Can you be a doctor who specializes in physical therapy or a pediatrician while your pre-med is psychology?
hi, im 15 and also newbie here in the medical world. I just want to know for example if you took up bs psychology as your pre-med, can you still be a doctor of different specializations like physical therapist or pediatrician and not be a psychologist???
Well your undergrad degree can be anything such as psychology. Pre-med is a acedemic track, which means you will just take a bunch of course that prepare you for the MCAT (entrance exam for med schools). So in addition to your psychology major classes you’ll probably take gen chem, organic chem, biochem, genetics, anatomy, physiology, and physics. Then you take the MCAT your junior year.
So you get accepted into medical school. You graduate and then your choose your specialty during your residency, which (just a few examples) can be surgery, internal medicine, emergency medicine, cardialogy, neurology, oncology, pediatrics, psychiatry, etc.
OR you can be a Physical therapist. This is not a medical degree. You apply to PT schools after your undergrad, most of which are four years, and then you will get a doctorate in PT.
OR you can be a psychologist. This would be a masters degree in clinical psychology, which would take 2-3 years after your undergrad.
BTW psychologists and psychiatrists are NOT the same thing.
Filed under: Psychology and Therapy
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Physical therapy isn’t a medical specialty. The equivalent is physiatry, also called physical medicine and rehabilitation. And your undergraduate degree has absolutely no bearing on your eventual specialty. Medical school is basically the same for all, and specialty training comes after you’ve graduated medical school.
References :
Well your undergrad degree can be anything such as psychology. Pre-med is a acedemic track, which means you will just take a bunch of course that prepare you for the MCAT (entrance exam for med schools). So in addition to your psychology major classes you’ll probably take gen chem, organic chem, biochem, genetics, anatomy, physiology, and physics. Then you take the MCAT your junior year.
So you get accepted into medical school. You graduate and then your choose your specialty during your residency, which (just a few examples) can be surgery, internal medicine, emergency medicine, cardialogy, neurology, oncology, pediatrics, psychiatry, etc.
OR you can be a Physical therapist. This is not a medical degree. You apply to PT schools after your undergrad, most of which are four years, and then you will get a doctorate in PT.
OR you can be a psychologist. This would be a masters degree in clinical psychology, which would take 2-3 years after your undergrad.
BTW psychologists and psychiatrists are NOT the same thing.
References :