Hello, I'll start by introducing myself, my name is Ofon-Imeh I'm African if you couldn't tell by the name 😉
YES, so I've always wanted to become a pharmacy, maybe because that has been what my mother has said I shall become when I grow up. But lately I've been thinking, I don't want to become a pharmacist, I interned/watched a pharmacist do her job at work and I didn't like it. It was boring and seemed stressful. I'm not good in math, iNEVER was, yet I make B's 😉 I've fallen in love with science, I think its my calling xDDDD I want to become a PSYCHIATRIST !
Well I am a freshman, going to be a sophmore in the fall. My gpa is a 3.6 ! I tend to improve. I want to attend UT Austin, or UNT ! My mom didn't take it lightly when I told her I didn't want to become a pharmacist. I don't want to disappoint her, but its my life, I want to pursue a career that I will truly love and won't mind waking up everyday for. Psychiatrist make alot of money right, because my mom seems to think otherwise ?
I toke pap biology this year, and will be taking ap chemistry in the fall ! I'm also doing dual credit, what courses would you recommend me to take to get most of my college courses out the way, knowing I might be spendingg 16 years in college ? 😆
As you are only a freshman, you have a long way to go before you need to decide on your ultimate career. Many people recommend that if you take the required pre-med courses as AP courses in high school that you retake them in college, even if you passed out of the course. The alternative would be to take a higher level course in that field in college, which won't necessarily save you time in college. I would think that most pre-med students have taken AP science classes in college, so when you get to college, you may want to see what the pre-med college adviser recommends.
Taking AP non-science classes can help you with cutting down on required coursework in college. Taking AP chemistry as a sophomore seems very ambitious. When I was in high school, we didn't even take our general chemistry high school class until sophomore year, and we couldn't take AP chemistry unless we had first taken the general chemistry class. Make sure that you won't be biting off more than you can chew by taking AP chemistry as a sophomore.
Psychiatrists can make a decent living - more than most pharmacists, but at the expense of far more education and residency. Most doctors have to take on a significant amount of debt for medical school. I wouldn't pick a career based on expected pay, as that can change significantly during your lifetime. There are many careers to select from other than pharmacy school and psychiatry. I would focus on just doing the best you can in high school and keep your options open.