Hello.
I’m a high school freshman and I’m really worried about my prospects of becoming a doctor and getting into a dream Magnet school (10th through 12th type school) right now.
I’m doing just alright in the same classes everyone else is taking. The only extracurricular I have that not everybody does is that I play the violin. And even then it really doesn’t matter because every other kid like me does the violin and I’m still secondary to the people who have been playing since they were born. I’ll list my current classes and my current average in them below.
BIOLOGY: 95
GT HUMANITIES: 92
MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY: 93
AP COMPUTER SCIENCE: 96
SPANISH 2: 99
ADVANCED GEOMETRY: 98
ORCHESTRA: 100
AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY: 96
Since I wanted to differentiate myself from the pack I am going to be skipping a grade in math (Algebra 2), but that still doesn’t make me special, it just makes me like every other person who skipped a grade. If I skipped two grades that would do it for me, but our system doesn’t allow more than one per year. I know that to some people this might seem like good grades, but when you are looking at people who are ranked higher than me these scores look average. After this year I can even find anything to skip because after this point everything becomes just too difficult. What could I do to get beyond this and differentiate myself, because at this point I’m stumped.
P.S im indian. So that whole grade skipping and violin thing is kinda diminished by that, I think.
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You are way too hard on yourself.
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Don’t skip math
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what are you doing outside of class besides violin?
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Worry about you; not others
Good luck.
I agree with @tsbna44. You are being too hard on yourself, and you should not skip a year in math.
Are you a student in the USA? Are you a US citizen or permanent resident? The process of becoming a doctor is similar in the US and Canada, but is somewhat different in some other countries.
First of all, considering your grades to this point, you are doing very well. These grades are very good and are fully compatible with your becoming a doctor.
You do not need to attend a “magnet school” to become a doctor. It is not clear that attending a magnet school will make much difference one way or another in terms of your chances to become a doctor.
One daughter is currently studying for a DVM (a veterinary doctor – her patients are mostly large animals). When she was an undergraduate student, the required pre-vet classes were the same as required premed classes. This means that many of her classes were full of premed students, and many of her friends were premed students. One of them got her MD this past spring, and at least one more is currently in medical school. I do not think that any of them got through high school and university with straight A’s. You do not need to be perfect to become a doctor, nor to be successful in life in any one of a long list of other careers.
Regarding skipping a year in math: Algebra 2 is the basis for a LOT of future math classes. I never considered skipping ahead in math, and yet I ended up with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from MIT and a master’s degree from Stanford. The point is not to jump ahead. The point is to learn each step very well before you go on to the next step. What you are learning now in math will be needed next semester, and what you are learning now plus what you will be learning next semester will be needed the semester after. This will continue for as long as you study math (which for me was through my master’s degree and then on the job after graduation – for medical school you will not go quite as far in math but will still need to get through calculus). Even after I had my master’s degree in a subfield of applied math, I still used some of what I learned in high school algebra 2 on the job.
I really think that you should abandon the idea of skipping courses. This will just add stress while providing a real risk that you will not fully understand the materials that you will need for future classes.
Also, life is not a race. You do not need to be in a hurry to jump ahead in classes. You will get there.
Getting an MD (or a DVM) is a very long path. In the US (and Canada) it requires four years of high school, four years for a bachelor’s degree, and four years of medical school. Then you start your residency. You should during all this time try to pay attention in class and keep up with the homework. However, you do not need to jump ahead. You probably do want to avoid stressing yourself out. You take it one day at a time and just continue to do well. The way to distinguish yourself from other students is to continue to do well day after day, learn each course very well, and be better prepared to do very well in the next class. Gradually the classes will get more difficult. The students who come into each class well prepared and who continue to keep ahead in their work will be the ones who keep doing well in these more difficult classes.
Also, there are a LOT of universities in the US that are very good for premed students. You do not need to attend a “big name” highly ranked university for your bachelor’s degree if you want to attend a very good medical school. Also, you do not need to attend a magnet high school to get into a university with a very good premed program. Saving money for medical school is however a good idea (and this applies to your choice of both high school and undergraduate university). One specialist doctor I know attended a highly ranked and well known medical school. I asked him where other students in the same MD program had gotten their bachelor’s degree. His exact words were “all over the place”.
One thing that I noticed because I did attend a “famous” university for undergrad: It is not a good idea to compare yourself with others. There are plenty of opportunities for you to be successful, me to be successful, my daughters to be successful, and your friends and fellow students to be successful. There will always be someone somewhere who is smarter or further ahead of you (which is good, it would be very lonely to be the smartest person in the world). There is someone who plays violin better than you. There is someone who plays guitar and piano better than I do. There is someone who plays chess better than either of us. You just keep at it, do what is right for you, have some patience, and you will get where you want to be.
If these are momentary thoughts then I think that you should know that you are doing well, you should be patient, and you should avoid skipping math classes. If you feel this way a lot, then you might want to consider talking to someone, possibly a health professional such as a doctor or (if your school has one) a nurse at school about how you feel. They might suggest counseling which can be very helpful for many students. High schools in the US put way too much pressure on our high school students. We each need to try to find a way to navigate our school system while keeping the stress to a low level if we can.
Please take becoming a doctor out of your equation for what you do in high school. Fact is…most folks who enroll in college with the intention of becoming doctors change their minds. Of those who apply, less than 40% get even one medical school acceptance.
At the age of 14, you should be concentrating on getting great grades in the most challenging courses you are able to take (and do well in). Do extra curricular activities that you enjoy. That’s important. Go out and socialize with friends.
