Is it even right for me??? Pls read the whole thing

Ok so idk if being a doctor is the right thing for me because I like the fulfilling aspect (and I like tot idea of helping people through medicine) but I really need to stay in-state for all of my schooling (I’m not going to go into reasons why).
If I live in WA state, is this possible?
I love how doctors serve the community and help so much. I would love to be a neonatologist, pedtriatic oncologist,or an obstetrician (basically I’m interesting in working with women and children). I know I could be a nurse but I consider myself to be a smart person and I think it would sort of be a waste (no offense to nurses- not calling them dumb or anything)- I just think that doctors have more of an opportunity to use their mind to make important breakthroughs in medicine and have more of a role in saving lives.

The other job I’m thinking of is a pharmacist. But I don’t think it would be as fulfilling. I feel like it’s just working in Walgreens all day doing repetitive tasks. Can all of the schooling be in-state?

I’m going into undergrad soon- I KNOW I don’t need to know my job btw- and so should I even declare my major as a pre-med major (e.g. Biology) or should I wait?

Pls advise and let me know of other occupations I can look into.

Lmaoooo I think you need to research being a doctor more. For one if you’re unsure of medicine, it’s not a good idea to get yourself into it. It’s a long process and costs a lot of money and youth. Doctors will tell you to be sure and make sure there’s nothing in the world you’d rather do. The hours are long and the work is stressful. I was going to tell you to research nursing but you seem to think you’re too good for it. Nursing school is actually quite difficult and stressful. Nurses definitely are intelligent and smart. Both are very important in saving lives. Nurses can go into a variety of fields too, surgical, labor and delivery, beside, oncology, and many others. It’s also easier to switch between specialities in nursing rather than medicine as for medicine you have either complete a fellowship or another residency. The difference between doctors and nurses are doctors pass in give a diagnosis and tell the nurses which medicine would be the best to give while nurses perform patient care and make sure the patient is comfortable nurses develop a closer bond with the patient. Like for example in oncology, let’s say the patient is in the hospital with stage four breast cancer and is receiving chemotheraphy. The doctor would come in and say this is the type and amount of chemo we should give her then we will give her a blood test at 2:50pm tomorrow then we will measure her intake and output. The nurse would be the one responsible for taking care of the patient and carrying out orders that can be performed within legal limits. The nurse also has the be observant noticing changes within the patient and helping her. A good way to see the difference between these two is to watch the movie Wit or read about it. If you want fulfilling nursing would fit that. You actually get to spend real time with patients and make sure they are comfortable. They know the doctor makes the diagnosis but they feel the nurses care and they are the ones who carry out a lot of the treatments. Also maybe try to look into things outside of healthcare too. But don’t major in biology!! If you don’t get into med school, then bio won’t help you actually find a job. If you don’t know what you’re going to do with the degree don’t major in it.

I agree with the above poster–you need to do more research about what being a physician is all about. You’ve romanticized it. I strongly suggest that you do some job shadowing so you can see what the day-to-day life of a physician is like. You should consider also shadowing a nurse and a pharmacist too to get a feel for their careers.

BTW, advance practice nurses/nurse practitioners can practice independently and can provide basic routine healthcare services, write prescriptions, do simple procedures, manage common medical conditions like diabetes or asthma. Nurse midwives do nothing but provide prenatal care for healthy women and attend routine deliveries–all without physician oversight. Nursing is a challenging and honorable career in its own right.

Besides the careers you’ve mentioned there are dozens of other you don’t know about. Here’s a website to help you learn about other healthcare professions-- [Explore Health Careers](https://explorehealthcareers.org)

If you want to have the greatest impact on the lives of children–consider teaching. Teachers have a far, far bigger impact on the lives of children than physicians do. Or consider social work or public health. Those also have a major impact on the quality of life for women & children.

On to your question about Washington state. You can certainly do your undergrad in WA. WA has many fine colleges & universities. All of them will provide the coursework needed to apply to med school.

Staying in WA for med school is much more problematic. Admission to medical school is extremely competitive. There are no guarantees that you’ll be admitted to either of WA’s med schools. UW is extremely competitive for admission. It’s impossible to say if you will even have chance 4 years from now. WSU has a mission to provide doctors for eastern, rural WA --if you don’t fit that mission, your chances of getting admitted there are poor. Med school applicants generally need to apply to 15-25 med schools across the country in the hope of gaining one admission. If you want to be a doctor, you go wherever you get admitted. If you’re not OK with that idea, then you should consider some other career.

You should also be aware that completing medical training requires 3-8 years of residency & fellowship after med school. Unless you complete a residency, you cannot practice medicine or obtain a medical license. The chances of being able to stay in WA for that part of your education even if you do graduated from WA med school are quite small. (Fun fact: doctors are matched into residency programs by a computer program designed for optimal utilization of resources on a national level. IOW, you don’t get to choose where you go for residency.)

For pharmacy–you can do your undergrad in state easily. There are 2 pharmacy schools in WA: WSU and UW. Again no guarantees you’ll get admitted.

RE: majors
You don’t need to declare a major just yet. You typically don’t have to do that until sometime during your sophomore year.

Pre-med is NOT a major; it’s an intention. You can major in anything you want and still go to med school so long as you have taken all the required pre-req courses (gen chem, ochem, biochem, bio, physics, calc, stats, psych, sociology and English) My daughters have med school classmates with majors ranging from forestry to engineering to music performance to theology to business. Neither of my daughters (one a medical resident, one a med student) majored in bio.

Pre-pharm requires similar coursework to pre-med, but exact coursework requirements vary from pharm school to pharm school.

If you want to see if yo have the academic chops for medicine or pharmacy or many other healthcare careers, take intro bio, and gen chem your freshman year. In the remaining slots, add calc 1, English comp/writing, psych or soc, and some other courses of your choice

Try to shadow a family physician in private practice with colleagues, someone in a hospital, a nurse practitioner, a midwife, and a pediatric nurse.
Also while in high school try to take AP English language, AP biology, AP chemistry, and AP calculus AB as those would help with premed requirements. For nursing, same first three and swap calculus for Anatomy and Physiology Honors.

Why would being in Washington state hinder your goals of being a doctor? Where you go for undergrad is less important than how well you do and what your GPA is. You can go to University of Washington for both undergrad and med school and have a very prosperous medical career. UW is actually a good med school and as a Washington state resident, your chances are already better than applicants outside the WWAMI region.

Also you are probably romanticizing the idea of helping people and what not. You can easily have a fulfilling career and help others in other industries. Med school is insanely expensive and you will most likely end up around $250,000+ in debt, not to mention competitive as hell.