So, I’m planning to go to the University of Washington as a pre-med student (commuter). My ultimate plan is to become a doctor by getting into the UW med school. I am not willing to live away from home, so going to the UW med school would be my only choice to become a doctor (living away from home is non-negotiable so don’t even try). The problem is I know that the UW med school is really good (#1 in primary care) and it is super hard to get into. If I knew now that I will not get in, I would probably reconsider being a doctor (and change my major). It’s not that I don’t think I’m smart, but UW med school beats HARVARD in primary care. Also, I’m not really good at standardized testing, idk if the MCAT would truly be representative of my intelligence. Apparently, the school admits like 25/63 kids that have a near perfect undergrad GPA and near perfect MCAT score- and those are the best of the best.
I also don’t want to take a gap year if I don’t get in (and wait until next year) because my preferred medical specialty takes like 11 years to complete and I want to graduate ASAP. I think being a doctor would be super fulfilling and I would feel as though I am making a positive difference in the world.
I am a junior in HS and all of this is sort of stressing me out.
Considering your stated limitations (eg not willing to live away from home, UW med school would be your only choice, living away is nonnegotiable, you’re not really good at standardized testing, don’t want to take a gap year), quit stressing out. Look around and research out other careers in health related field that you could find fulfilling. Good luck
There are many ways to make a positive difference in the world that don’t include being a doctor. Some of those are healthcare fields, but many are not.
Here’s an excellent website that describes a wide variety of healthcare careers to get you started on your research.
[Explore Health Careers](https://explorehealthcareers.org)
I agree with Jugulator above. You have set too many limitations for you to be successful candidate for med school–especially in regard to location. (BTW, you do know that you don’t get to pick where you do your residency and fellowship training, right? You’re more or less assigned a location by a computer program. Odds say you’ll have to move away from home at least by then. Also UW’s med school requires its students to do clinical rotations away from Seattle, including in locations in other WWAMI states.)
So you plan to live your entire life in the Seattle area. You would refuse a residency that was outside Seattle? Your non-negotiable requirement makes you a poor candidate for a doctor.
Everyone has ups and downs in life, how can you predict your future 4 or 5 years ahead of time? The way I see it for you is do one step at a time. Get into a good and fit college for you and then. Decide whether to be a doctor or not.
Just for the sake of education, recognize that a large chunk of the primary care rankings are “how many graduates go into primary care” (peds, family medicine, internal medicine, ob/gyn and maybe gen surg but I don’t think so). Those are among the easiest specialties to get into. If a medical school magically graduated its entire class into plastics, ortho, vascular, neurosurg, derm, rad-onc, radiology, optho and anesthesia, it would far and away have the top students academically and be last in the primary care rankings. And similarly, someone from UW who matches into IM and then does cardiology and interventional cardiology fellowships is hardly a primary care doctor but they count as primary care.
That’s not to say that UW isn’t a fantastic school, just to recognize what those rankings actually mean. Like how the “research medical school” rankings include NIH dollars awarded to all research departments affiliated with the school and the school gets to decide who is and isn’t affiliated (e.g. does Harvard claim MIT’s electrical engineering department since Harvard-MIT have an agreement? Does Weill Cornell claim the dollars that the main Cornell campus in Ithaca is bringing in?)
Wait, you are a junior in high school. Don’t set so many limits on yourself before you even begin. You don’t have to figure out your whole life while you are in high school.
Also, why are you currently unwilling to live away from home?
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The problem is I know that the UW med school is really good (#1 in primary care) and it is super hard to get into. If I knew now that I will not get in, I would probably reconsider being a doctor (and change my major). It’s not that I don’t think I’m smart, but UW med school beats HARVARD in primary care. Also, I’m not really good at standardized testing, idk if the MCAT would truly be representative of my intelligence. Apparently, the school admits like 25/63 kids that have a near perfect undergrad GPA and near perfect MCAT score- and those are the best of the best.
I am not willing to live away from home, so going to the UW med school would be my only choice to become a doctor (living away from home is non-negotiable so don’t even try).
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Can you clarify?
You’re kind of young to be stating that you will not go to med school (and I guess that means residency) anywhere except UWash.
Is this due a family reason? Cultural/religious?
Fear/anxiety?
If you’re just going to draw a line in the sand and say that you will only go to undergrad/med/residency/fellowship at UWash, then I don’t see how this will work out.
As you’ve mentioned, getting into UWash Med is hard enough, but also having residency and fellowship also only be commutable just seems impossible.