How can I be sure about Pre-Med

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

This is probably a commonly asked question on this forum, but one can never be so sure. I am currently heading into my junior year in high school. I am sure that I would like to pursue a career in medicine, preferably in the ER of a hospital. However, I am one to plan, and I would hate for this dream to be crushed at a point in my life where it would be too late to go back on my decision (especially my fourth year as an undergraduate, finding out I did not get into med school). I do not consider myself a genius, but I am at the top ten of my class, with a high GPA and extracurriculars/ sports all year round that keep me busy. This leads me with many opportunities to get into very difficult colleges, or go somewhere less popular and well known to somewhat guarantee getting good grades. I am reaching out to volunteer at hospitals around me to volunteer to confirm that I would like to be a doctor.

To summarize, what I am trying to ask is what would be the better path when searching for undergraduate schools-- going to the hardest school I could get into or take advantage of the less competitive systems but apply to their best programs?
If I cannot follow through with the volunteering opportunities at hospitals (it is highly competitive to get into, I live around the top hospitals in the country, and I am a three season varsity athlete so there could be conflicts)? Could working at a hospice even help me with this decision?
How could I deal with the disappointment of not getting into med school?
What helps when applying to med school?

Sorry for taking up anyones time who is on this difficult path but I am desperate for guidance. Please excuse any spelling mistakes, english is by far my worst subject.

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  1. Do you like math and science?
  2. You should volunteer in some sort of medical setting…hospice, hospital, nursing home, clinic…any time you are around sick people.
  3. When you go to college, you don’t major in pre-med. You major in Biology or Chemistry or Math or Psychology or Medical Anthropology or Biomedical Engineering anything you want to. You just have to take the Med School pre-reqs, e.g., Bio, Chem, Organic Chem, Physics, etc. Some people pick Biology or Chemistry as it has the most overlap with the pre-req classes. Some people pick something like Biomedical Engineering so they have a fall back job if med school doesn’t work out. Some people pick a major that they are interested in.
  4. So in college, you need to volunteer as well, You can take the time to see if you are interested medicine.
  5. As you go through college, you will start on a path for pre-med. Did Bio go well? then did Organic Chem go okay? Did you do well in the MCATs? There are sort of a few gateways that will show you how you are doing on your path.
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Beyond just the whole academic side of it, are you sure you’re psychologically up to doing medicine? It’s an incredibly demanding and traumatizing profession. I’ve heard stories from Northeastern U students* about how they’ve watched patients flatline and had to perform compressions on them, without ever learning if they survived or not. Doing the residency portion will also be incredibly demanding. My brother wanted to know more about the residency, so I asked a local hospital what it was like. Their rep told me that they demanded thirty hour days. I unfortunately thought he was joking, and smiled, which didn’t end well.

And beyond that, make sure you’re up to handling gore and bodily fluids, especially if you’re going to work as a surgeon,

*They do what’s known as a co-op, which allows you to do graduate level work in the area of their choice