I am tired at work so I will jsut copy my post from another forum to tell you my story an da little of my background… cheers
I am a 29 (30 in Nov) mother of 3, I have a degree and a job in Information techonology but have begun to pursue my degree in psychology with an emphasis on pre-med electives. Yes, I want to be a psychiatrist, I know all you science types put no faith in psychiatry. Anyway, I work full time on the weekends (3 14 hour night shifts), raise my children during the week and take a full 12-14 credits a semester with a 3.97 GPA at both the University and the Community college level. I have just finished my last general ed class at the community college and have started my upper level Psych classes at the University of Texas at Dallas, I am hoping to end up at UT Southwestern so I don’t have to uproot my family. I started a community program to bring food, gifts and support to the families in the NICU and PICU at the local children’s hospital. I have an infant born with HLHS (hypoplastic left heart syndrome) and spent a good deal of time there myself. I also spend a great deal of time and effort with the AHA and March of Dimes raising anywhere from $1000 - $5000 each year.
Why med school you ask? Well, for as long as I can remember I was against psychiatrists in favor of psychologists, as I found psychiatrist a little too pill happy, until I met my mother in law. She is someone that is in desperate need of help that regular couseling won’t help. I would like to work on medication studies to help her and people like her. Also, my coworker always tells me that the only way to change people who you feel are doing something wrong is to join them and show them the right way. So here I am, old, tired and driven.
I am hoping to finish my pre-med electives at the CC, it is a very good CC and the classes are stringent and tough. Before I go this route I am meeting with the advisor at UTD. Many of the entering students for UTSWMS are from UTD so I am hopign she will know what she is talking about :-). Unfortunately taking my science at UTD vs CC means many more years tacked on to my already long journey. Anyway HI!
~Kat
Hi Kat–
You seem to be approaching this path with a lot of forethought and proper planning and inquiry. You are right to interface with the UT Dallas people early. They know the proper paths to admission at Texas medical schools and will let you know whether you would best benefit from science at UT or at the community college, whether you need to finish your psychology bachelor’s and all that good stuff.
By the way, only someone who has never had a family member or himself suffer from a serious mental illness would disparage psychiatry. Brain chemistry is one of the most complicated and important subjects out there.
Lots of luck! By the way, I started this whole craziness the month I turned 32, so you’re way ahead of the game in my book.