<p>couple thoughts
one friend of Ds- took a semester off to work at a long term facility, to confirm that she wanted to go into pysch ( was more interested in treatment rather than medical management)
is now in a Phd program with a pysch she was particulary interested in
Did very well getting an undergrad pysch degree ( @Reed)
Another aquaintance is a prof at the university of wa- does neuropsych research & is an MD/Ph.d
Says his undergrad at Reed(bio), was more difficult than med school.( from that I expect he means that the undergrad prepared him so well- that med school was less difficult- not that the level of work in undergrad was higher… I hope)</p>
<p>In terms of therapy- from a lay person view- I would consider getting an MSW- best therapists I have met. ( by far)
Psychs whether a MA or Phd are next
pyschiatrists are worst for therapy- they mainly do medication management in our area- including child pyschs- however there are also few of them ( child pyschs)
If you wanted to do the interesting research IMO, you would need an MD- to take clients- you could just get an MA in pysch or social work</p>
<p>The larger schools definitely weed out- also, the courses are not necessarily as demanding as you would like.
Not a contradiction really- the grading curve could be very sharp, but according to profs in undergrad at UW, some of the required 400 level classes have 200 students and all multiple choice tests, no papers required</p>