<p>According to Forbes, Psychiatry is one of the 3 lowest paid MD specialties. That’s not that unusual. There’s little that they do that can charge a high rate. They don’t do procedures, etc, that have a high per hour rate.</p>
<p>They can’t charge a high per hour rate, because they’re limited to what insurance will pay…and insurance doesn’t pay much for an office visit.</p>
<p>You have a long way to go before making the commitment to psychiatry. Right now getting good grades in high school and making college plans is the issue. You will likely change your mind about any number of things before the time comes to make the commitment as to what you want to do and be. Do talk to your uncle and other relatives. Getting into Penn or Tufts is the issue. Premed is really just a group of courses you need to have taken to get into medical school , and you can be any major and still take the courses. I know some art history and music majors who are doctors. </p>
<p>So your focus now should be on your college list and getting some colleges on there that are sure to take you and that you know your family can afford and that your parents will pay for. You want to add some lottery ticket schools to the mix, that’s fine, but understand exactly what the situation with them is. But as far as what psychiatry does or doesn’t pay, or if it’s a passion or whatever, is not so important right now. A good friend of mine who went to medical school at age 50+ ended up deciding to go into psychiatry, but only after doing the med school required rotations and seeing how things were in other fields. She had other plans till then.</p>
<p>Psychiatry is often a sole practice or just with a partner or two. You don’t get business simply by hanging out your shingle and you aren’t cost- and profit-sharing with a larger practice. Affiliation with large teaching hospitals can see a salary cap. For big research outfits, you fit your salary to the budget. It takes time to build a rep to the point where business of any sort rolls in and keeps rolling. No guarantees. </p>
<p>If your parents don’t have the leftover funds to pay, they just don’t.</p>
<p>And, nowadays, you can be a med student and still enjoy CA. Or enjoy life. What may work interestingly is to graduate from college, go establish residency in CA, work in the field, then do med school there, as a resident.</p>
<p>You have to verify this: <a href=“https://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/report.cfm?select_control=PUB&year_of_study=2011[/url]”>https://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/report.cfm?select_control=PUB&year_of_study=2011</a></p>
<p>@lookingforward: That seriously sounds like a great idea. I could get a degree in biology and minor in psychology, leaving my options open still. Then I could work as a psychologist in California until I’m a resident, then go to a California med school. I’d obviously have to balance out cost of living in California and see if it’s even worth it first. I know it costs a lot of money to live there. Honestly I’d probably just be a psychologist if it paid more, because I really like helping people out and counseling people, which psychiatrists from my understanding don’t do much of, they just meet for a short while and write prescriptions. (holy run on sentence) Of course I could be completely wrong, from what it seems like so far I really don’t know as much as I thought I did.</p>
<p>FbPBCw, one of my closest friends has a daughter who is working towards her PHD in psychology. For her, it’s pretty danged close to the time it would have been to get a MD, in terms of the time she has spent in the field. She is getting a stipend, however, for her graduate school costs which is very rare for medical school. But I do believe therre are various levels of certifications and degrees that one can get to become a mental health therapist. But you have time to deal with those things.</p>
<p>She is (friend’s DD), by the way, doing grad school in CA!</p>
<p>If you do not want to be under parental restrictions for college choice, you need to find a full ride merit scholarship (look at the sticky threads at the top of this forum section). Actually, given the cost of medical school, doing undergraduate on a full ride may be a good idea anyway to avoid debt and save money for medical school.</p>
<p>However, none of the automatic ones and few of the competitive ones are in California.</p>
<p>I’m sorry mom2collegekids I did not read his later post. I would not go to school that involved any debt.</p>
<p>OP, I established residency then went to grad school there. Had a blast. BUT, you don’t turn into a psychologist (not a counselor) with just a college degree. There are requirements. For psychiatry, you go work in medical research or community health or something to get you to med school. There are other options if the goal is counseling, including an LICSW, which could be done after a psych/bio degree.</p>
<p>No need to go to Calif for med school. Besides, who knows where you’d match up for psychiatry residency…may be back in your home state.</p>
<p>If you want to go to medical school, West Chester University has a fantastic record for placing students in medical school (95% of those recommended by the pre-medical committee) and affiliation with a number of “early assurance” programs that guarantee accepted students into a medical school slot after graduation. Given how much medical school costs, going to an in-state university with a strong record of med school admissions success could be a very smart decision.</p>
<p>If going to medical school is really your goal, you need less focus on the geography for undergraduate school and more focus on doing really, really well in your pre-med classes and medically-related volunteer work or internships while going into as little debt as possible. Medical school is hugely expensive.</p>
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<p>No way. There are so many great schools in Virginia, MD, Ga, DC, the Carolinas. I know you did not look hard. Look again.</p>
<p>*Quote:
The only thing is, I can’t find many good schools in Florida. Or the Carolinas. Or really anywhere on the southern east coast. Perhaps I’ll just have to look harder into that.
*</p>
<p>My “dream college” is Occidental College, but I’m also looking at Azusa Pacific and California state schools</p>
<p>There are many schools that are just as good as Callif schools in the southeast. And there’s some that are a whole lot better than Azusa Pacific.</p>
<p>How much will your parents pay if you don’t go to the west coast?</p>
<p>@arabrab: Interesting you say that, I live in West Chester and have a friend who recommended WCU to me for that reason. West Chester University is currently going to be my “safety school” to apply to.</p>
<p>@mamom: Yes, I didn’t really look that hard. I’ve only really scoured Cali, Florida, and Pennsylvania. In fact I didn’t look at DC/GA/MD at all. I’ve clearly been pickier than I should have been thus far. </p>
<p>@mom2collegekids: They’ll cosign on loans. And maybe they’ll have SOME money to offer, but I wouldn’t count on it.</p>
<p>If your stats are good, Eckerd, Stetson, Rollins are some LACs in FL that have some nice merit money and are similar to Occidental. New College is a college within a state university where your BF award can defray some of the cost.</p>
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No, you can’t. A BA even with a major in psychology doesn’t make you a psychologist. That requires grad school.</p>
<p>You could perhaps work in California and establish residency, but not as a psychologist.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids: They’ll cosign on loans. And maybe they’ll have SOME money to offer, but I wouldn’t count on it.</p>
<p>That’s why their threat of “not paying a dime” unless you go somewhere on the east coast is silly. They’re not going to pay no matter where you go.</p>
<p>In this search for “good” schools, I sure hope you are looking at the quality of the particular depts that interest you- courses, profs, how active they are in their research and how they link kids to opportunities. It’s not about the school rep, but what you specifically can gain in your academic experience. With so many more PhDs than jobs, you find great lights at all sorts of schools.</p>