<p>I start college soon. My Major is Psychology. I don't know if I'm going for the BA or BS. I have the option to do either one. I know I want to pursue a career in Psychology but not sure what exactly I would like to do. I want to go as far as a PhD if I can. I am thinking of Child Psychology, or maybe Cognitive Neuroscience. If I do Cognitive Neuroscience, would I need to Pre-Med right now? And can I get my BA or BS and skip getting a MA and get straight to do my PhD? Or would that not be good?
(If it helps, I am going to attend CCNY)</p>
<p>Cognitive neuroscience is its own field. It doesn’t have the same requirements as pre med.</p>
<p>Clinical psychology has its separate career track that is completely different than medicine.</p>
<p>Psychiatrists are MDs (graduated from medical school) who take special additional training in how to treat mental illness.</p>
<p>The professional degree for clinical psych is called Psy.D. It’s a doctoral program, but is focused on treating patients. Psych also has PhD degrees, but PhDs are focused on research and not treating patients.</p>
<p>Whether or not you’ll need a MS will depend on what you ultimate career goals are and how strong your undergrad record is. Psych PhDs and PsyDs are both extremely competitive graduate programs. Very strong students can go directly into a doctoral programs but most end up doing a MS first.</p>
<p>PsyD students are usually expected to have several years of experience working with clients/patients before being admitted to a doctoral program.</p>