I want to do psychiatry, but I do English literature, RE, and Psychology in y13

During year 12, I was having a kind of crisis over what I wanted to do in the future. I knew that I was interested in psychology, but I didn't exactly know what. I ended up telling myself that counselling or CBT is what I want to get into, but now I am leaning towards psychiatry after looking at what they do and the salaries in uk. I apologise if this is really vague or if it doesn't really make any sense, but is there anything that I can do?

Reply 1

ghala_exe

okay in order to be a psychiatrist you need to do a medicine degree which requires at least 5 years, then 2 years of foundation training, and then 3 years in training to become a psychiatrist. in order to do medicine you must have at the very least chemistry, psychology works as a science in some universities (lancaster and manchester are two i know that will take those, or even biology and psychology but not a lot of others). manchester offers a foundation year for people like you too, for ppl who did the "wrong" subjects but i believe you need to get high grades in both gcses and a levels. i wanted to do the foundation year but i'm stupid and didn't realize you needed to do the UCAT for that until 2 weeks before the deadline which certainly isn't enough time to prepare and idk if my mum would let me take another gap year tbh.. 😕 email universities and see if they would accept you doing chemistry and biology on a gap year and applying then, do keep in mind you'll have to do the UCAT too. i've also heard of access courses but not all unis will accept this and you do have to be 19+.. this is the route i may go through

Reply 2

klafow

Original post by jasmim3

i agree with the above post, as far as i am aware foundation years are probably the only option (if that even is an option! i'm not too sure what their requirements are)
you'd need at least biology/chemistry to apply for medicine, and you'd also need to do the ucat.
if you can somehow manage to get an a-level in chemistry then you'll have a lot more options, presuming your a-level grades are at least AAA (preferably A*AA)

however, please think carefully before deciding to go down the medicine route. medicine is a long and difficult career path, and even as an applicant i'm really finding it difficult. i can't imagine how stressful the degree and then the job is going to be. i'm not saying you won't be able to do it, just that it is not a decision you should take lightly.

i'm also getting from your post that your main interest is psychology/psychiatry/neuroscience? you'll need to learn about the entire body in a medicine degree and it'll be at least 7/8 years i think until you can start specialising in psychiatry. and it'll take longer than that to reach consultant level (fully trained/qualified, the highest pay grade i think). if you don't enjoy general human biology please reconsider medicine, it's a very long degree and you don't want to spend that time doing something you don't like 🙂
all the best for the future!!

(edited 1 month ago)