<p>i didn't really know where to post this thread!</p>
<p>I'm a junior in high school and lately i've been looking into possible career choices. I try to force myself to stop thinking about a career in medicine because i know how everyone says only the genius kids can do it...but i can't get it off my mind! I'm a pretty average student...a couple honors classes, straight A's, but i'm not taking AP or IB classes this year and i have never been seen as the smartest in my class, i have to work! I'm really struggling because i want to go into medicine and eventually become a forensic medical examiner, but i want to be realistic about what i can actually handle. I am willing to work my butt off, and i (theoretically) understand the financial, time, and emotional commitment that comes with a career in medicine. I'm not too worried about those aspects, but just want to know if medical school is truly only for the brightest of the brightest. If i have dedication, is it possible? My worst nightmare would be to major in biology and then not get accepted into med school...then what would i do? It may be worse if i made it into med school and then couldn't handle it! My friends keep telling me to take the safer route and go for a more run of the mill job, but i can't help myself...i'm ambitious!!! Please be honest, thanks!</p>
<p>In order to get into medical school, you do need high grades in college.</p>
<p>And in order to get through medical school (and residency), you do have to work very, very hard. But you really don’t have to be a genius. Clinical medicine requires you to master a huge volume of very technical knowledge, and to be able to apply it correctly and confidently, sometimes under pressure. But it usually doesn’t require the kind of original, innovative thinking that I associate with genius. An emergency physician, for example, isn’t really expected–or even encouraged–to think up a new way of dealing with a patient who’s having an anaphylactic reaction to a bee sting. An emergency physician is expected to assess the problem and initiate the proper treatment, and to do so quickly and correctly.</p>
<p>If you can work very hard, and you can master the clinical skills and the body of knowledge a doctor is supposed to have, and you can work quickly under pressure without second-guessing yourself, you might have what it takes to be a doctor.</p>
<p>I’m a Cardiologist, and I’m anything but a genius. I worked as hard as I could my whole life and continue to do so. Sikorsky is right. Most physicians do not need to really think outside the box, especially when it comes to patient care. There are physicians who do research who are pretty brilliant when it comes to thinking of novel ways to take care of patients.</p>
<p>You have asked to be honest. Here is my honest opinion. I completely disagree with “i know how everyone says only the genius kids can do it”, NO genius is needed, but only the very very very HARD WORKING kids can do it. I can repeat it many times over. Do not attempt this route if you are not the very hard working kid. If you are not the one who can work hard in class that you absolutely hate with all your heart, hate the subject, teacher, everything, if you are NOT capable to pull yourself to get an A in this class, then most likely you simply do not have a hard working ethic. You can test yourself. I knew about my own D. as I have witness how hard she worked in classes that were not easy for her. The more she did not like the subject, the harder it was for her, the harder she worked. At the end, this is the only thing that is important in regard to academics. There are other aspects of these career. However, I am just answering the statement about “genius”, absolutely NOT required.
Keep in prospective. My D. has never had a single grade below A starting from kindergarten thru graduating from college. Not every class was easy at all. there are practically no people who are exceptionally good at absolutely everything, they do not exist.</p>
<p>Oh ya i understand that medical school isn’t going to be possible if i slack off, but i am definitely a student who knows how to discipline myself and keep school as my number one priority! Thanks for your reply, helps bring me back into reality a little bit!</p>
<p>The popularity of this field is proportional to American TV shows but has no correlation to the actual marketplace. If you’re going to pursue medicine, please do so in order to heal people and lessen their suffering — not because you like certian one hour crime dramas.</p>
<p>^Junior is a year when they think hard about college and potential major, at least those who plan on college. There is a financial risk for most families, that needs to be minimized as much as possible. Yes, it takes some people 7+ years to graduate from college. Most are trying to avoid this and think a bit ahead. Frankly, my kids started thinking in middle school (13 -14 y o). It saved the whole family lots of trouble and huge amount of dough. Others with unlimited resources might say “either become a doctor or not”, we have tried hard to avoid it and not only in connection to medicine.
