Looking to switch to premed

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>I just finished up my first semester of sophomore year at Washington University in St. Louis. I am in the business school, which is very highly ranked, and up until now had planned on a major in finance. I have an internship at a highly regarded hedge fund in NY which I have been doing for the past few summers and winters. I recently had an epiphany and realized that my passion lies in medicine. </p>

<p>My father is a graduate of Columbia Medical school and my grandfather was also a doctor. Seeing how much they truly help to better the lives of their patients is really inspiring to me and made me question my path. I realized that I only want to go into business for the money, and I also realized that I may be too morally sound to go into the vicious cut-throat industry that Wall Street is. I would love to switch to premed, but worry that it is too late, especially because of the following problems:</p>

<p>I currently only have around a 3.0 GPA. I struggled my first year and did not have good study habits. However, this past semester (the first of my sophomore year), I found my groove and began to work my ass off, achieving just below a 3.5 GPA for the semester. </p>

<p>I also have not taken ANY science courses in college (aside from a solar system class). I took biology and chemistry in high school, but I don't think I remember much from either, and I have never taken physics. </p>

<p>I HAVE taken a semester of English, but not a full year, and I have also taken business statistics, but I'm not sure if that matters. I also received credit for calc 1 (got a 5 on the AP) and I completed Calc II my freshman year at Wash U. </p>

<p>I know that if I do decide to switch to premed, that I will work my ass off and try to do as best as I can. However, a school like Wash U is very tough and I honestly don't know if I can get all A's and B's in these core premed science courses. Furthermore, I would have to do even better the next 2 and a half years in order to raise my GPA to that of one which is worthy of applying to med school. </p>

<p>Another option is to finish out my degree in business and then consider applying to a post-bac premed program. However, that will just be even more schooling and $$ on top of the already ridiculous amount of schooling and $$ that becoming a doctor requires. </p>

<p>PLEASE HELP, what should I do????</p>

2

<p>If your motivated enough, the GPA can be improved, you just need enough motivation to push yourself to work hard.</p>

<p>However, make sure medicine is your true passion, it is a VERY different profession than business or investment banking. Perhaps you should do some physician shadowing first?</p>

<p>Also, you mentioned that you wanted to go into finance to make a lot of money. If you are going to be a doctor, especially with the affordable care act reducing physician reimbursements, you have to accept you won’t be rich as a doctor. Now when i say “rich” I am referring to what a business/finance minded person would consider wealthy. You shouldn’t really expect to earn more than 200k after residency in a non-surgical specialty, and no more than 50,000 per year in residency.</p>