<p>I’m deciding becoming a premed when I go to college this fall or aiming to become a cognitive neuroscientist. From what I’ve read, the latter is a much more harrowing path. Not so much because science is more conceptually difficult, but because of extreme competition for positions/jobs, grant money, and getting published. One has to be a genius extremely passionate about his/her work to succeed in science, but simply being hard-working and reasonably intelligent will get someone into and through med school.</p>
<p>I don’t know if my understanding of the comparative difficulty of the two paths is accurate and wonder if you guys could advise me on that matter.</p>
<p>Juillet, I agree with you that many premeds could be annoying.</p>
<p>DS was a premed, but he once told us he almost never wants to talk to any other premed about the school work to avoid potential unpleasantness. He did not join any premed related club. Occasionally, he made a comment that those PhD-bound students had a better learning environment and better classmates. He enjoyed talking to those students better than premed students. His negative attitude toward premeds was most noticeable in his early years in college, making a comment like: if I only take the premed classes, I will explode - whatever the “explode” means. So each semester he would take at least one class of his choice which has nothing to do with premed. </p>
<p>Somehow, we did not hear such complaints after he had been in med school. Maybe he is more mature now.</p>
<p>Btw, he happens to know a postdoc who “jumped track” from the research track to the MD track. This post doc was actually his mentor when he first joined the research lab.</p>
<p>OP here, and I really regret using “late bloomers” in the title. When I used it I meant it in the sense of someone entering college not knowing what they want to do, and maybe they discover they really like the sciences during the fall and winter term of freshman year. But that student is already massively behind the gunner who had AP chemistry, bio, calc during their 11th grade and 12th grade they’re taking college level sciences at the local university. Just seems like it would be damn near impossible to compete against or catch up to those med school gunners who have a 1-2 year jump on you, no? I’d assume that discourages a lot of college students from going the MD route.</p>
<p>Freshman A: from small town school, strong GPA, 32 ACT, only took AP history and econ. Gets on campus and realizes he’s really likes sciences and wants to consider med school @ 19-20 yo</p>
<p>vs.</p>
<p>Freshman B: private school, strong GPA, 35 ACT, schedule full of AP courses 10th and 11th grade including all the sciences and math, 12th grade AP and duel-enrollment at local U, always wanted to be a doctor</p>
<p>How can freshman A ever possibly catch up to freshman B? Freshman B is 1-2 years more advanced at freshmen orientation.</p>
<p>OP-- D1 is sorta kind your Freshman A. From a middle sized city, attended public schools, took only AP Calc AB and PhysC. Struggled initially at college because she had never had to actually work hard for her grades, but after a rather bumpy start (3.25-3.3 GPA at end of freshman year) managed to do fine and even excel. By graduation she had aced grad level coursework and won the departmental prize for best student. She is now MS3.</p>
<p>D2 is sorta like Freshman B. She attended a highly ranked private school, started her science APs in 10th and had 2 years of college level math completed during high school. She said freshman year was a whole lot easier than the last year of high school. GPA at end of freshman year 4.0.</p>
<p>You know what–by the end of college they had both taken and done equally well in some of the same classes (albeit at different schools)–specifically math, since they each had math as one of their majors. (They each had a different second major.) One kid had a higher GPA than the other, but the other one had a higher MCAT–so I’d say it’s a wash.</p>
<p>If you’re going to attend a competitive college, you will be disadvantaged by not having the extra science & math prep in high school–but only for the first year. After you complete the intro level classes, you will be “caught up” with your fellow pre-meds. Playing field leveled. (Beside by the time your ‘more advanced’ classmates take physics during their junior year, they won’t remember enough from high school for it to be useful.)</p>
<p>And if you decide really late that you want to go to med school–like late in your junior year (or during your senior year like D1), you still have the option of applying after you graduate.</p>
<p>To OP: not sure if this answers your question, but there a plenty of people in my kid’s MS class who had entirely different career paths(e.g. PhD geologist) before deciding to attend MS.</p>