There are other ways though, correct. the oldest in D’s medical school class was 46 y o when he (or maybe she) started at Med. School. If you want to do this, I would say, this door is open for every hard working person. One thing though, cannot avoid hard work.</p>
<p>while I agree with the beginning of your post about the glamorization of forensic pathology, there is nothing wrong with wanting to do it. Forensic pathologists may not heal or lessen the suffering of the people on their table, but they absolutely help heal and lessen the suffering of the friends and family of the deceased.</p>
<p>I’m all in favor of thinking ahead. I’m not at all a proponent, however, of high school students’ locking themselves into a course of study or a career. I recognize that pre-professionalism is more prevalent now than a generation ago, and I acknowledge that the college landscape has changed dramatically from when I was in college. Nevertheless, I think it’s still the case that lots of people who aspire to medical careers at the age of 15 or 16 eventually don’t become doctors for a variety of reasons (including but not limited to Organic Chemistry), and that about half of new college grads finish with a major different from the one they planned on when they entered. </p>
<p>Furthermore, I think that most of that major-changing is probably a good thing. I would not want to be married to the girl I was dating when I was 16, and I made a whole lot of other decisions and choices in the 11th grade that I’m glad I’m not still saddled with now.</p>
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<p>We’re straying from the OP’s question here, but honestly, I think 46 is too old. It would be hard to be a 46-year-old medical student, harder still to be a third- or fourth-year clinical clerk at 48 or 49, and just plain insane to be a 50-year-old intern.</p>
<p>JMO.</p>
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<p>I don’t want to speak for T26, but I took his post to be more about the fairly limited demand for that kind of doctor and the reality that most of their work is a lot more humdrum than what’s on CSI or in the Patricia Cornwell novels, than about the merits of the work itself.</p>
<p>Yes, the generation ago, college was NOT a mjaor investment. OUr family has experience with this, our kids are very very much apart, practically a generation. But even way back, when my oldest who has been a very good artist who took private lessons outside of school, all the way thru graduating from HS, well, when he was back in the middle school, he simply stated that it is not possible to support himself being an artist, so he will start looking into Graphic design. Well, few decades later, he is a Graphic Designer and so is his wife, while spending the minimum years to accomplish that and having huge amount of time to research the best and sheapest place to accomplish that. It did not hurt him and much later his sister to “lock” themselves in certain field of study with minimum financial risk for the parents. Both of them also ended up at their “dream” schools, so worked not only for us, but pretty much for them.
Just want to point out, that planning ahead is much more crucial now than it was few decades ago as the financial risk has risen substantially.
So, go ahead, dream in 8th grade and certainly dream much harder in 11th grade. Very well worth it!</p>
<p>But I expect that if everyone actually pursues the career that he or she plans on in high school, in a generation America will have a glut of veterinarians, neuroscientists, musicians and professional athletes, and a shortage of city planners, human resource managers and project managers.</p>
<p>I wonder whether anybody has mentioned this.</p>
<p>OP, are you relatively good at reading comprehension test? If yes, great. If not, you may need to set aside time to improve this.</p>
<p>This is because MCAT is mostly a reading comprehension test whose contents happen to be basic sciences.</p>
<p>This academic skill is hard to improve in a short time. It appears that many are unable to get accepted because of their not good enough MCAT, not their GPA.</p>
<p>“OP, are you relatively good at reading comprehension test? If yes, great. If not, you may need to set aside time to improve this.”
-This is where my own kid lacks the most. Yes, lowest (by much) ACT score, a bit lower Verbal score on MCAT. Overall though as much as she has tried to improve (using all strategies mentioned here, like The Economist,…etc.) NOTHING has worked for her. she jsut lives with the fact that she is a slower reader in group surrounding her who is able to compensate this by having higher scores in OTHER sections. I really do not know if it is possble to improve the reading. On the other hand, what has helped my D. all along her academic career is being a very good and very fast writer. Cannot read fast, no problem writing very well and very fast. The Med. School end of block 6 hrs exams are essay exams. She is done with them. She rarely had incorrect answers, and maybe in addition to knowing material she ws able to present her knowledge clearly.
BTW, her MCAT was decent, no improvement in Reading section thru preparation though.</p>
<p>fair enough and I agree with that. Just wanted to be clear that a forensic pathologist helps heal and treat suffering just as much as any other doc.</p>
<p>T26E4, that was a quick assumption! I don’t actually watch crime tv, i’ve just done alot of research and i think that forensic pathology would possibly be a good fit for me, glamorous or not! If i decide to pursue medicine, i’m obviously not going to lock myself into that specialty. Hey, I could hate pathology and fall in love with something else!</p>
<p>MCAT2, reading comprehension is actually my biggest strength! I didn’t know that was such a huge component to the MCAT.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your responses, they’re all so helpful!</p>