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What are some of the difficulties to becoming a psychiatrist.

Another thing I've wondered is how high does my GPA have to be coming from High-school and going into college.

college psychology medicine high-school high-school-classes psychiatry physiatrist
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Bhavna’s Answer

The following are some of the difficulties associated with becoming a psychiatrist:

1. Education: You will need to complete a college degree, followed by a medical degree, followed by a psychiatric residency - a lengthy and costly process.

2. Licensing: In order to become a psychiatrist, you must be licensed by your state or provincial board, which requires passing the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) and completing other requirements.

3. Business and people skills: You need to be able to communicate effectively and work with diverse people.

4. Stress tolerance: Working in a challenging field such as psychiatry can be stressful, and you will need to have the emotional and mental fortitude to handle the job.

5. GPA: For most medical schools, you will need to have a strong GPA (usually 3.5+). Additionally, many schools will also require good scores on the MCAT, which is a admissions and placement test for medical schools.
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Noah’s Answer

Bhavna gave a great answer but i'll just add a few more things. Try not to stress so hard about your high school or college GPA. Just keep it around 3.5 and you should be good. Highschool GPA probably won't effect your graduate/med school chances and will just be used for your undergrad admission.

I also recommend that you consider therapy/counseling as opposed to psychiatry. It could fit your interests and aptitudes just as well and would require a lot less education, time and money. To become a therapist you need a Master's degree and a certain number of supervised hours to get full licensure. It takes on average a total of 6-7 years from undergrad to licensure. Think of supervised hours like your residency. Becoming a psychiatrist will take about 12 years total and usually $200,000+ of debt, usually more. The therapist route on the other hand would only be around $60,000-$70,000. Just something to consider. You could also use CLEPs or Sophia Learning to shorten your bachelor's which could save you $20,000+ and 1-2 years regardless of which path you took.

Hope this helps <3
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