<p>I've always wanted to be a doctor since I was a kid. However, I go to a very competitive high school and once I became a freshman, I didn't want to compete with the science kids in Intel, Siemens, etc. I became disillusioned with medicine as I saw my friends getting internships at Columbia and placing as semi-finalists in Intel. The stock market was always a hobby; I decided to follow a business path instead. I'm a high school junior now, and I've done well in business. I'm in the Academy of Finance, have ranked nationally in investment competitions, have taken IB and college business classes, have an internship with a NYC accounting firm over this summer, and am a state-ranking member of DECA. I got a 1970 on my 1st SAT, which sucks but, I took it without any prep to get an idea of what I need to work on and also after a 3-day DECA trip...no sleep that week haha. I was ready to go to school for accounting and work my way up to a Big 4 firm. Something in me has changed, though. I don't want to be a suit. As corny as it may sound, I want to help people. Through AOF, I've job-shadowed several business people and I don't see how I can be an accountant. I've never been particularly materialistic and do not want to live an existence built upon making money. Being rich was never my goal; I just wanted a stable career that interested me.
I feel like it's too late for me to have this realization, though. I'm going to be a high school senior, and my path has already been laid out for me. I'm the apple of my business teacher's eye and, as the treasurer of every club, even my peers know I'm going to be a successful businesswoman. I've never been in a science fair in my life; how the hell am I supposed to show colleges I want to be pre-med!? I'm looking at George Wash U's 7-year med program, but what would make them accept ex-accountant me?
Do I have any hope in the world of jumping ship and becoming a doctor?</p>
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<p>Hyperbole much?</p>
<p>You won’t qualify for GW’s 7 year program. You need top grades, AP science coursework and a history of science research/hospital volunteering to be considered for any accelerated or guaranteed acceptance med programs. Too late to get started doing that now. So cross that possibility right off your list.</p>
<p>However, you can do what most other pre meds hopefuls do: attend college, major in a academic field (doesn’t need to to be bio, but shouldn’t be a vocational field like business), shadow physicians, volunteer at hospitals, get involved in a research lab, do community service, earn strong science grades, take the MCAT and apply to medical school. </p>
<p>Colleges will not expect you to be a business major just because you’ve been involved in business ECs in high school. College is a time to reinvent yourself. So chillax, as my kids would say.</p>
<p>P.S Those hypercompetitive science kids you hate so much in high school—guess what? They’re going to be in your science classes in college. No escaping them. You need to learn to deal with the competition.</p>
<p>P.P.S Wanting is help people is a nice ideal, but it’s not a good reason for wanting to be doctor. You can help people while working in just about any profession.</p>
<p>A 1970 is ~250 points shy of even being considered for GW’s 7-year program, and that assumes that you had the premed ECs (which you clearly do not).</p>
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<p>Exactly!</p>