiatry.aspx[/url]”>https://residency.wustl.edu/CHOOSING/SPECDESC/Pages/Psychiatry.aspx</a></p>
<p>With your GPA and MCAT score, it is going to be extremely difficult-to-impossible for you to get admitted to any MD or DO medical school. </p>
<p>Your MS in psych might help mitigate some of your poor undergrad performance but med school adcoms know that grade inflation is rampant in grad programs and tend to discount grad programs grades accordingly. The fact that your MS is from an online for-profit university will further taint your grad GPA. Your undergrad GPA will always need to reported and it will be the one the gets the most consideration.</p>
<p>What was your sGPA (only bio, chem, math and physics classes)? Psych classes aren’t included. To be a competitive applicant, it needs to be around a 3.5</p>
<p>If you are sincere about wanting to pursue medicine, you will likely need to attend either a in-person grade enhancing biology post-bacc program (1-2 year MS) or commit to retaking all your BCMP classes and using grade replacement policies to apply to osteopathic medical schools.</p>
<p>You need to have significant preparation for the MCAT and do well (33+). I say 33+ because you’re Canadian and competition for seats in Canadian med schools is stronger than it is in the US. And Canadians (and all internationals) are at a huge disadvantage when applying to US schools.</p>
<p>Thank you for that information! I also want to add that I am not Canadian. I am a US citizen and I reside in Florida. Would I have a better chance of exploring the Caribbean?</p>
<p>Be aware that all Carribean medical schools are for-profit institutions. Except for AUC, St. George’s and Ross, they have terrible reputations, very low graduation rates and even lower residency placement rates…</p>
<p>Your MCAT is probably too low for admission to any of the Big 3 in the Carribean. (They typically want a 20+)</p>
<p>The residency placement rates for all FMGs (Foreign Medical Graduates–US students who studied medicine abroad) regardless of where they studied are quite poor. For a number of reasons, including low USMLE scores, lack of US medical rotations, the bottleneck in residencies (the number of US medical school grads is increasing but the number of residencies isn’t), and a very strong preference among residency directors for US medical grads.</p>
<p>Please read this informative post about the difficulties facing Carribean medical students:</p>
<p>[Education</a> Ahmadiyya ? The Ins & Outs of Caribbean Medical Education](<a href=“http://educationahmadiyya.us/post/44083327291]Education”>http://educationahmadiyya.us/post/44083327291)</p>
<p>tl;dr–you will probably be wasting your money going to the Carribean, will only end up with signficant debt and be unable to practice anywhere.</p>
<p>also, i believe your MCAT has expired since it’s been 3 years since test day (as of today). I believe that actually works in your favor since I don’t think anyone will see the 11 - which is a really, really low score. I don’t know how the master’s GPA gets factored in, but just to give you some perspective, only 217 people applied with a GPA/MCAT score like you between 2008 and 2010 and not a single one of them was accepted by a single medical school. <a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/157450/data/table24-mcatgpagridall2008-10.pdf.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/157450/data/table24-mcatgpagridall2008-10.pdf.pdf</a></p>
<p>You may seriously want to consider other, less competitive ways to have a career in mental health (of which there are many).</p>
<p>RE: old MCAT scores. A number of posters at SDN have reported that expired MCAT scores (4 years old) have been included on the score reports sent to med schools.</p>
<p>I think old scores only disappear when AMCAS does a system purge–which is every 5-8 years or so.</p>
<p>Thank you. I’ll look into the MCAT as I didn’t study for it initially. I was under the impression that what I learned in undergrad would be on the exam and I would only need a weekend refresher by using study questions in the book. I’ll research whether or not the previous score will be reported. Bearing in mind the chances are slim, at this point it looks like Ross or SGU may be my best option after retaking the exam. </p>
<p>What do you think my chances are for proceeding to do the PhD in Psychology instead? If I were to continue along this path I would attempt to attend a university in Florida.</p>
<p>I have zero experience with PsyD. or Psych PhD. programs. </p>
<p>PsyD programs are clinical-practice oriented; PhD programs are research oriented. </p>
<p>If you’re applying for a research-based program, do you have relevant research experience? Typically for PhD admission, you’re expected to have a well-defined research interested with relevant research experience. </p>
<p>Have you been in contact with the psych depts at any of the schools you’re considering applying to? That would be a logical first step. Some programs may not accept your online MS; some many want higher GRE scores and a stronger quant background; some others may require remedial coursework. Programs usually have very specific expectations–you need to contact each school to find out what they are.</p>
<p>Given how you list your GRE score, it’s probably expired since the format and scaling for the GRE changed ~2 years ago. You need to check that out too.</p>
<p>You might try asking your question about odds for admission in the Graduate School forum. There are one or more social science PhD students who frequent the forum.</p>
<p>If that’s how you approached the MCAT then I would take some solace in the idea that with prep you could get a higher score. That being said, at Kaplan we always said the rough estimate of how much you should expect to improve is (45-diagnostic)/2. In your case, that means a 17 point increase is within reach however that still leaves you at a 28. A 28 is below average but doable although a 2nd try 28 with a previous 11 might be a different story.</p>
<p>I was actually thinking more like social work, case manager, home health aide, nurse and other non doctoral programs.</p>