Hello,
I am a sophomore right now with a 3.9 GPA (we use 100point however so my GPA is a 97.7) and until this point, have constructed a social studies oriented schedule. However, i feel like i have been telling everyone, including myself, that i want to go to law school withouth ever really meaning it fully. Im really starting to lean toward a career in a medical field, specifically surgery. I have already built a junior year schedule without any medical courses, however i do take AP science courses. I believe i will be able to take Anatomy and Physiology as a senior, but, i cannot take my schools EMT/Nursing program. I take Honors bio and will take Honors Chem, but is this enough? Did i start too late and miss my chance?
You’re a sophomore in high school. Of course it’s not too late. That would be absurd.
You don’t need to worry about any of this right now. Take the most rigorous schedule you’re able to, do well, participate in extracurricular activties you enjoy, and get into a college you’ll be happy attending. That should be your goal at the moment. You don’t need to have the rest of your life figured out, and nothing you do now will shut you out of any career.
You’re getting way, way ahead of yourself. You have a very long way to go yet and it’s far too soon to be worried about “miss[ing] your chance”
Take the core science classes offered at your high school: chemistry, biology, physics. Take honors/AP/IB versions if they’re offered. Take pre-calc/calc and statistics. All of these will help prepare your for your college science classes.
You don’t need high school EMT or nursing classes. Both are irrelevant for med school admission. You don’t need A&P either–again it’s irrelevant. (For the record, med school admissions don’t care at all about what you studied in high school. It never even gets asked about.)
And in the getting way ahead of yourself vein–
You have no idea of whether or not you want to be a surgeon because right now you don’t know anything about what being a surgeon entails. You don’t even know for sure yet that you want to become a physician. Being a doctor or surgeon sounds cool, glamorous and exciting, but the reality of it is quite different. It’s actually a difficult, thankless, and emotionally exhausting job. (And part of why med students, medical residents and physicians have a suicide that is significantly higher than the national average.) Medicine is not about cool science and saving lives–it’s largely about convincing your patients to stop killing themselves thru self-destructive habits & behaviors. (yes, even for surgeons. A surgeon friend of mine once told me he spends 85% of his time dealing with same 10% of his patients over and over and over again.)
If you want to do something that will help decide if you really do want a medical career–become a volunteer at an elder hospice or nursing home. Or volunteer at a homeless shelter. Or group home for the mentally or physically disabled. Or work with school kids/pre-schoolers who have a parent in drug rehab or in out-patient psychiatric care. These people are your future patients. Find out if you can deal compassionately with these people and their problems–it’s not something everyone can do and something required of all physicians