At some point in the future, your actual career goals will become more clear, and you may even consider other options.
And lastly…you need to be the best YOU. Forget about what others are doing. At the end of the day, that isn’t going to matter.
Are you a U.S. citizen?
You have already been given some really great advice here. I will add that you can look for opportunities in the summer to do internships in the medical field, either shadowing a physician, working in a lab, or something similar. My husband did this and it not only gave him some actual hands on experience, but it also sparked an interest in the medical specialty he ended up pursuing.
Your main focus now should be to work hard to make high marks in school, ensure your classes are high rigor, and make time to be social and do other things outside of academics. Many many kids who are narrowly focused on their goals miss out on activities that CAN differentiate them from the pack. Good luck to you.
Yes I am a Student in Texas usa
Thank you.
Outside of school, I volunteer for a Non-profit organization
If you are thinking about a public university in Texas like UT Austin…you want to be in the top 6% at your high school to be guaranteed acceptance. That might be harder to do at a magnet school.
Thank you! I hadn’t really though about it like that. But i really want to go to this school because it has a reputation for sending kids to medical school and every class there is 6.0 weighted.
Thank you for the advice. I’m still worried about skipping because I thought it really depends on how well you study the course If I pour enough time into it I might be able to be in Pre-cal next year.
A high school has a good reputation for sending kids to medical school? Really? If you apply to medical school the traditional route (after undergrad), the medical schools aren’t going to care at all what high school you went to.
Are you planning to apply to a BS/MD program directly out of high school? If so, keep in mind that admission to these is in the low single digits…regardless of what high school you attend.
Keep in mind that pretty much every college is going to re-weight your grades on their own scale, so a 6.0 will not mean much, meaning the extra weight will not count the way it does on your HS Transcript.
Kids go to college from all (most) high schools and kids go to medical schools from most every college.
You are putting way too much pressure on yourself for something that’s not real.
Additionally, most kids who go to college thinking medicine pivot away at some point and most who apply for med school don’t get in.
Of course, there’s many medical careers.
Perhaps the magnet will steer an interest - but no high school will assure or eliminate the possibility of you going into medicine.
And no college whether top or not close to top - will either assure or eliminate the possibility either.
You are a first year high school student - and you are way over stressing yourself for no reason.
Keep doing well in classes. Get involved as you already are. Have friends. Have fun.
You’ll be fine.
I think I remember you from a month ago and back then the advice had been for you to get your parents involved so they would help you drop Medical Terminology. What happened?
You don’t need to distinguish yourself with the courses you take. Colleges want to see a solid base but they don’t expect crazy things like skipping levels. So, take 4 years in each of the 5 core areas (with some leeway senior year to drop one and double up in another), get A’s: you’re good.
What will help distinguish yourself is what you do outside of class. So, figure out what you enjoy doing then go all out.
Attending a magnet school makes it less likely for you to be top 6% for UT. Magnet schools cannot have any relation to med school admission, in the same way 8th grade doesn’t impact college adcoms’ decision.
That being said you probably have better odds at med school from TCU, SMU, Southwestern, Rice, Trinity TX… because they offer better support.
As a result, you can try to be top 6% at a regular HS or aim for private universities.
Texas has multiple very good public universities that are very good for a wide range of majors, including being very good for premed students (and also for engineering and computer science and math, which were more my style). @thumper1 has a good point that UT Austin has auto-admit for a student in the top 6% of their high school (if I am remembering this correctly) and it will be much easier to be in the top 6% at a normal high school rather than at a magnet high school.
Medical school is expensive. Saving money by attending an in-state public university for your bachelor’s degree is often a good plan for premed students, and you have very good in-state public universities where you live.
I attended a high school that did not even offer calculus as an option. I did not take calculus until my freshman year of university. This did not stop me from getting a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at MIT. You would be doing fine to take pre-calculus in your junior year of high school, and then calculus in your senior year. This would still put you ahead of most students, and on-par with most of the more ambitious and very strong students.
It has been a while since I took either of these. However, I did spend a year of high school studying algebra 2, I took the effort to understand the course very well, and I think that this did help me do very well on the math part of the SAT test.
Universities will look at your actual grades when considering your application. Different high schools in the US compute GPA in wildly different ways so it really is not possible to compare a GPA number from one high school with a GPA number from another high school.
One thing did occur to me about jumping ahead in classes: There are some specific university classes that are required for applying to medical schools. Some of these (such as organic chemistry) are famous for being very difficult. Students are usually stronger students as they get into their upper years of university. It is usually better to wait and take these tough classes when you are very well prepared and have developed very strong study habits. Some of this preparation is course specific (such as taking algebra 2 before pre-calculus, and pre-calculus before calculus, which you take before differential equations). Some of this preparation however is just learning how to be a good student, and how to deal with tough classes. This all comes over time.
Which gets me back to my original point: You are doing very well right now where you are. Just keep ahead in your course work, do not jump ahead in classes, and over time you will just keep learning the material, learning how to be a strong student, and churning out quite a few A’s and not too many B’s. From where you are now to the point that you are called “doctor” or “engineer” is a long path. You get there one day at a time and to me it looks like you are on track to do this.
I will also point out that being a doctor is a job that involves a lot of personal interaction with patients. Getting involved in clubs and activities and just making friends can also be helpful.
They have a really good Doctor of osteopathy track available
Who does?
It is A magnet school here in Texas.
I want to try for their DO track and try for BSDO