<p>I am now seriously considering becoming a doctor, maybe something in internal medicine like a neurologist (maybe...not sure what kind I would become if I do become one). However, I have a few questions on this:</p>
<p>1) Does every college have the courses needed for pre- med? Also, what are thse courses.</p>
<p>2) Is it possible to finish college with a bachelors in engineering, but still have taken the necessary courses or med school? This way, you have 2 options of what you want to become, and have all 4 years of college to learn more about both?</p>
<p>3) How difficult is med school? I mean with the work load, and the lack of sleep (or so I hear). </p>
<p>4) On average, how long is residency and the other stuff before you can actually be hired to work somewhere(lets just use a neurologist as an example)?</p>
<p>5) What are the general work hours of a doctor?</p>
<p>1) pre-med isn't a major, it's a focus of interest. so yes. courses include biology, o chem, physics, calculus?, chem?, all on various levels.</p>
<p>2)yes, I know a couple people who went EE (elecrtical engineering) in college, and are now in med school.</p>
<p>3) um. it's hard. harder than college, much MUCH harder than high school (again, i've only heard)</p>
<p>4) neurologist is a lot of residency.
4 years UG, 4 years med school, 3 years general residency, I think at least another 1 or 2 to specialize neurology... so 12 years after HS, meaning you're going to be 30, at the earliest, working as a doctor.</p>
<p>5) depends whether you work in a hospital or outpatient setting. My dad is a radiologist who works in a hospital. He works 8-5 w/ overnight call on like a week per month/2 months. Luckily, the hospital has online radiology, so he doesn't have to stay at the hospital. he DID have to stay when he was doing his residency however.</p>
<p>Don't worry about the major - pick something you'll enjoy. That's the key.</p>
<p>I can only speak to the difficulty of the first two years of medical school, but to be blunt...it sucks. For me, 2nd year has been way better than first, but I do look at a lot of my friends who have jobs, and am somewhat envious. It's just a grind, and there's so much information to absorb. It's like drinking from a fire hose...</p>
<p>Neurology is it's own residency path, not one off internal medicine. It's a four year residency, with the first year a "prelim" or "transitional" year. This year is much like the old traditional internship year. You can do a prelim year where you rotate through a number of different medical specialties which may include peds, or you can do a prelim year in either internal med or surgery (neurology is probably going to be more likely to put you through an internal med year). The medicine year is going to be limited to adult care, and is unlikely to include much in the way of things like ob/gyn or path which a transitional year might. After the first year the remaining three years are all Neuro. There are several year long fellowships in areas like pediatric neurology, or pain medicine. Still 12 years minimum just to enter practice without being a subspecialist, and that assumes you graduate undergrad in 4 and get accepted to medical school on your first application.</p>