i would like to be a psychologist but also pusrue a career in psychiatry . I know you need a 4 yr degree in psychology 4 yr degree in medical, but what exactly what do i study for the medical degree? If i want to be a psychiatrist what medical degree should i try to get. any help . if somone knows send me an email at [email protected]
Pursuing both of those goals would seem to be overkill, since a psychiatrist can do everything a psychologist does, but if you are bound and determined...
You need a PhD to become a psychologist, and an MD or DO degree to become a psychiatrist. The first trick is getting through your 4-year undergraduate degree, of course. You need to make sure that you take the premedical requirements outlined on this site to be eligible for medical school (look in the upper right corner of the main page and you will see the link). In order to get a PhD in psych you would likely need to major in psych, for obvious reasons.
From there, assuming you have solid grades and all that, you need to take the MCAT (for med school) and the GRE (for grad school). The shortest route to getting both doctoral degrees would be to pursue a dual-degree program in medicine and psychology.
However, the only school of which I am aware which currently offers a dual-degree program in psychology and medicine is University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They have a unique program which allows outstanding medical students to pursue their medical studies along with a PhD in just about any discipline.
Once you get through the long slog of both doctoral degrees (7-8 years, at least), you are not done, although people can start calling you "Doctor." After completing both degrees, you would still have to complete your psychiatry residency in order to become a psychiatrist.
The other route would be to do the doctoral degrees back-to-back, which would take even longer.
Hope that helps...
Curtis Nordstrom
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"Unum nihil, duos plurimum posse..."
I'm just wondering why you want to have both degrees. Are you sure you have researched them adequately and understand the similarities and differences?
Perhaps you mean that you want to do a 4 yr BS in pyschology and an MD in Psychiatry. That would work. If you get an MD in psychiatry you have to know everything about the entire human body as any other physician learns. If you are a psychologist only you not need to know as much about biological chemical processes of the body as a whole.