I know that I want to be a psychiatrist. I’m pretty certain about that, but I’m not quite sure how to get there. I know you need a bachelor’s degree, you need to go to med school, you need to complete a residency, and that you need to get licensed. However, I don’t know what to major in in undergrad school. Some websites say biology, chemistry, or psychology. But I also see some colleges have a pre-health program. Is that something I should be looking into?
You can major in whatever you want.
To go to med school you need 1) good grades and 2) a high MCAT score. To do well on the MCAT, you must have a firm grounding in certain scientific topics, such as biology and chemistry. That doesn’t mean you have to major in either discipline, however, though most pre meds do.
You can major in anything you want as long as you complete the medical school prerequisites. The only reason that subjects like biology or chemistry are often good choices is that they already include a lot of the med-school prerequisites within the major. If you wanted to, you could major in philosophy, English, gender studies, physics, math, or anything else that you wanted to major in, as long as you can do well in it and also complete the med-school requirements.