<p>Hi! So im debating between three different major/minor combinations as an incoming freshman at UCSD.Also, I know that I'm interested in psychiatry or psychology.
1. Phys and Neuro Major, Minor in global health (premed) to go to med school and become a psychiatrist.
2. BS in Psych, Minor in global health to get a PhD in child clinicial psychology.
3. BS in Psych, Minor in Econ or Management Science to get a PhD in industrial organizational psychology.</p>
<p>In high school, I never took AP sciences, but I took AP Psych and was so interested in it. I always did well in science, but I don't know if I can handle being Premed plus iI'm an NCAA athlete. I'm also scared about medical school loans because I heard that getting a PhD is free because you work as a TA. Any insight on this would be very helpful. </p>
<p>First: Getting a PhD isn’t necessarily free (and, as someone with a PhD, I’ll say as strongly as I can that you should never go into a PhD program without a guarantee of at least two years full funding plus a stipend from a fellowship or assistantship), but it should be affordable as long as you have the motivation and skill to get through it in less than six (preferably less than five) years. Also, you should be aware that the academic job market is in absolute tatters without any real prospects of improvement—not as big a problem for a PhD in clinical psychology as for some other fields, but the likelihood of getting a good university position is vanishingly small.</p>
<p>With that out of the way, the three paths you’ve outlined (I assume you mean psych rather than phys in option one, yes?) all look decent, except that I can’t really say what medical schools are looking for. I will note that both PhD programs you list would probably be fine with a major in psychology (or psychology and neuroscience) without the minors, though the minors would look good—except make sure that you’re at a school where minors show up on your transcript, because they don’t everywhere, and it’d be a shame to put in that effort for what would effectively be lost effort. PhD programs are looking for grades and subject matter mastery, of course, but also—this is bigger than you might expect right now—the demonstrated ability to express yourself very, very well in both speech and writing. Also, unlike many undergrad admissions offices, grad schools won’t really care about your extracurriculars (e.g., being an athlete) unless they were directly related to the academic program.</p>
<p>Note that PhD admissions generally are done by academic departments or programs, not universities, so once you get to your junior year or so it’ll be worthwhile to look into the specifics of the departments you’re thinking of applying to, not just general university profiles.</p>