Are my high school courses important?

First, some background information. I am a senior in high school with an SAT score of 1450 (690 math, 760 reading), a 31 ACT composite, an AP English Lang. Score of 5, an APUSH score of 5, and an AP Government and Politics score of 3. I am currently taking AP Calculus and AP Literature, and next semester I will be taking AP Environmental Science. I have had straight As for my entire high school career, and my weighted GPA is a 4.5 (approximately). I have applied to UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Wilmington, UVA, Davidson College, and Columbia University (yeah, right!).

Up until recently I had planned to major in English or Communications. However, I’ve been conversing extensively with my parents about career fulfillment, job outlook, salary, and what I would be good at. More and more I’m leaning towards a career as a Medical Doctor, specifically as a psychiatrist. I’m good at psychology and philosophy, and communication and compassion are my strong suits. However, there are some factors that worry me.

My AP course focus has been almost strictly humanities and social sciences, with the exception of Calculus and Environmental. I have not taken AP Bio or Chem, or even honors anatomy. I was put off by the math factor. My extracurriculars are service oriented (NHS, Leo, I volunteer at a Drug Rehab center every week) and political (Model UN, World Quest, We the People) as opposed to something medical like shadowing a doctor or volunteering at a hospital. All of that said, my mother is a veterinarian and she says that doctors don’t do a lot of math. I’m confident in my ability to pass medical science and math courses via grit and study, but my truest capabilities are in writing and speaking.

Will my lack of focus in medicine and sciences in high school be a severe inhibitor to my success in undergraduate science programs and a career in medicine as a whole? If I focus on sciences in college, could I recover from this disadvantage? Do a lot of medical students come from this situation?

Thanks!

You’re fine. Wherever you attend sign up for the first level bio and chem classes your first year. They are tough classes so you will have to work very hard to do well. Chemistry has a lot of math, fyi. If you do well, then stay on the track. You don’t even have to major in bio to be pre-med.

You have to have very top college grades to get into med school. If you don’t like the courses or don’t do well, then you might want to think about getting a degree in Psychology and then getting a Masters of Social Work afterwards which would allow you to be a therapist/counselor in private practice or in other clinical settings. There are also PhD programs in clinical psychology but I don’t know much about them. The MSW path is a quicker and less expensive route to a career than either an MD or PhD but may have some limits with what you can do professionally.

Congrats on your hard work and success in HS and good luck!!

Just about all doctors I know currently… Back in the day… Had a bs degree in psychology. I even did clinical psychology research. I was not good in high school math. All you can do is give it a try. Lots of students after the first semester of college drop the idea of going into medicine. You might want to use the summer and review basic concepts with Khan Academy or the like. So this way everything won’t be so foreign to you.

Just so you know. A doctor with good communication skills is extremely important.

When you start college you will meet with your advisor. They will advise you on careers to use your passions that maybe you are not even thinking about right now. Medicine is just one choice.

Premed is not a major. It’s a bunch of classes you take as a prerequisite to apply to med school. You can major in anything in college while also taking your premed classes. Some major in humanities others in sciences or engineering.

Just based on what you have written it doesn’t seem you have really researched what a career in medicine is like. Look into shadowing doctors and volunteering in a hospital to gain more exposure into medicine. Many students start college with the intention of applying to med school but I would say about 75% will not make it to senior year or even apply due to poor grades or loss of interest after learning about how long and expensive the road is before you start actually earning. The field of medicine is changing constantly and it would help you to research the issues that doctors are facing today.

One thing to keep in mind is how you studied in high school is going to be different then how you study for college classes that are much more fast paced and in depth. What worked for you in high school may not work in college so be prepared to study a lot more in college then you did in high school. Many successful high school students get surprised when they perform poorly that first semester. Go into college with the thought that it is going to be a transition because you will be on your own and will have to have the self discipline and motivation to stay focused on doing the amount of study needed for college level courses. Premed classes are usually large lecture hall classes with many students and they are known as weed out courses. This is where many students end up dropping out of premed due to poor grades. One semester with a low gpa and then you are struggling to get that gpa up so that you are med school worthy.

Thank you all for all the helpful information! I will continue to look into the field and develop my study habits. I plan to take a college course in Biology over the summer or look into a job shadow to further my experience, and perhaps even volunteer at my local hospital.