Just how hard is the field of medicine? I’ve always had a passion for. Although I am only a junior in high school, I definitely know that is what I would want to go into. I’m enrolled in a program at my school that allows students to take college courses and get their associates degree as well as their high school diploma. Im an average student, I personally do not feel like working hard for some of my classes because I can somewhat pass by AKA get B’s or maybe even C’s on some of the tests. I know I’ll find medical studies very interesting. I’m just very scared, especially for all of the hard classes. Also, take note I am a bad test taker. I always stress about them and get nervous while taking them. FYI, I’m amazing at Math, and somewhat okay at Science. I just find science very interesting, very very very interesting. Do you guys think I should go for the medical field? I really am interested in surgery. It’s completely fascinating how one’s hands can have such a great impact on one’s life. For some weird reason, I feel like I’ll enjoy medical studies more than high school studies as well; since I’ll actually be needed the knowledge that is being learned in college and med school. Okay, enough rambling. What do you guys think?
Very hard, much harder than we knew before. But very satisfying at the end. Only you can decide…or your college program will pretty much decide for you. Very low percentage survive in college being on the pre-med track. But college is not anywhere near the academic level and other challenges at Med. School. And again, residency is much harder than Med. School. Challenges are in all aspects of human life, emotional, intellectual, physical, social, be ready to work much harder than you can possibly imagine now.
Your attitude (i.e. just skating by with Bs and Cs) isn’t going to cut it for medical school–or for even getting into medical school. And you’re greatly hurting your chances to get into med school with every B and C you earn in your dual enrollment classes since all of those grades will be included in your GPA when you apply go to to med school.
Admission to med school is extremely competitive. The average GPA for accepted students was around 3.7 last year.
You can have the most amazingly talented hands in the world, but if your grades aren’t excellent, you will never get a chance to be a surgeon because the doors to med school will be forever closed to you.
Getting into med school is a ton of hard work with a million hoops to jump through. Among those hoops are doing well in classes that you probably feel has little or no relevancy to medical studies. (Like English, sociology, psychology, physics, writing skills–all are required for med school admission.) Unless you are prepared to really buckle down and start earning those As–even in classes you don’t like-- don’t plan on a medical career.
If do plan to go into pre-med, you will need to work on improving your test-taking skills. Medicine is full of high stakes, high pressure, standardized exams. (Which make the ACT and SAT look like child’s play!) Not just to get into med school (MCAT), but all through med school (USMLE, NBME shelf exams) and again every few years throughout your career (Board exams).
So you have a lot of work ahead of you. Whether you feel you’re up for the challenge is something you have to decide for yourself.
Also keep in mind there are other occupations within the medical field besides MD which have far lower barriers to entry. And that includes ones that could land you in an OR (not doing surgeries obviously but still involved in the process) or dealing with the topic of surgery at least.
For information about a variety of health professions, start reading here:
http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/home
Some non-MD operating room jobs:
Perfusionist–
http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/career/141/Perfusionist
Surgical Technologist–
http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/Career/35/Surgical_Technologist
Physician Assistant–
http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/career/19/physician_assistant
Anesthesiologist Assistant–
http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/Career/135/Anesthesiologist_Assistant
Orthopedic Sales Representative
blog.nurep.com/post/56887129766/a-day-in-the-life-of-an-orthopedic-repa-real-life
Surgical Nurse–
@MiamiDAP @WAY0UTWESTMOM thank you guys, and I guess we’ll see what happens in the future. I really think I’d have passion for it. I even tried searching up reasons not to go into it, yet I’m still not convinced. The mentioning of all those tests couldn’t even sway me for a reason. I guess we’ll see what happens in college and how it all goes. Thank you guys for taking time out of your day and replying!!
^Passion should result in plan. Without plan not much is working in life anyway. Make sure that you have As for ANY college credits that you are getting now and in a future. Do not ruin your chances. It is all in your own hands! Tests are only one small part of the process. You will have to be committed at the level that you cannot even imagine now, do not even try! I believe that the college GPA (including all the college credits that you are getting now in HS) should be at min. 3.7. Competition is increasing every year and by the time you apply, that min. GPA may get higher. There are plenty of Med. School applicants with college GPA of 4.0 and amazing overall application. Passion alone will not do it for you! Accomplishing A in every college class and completing other requirements may, but there is no guarantee even with high stats.
No.
Re-reading your previous post and this one, I get the feeling you’re looking for easy answers and short cuts for jumping straight to the “fun & exciting” part of med school while skipping all the tedious studying required.
The truth—there really aren’t any. Miami is right–med school requires much more than passion. It requires a plan and discipline and persistence.
And the “fun & exciting” part of med school doesn’t really exist–at least not like you’re romanticizing it. You’re not “saving lives” through your own hands. Most days you’re spending 90% of your time trying to convince non-compliant patients they need to alter their lifestyle. (Yes, this is true even for surgeons. Have a good friend who is a surgeon and he complains he spends 85% of his time dealing with same 10% of patients who refuse to follow their management plans and end up in his office and OR over and over and over.)