How to become a doctor?

Pre-Med & Medical School High School Student Topics
1

what are the steps to become a doctor starting from high school. First of all my act score is 26 but I’m expecting a 28-30 score from the October test this year (U of A isn’t very competitive). With that being said I would like to know how to apply for a college(what schools, programs to enroll) since I’m completely unaware of that since my parent are business owners. I’m going to apply to U of Arkansas. Everything u know will be helpful since I’m lost and I am already on the countdown to college. Thank you very much! I would highly appreciate it.

2

You can complete the pre-med requirements just about anywhere - even at some community colleges. Your home state public U is fine. You also can major in whatever you feel like - dance, business, math, biology, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is a really high overall GPA, a high GPA in the pre-med required courses, excellent MCAT score, excellent letters of recommendation, and fulfilling the job shadowing/medical related volunteer work required for the med school apps.

If you look on the U of AR website, you should find links to information about the pre-med program. You can contact the coordinator there for more information.

Several pre-med students who I know have trained as certified nursing assistants so that they could get part-time jobs that would give them experience in different medical settings. That might be interesting for you too.

3
  1. go to your local library
  2. tell the librarian “I would like a book about medical school admissions”
  3. read the book
4

@SawLead

AAMC (American Association of Medical Colleges) is a great resource for pre-med hopefuls

[AMCAS:Choosing a Medical Career](Medical Careers | Students & Residents)

Broadly speaking, as a pre-med you’ll do these things:

  1. earn your BA/BS degree in any field ( D1 & D have med school classmates with degrees ranging from forestry to music performance to theology to electrical engineering, as well as the more common biology, chemistry, biochemistry)

  2. complete med school admission requirements (gen chem, ochem, biochem, intro biology, physics, statistics or biostatistics, calc 1, 2 semesters English composition, intro psych, intro soc)

  3. get involved in the expected pre-med ECs (physician shadowing, clinical volunteering, community service, leadership roles in your activities, clinical or bench research)

  4. take the MCAT

  5. gather the required LOEs from your professors

  6. apply to medical school

5

“what are the steps to become a doctor…:”

time wise:
college: 4 (maybe more) years
med school 4 years
residency 3-5 years (depends)
fellowship 1-3 years (depends)

be willing to say bye bye to 20s, chunk of your 30s.

6

Also realize that you will have very little say where you will spend your medical school through fellowship years.

For med school, you go wherever you get accepted. Most med school applicants get a single acceptance.

For residency and fellowship you can list preferences, but you don’t get to pick. (A computer program decides for you.)

7

You will be fine at U of A, just work hard trying to get all A’s in your classes and your chances to be a doctor is much higher than at any other schools. 40% of the admits at UASOM are from U of A, they even have reserved seats for applicants from certain remote counties in AR, obviously, Little Rock is not one of them.

8

@artloversplus @WayOutWestMom @Jugulator20 @mikemac @happymomof1 thanks everyone it really helped clarified many things that I was confused about!