<p>I am a high school junior and it's my dream to become a doctor. I get really scared that I will go through 4 years of biology and physics and all the pre-med classes, and then get rejected from medical schools. What do you do if this happens? Are there career options (not just average)? What do you do??? I would hate to waste all that time! </p>
<p>(I plan on working really hard in college, but theres a chance I may still not make the cut!)</p>
<p>In your med school prep you will have perfectly prepared yourself for grad school or you may choose to go post-bacc and take another run at med school in the following cycle.</p>
<p>This is one of the major reasons that you will repeatedly see the advice of "do your undergrad major in what you enjoy, not what you think will get you in med school". There are a lot of Bio majors that hated the course only to have it be the only thing left at the end.</p>
<p>What would you say are good careers you can have from these courses?</p>
<p>I'm sorry, you may have missed my point. </p>
<p>The classes you take as the minimum for med school admission are no big deal (or should not be) and will only consist of a year of physics, math, bio, and english. Two years of chem in order to get through Organic. That's not much and will not, in and of themselves, prepare you for any career.</p>
<p>The point was that you should select your major based on what you love. This will provide you with the majority of your credit hours and prepare you for the life beyond even if not in medicine.</p>
<p>If your love is only medicine you would have to decide if it is the people aspect or the research aspect that you find most appealing. If research you can go on to MS/PhD programs and be involved on that side. If it is the people aspect you can go nursing, charity organization, or teaching.</p>
<p>Don't fall into the trap that only Bio majors go on to be MDs. The only thing that a Pre-Med curriculum provides is the rough assurance that you can excel in a science rich environment and won't fail drug dosage calcs when you have to do the math.</p>
<p>ok thanks, anybody else have an opinion on this?</p>
<p>Do what YOU want to do. Pick a major that you will really enjoy, and something which you will do well in. Simple as that. If you don't get in, try again, or try Foreign Med Schools.</p>
<p>I wouldn't recommend foreign med schools. I've heard it was incredibly difficult to try to move back into the US.</p>
<p>Besides, if no medical schools accept you, perhaps you just arent cut out for medicine?</p>
<p>It is difficult to move back but that is only because it is more difficult to pass the USMLE because you are not prepared in the same way. If you do well on that, and I mean pretty well you have just as good a shot as anyone else at getting into a competitive residency.</p>
<p>is it true only 1/3 students get accepted into med school? gosh thats scary, are many of these students from ivies?</p>
<p>I thought the national average was 50%? Man I'm questioning this entire doctor thing, not because of the effort, but whether I would enjoy doing this.</p>
<p>It's about half nationwide</p>
<p>About the Ivies - it depends on which Ivy you are talking about, but yes, even a significant percentage of Ivy premeds don't get in anywhere. For example, in the recent year, 77% of Cornell premeds who applied got in somewhere, so obviously 23% of them got in nowhere.</p>
<p>And then of course there is the 'hidden melt' factor. The fact is, not everybody who wants to go to medical school actually applies. Those premeds who get bad grades and/or bad MCAT scores may choose not to apply even if they want to go, simply because they don't think they are going to get in anywhere. The med-school application process is not trivial. It's both expensive and extremely time-consuming, and generally only those people who actually think they have a chance of getting in somewhere will subject themselves to that ordeal. Let's face it. If you have straight C's, you're probably not going to apply. If you got a 15 (total) on your MCAT, you're probably not going to apply. And that of course presumes that you even made it through to the MCAT and the entire premed sequence. Plenty of wanna-be doctors enroll in premed classes, get a bunch of bad exam grades, and then drop those classes, or otherwise decide that they won't make it through the entire premed course sequence. Hence, they don't even have the option of deciding whether they want to apply to med-school or not. The point is that plenty of wannabe premeds 'melt away' before they even make it to the med-school application process, and so they aren't counted in the official statistics of who gets in and who doesn't. Hence, the official statistics vastly understate the true number of people who want to be doctors but can't get into med-school, either because they get rejected from med-school, or they don't apply in the first place because they don't think they'll get in, or they don't even make it through the premed course sequence. And yes, this happens at all schools, even the Ivies.</p>
<p>Well sakky is correct on the facts, but a bit too depressing in the presentation. Remember lots of people enter college thinking they know what they want to do, then discover other things are more appealing. Lots of people end up majoring in something other than what they predicted when they were 17 years old. The same thing happens to premeds. Some really know enough about medicine in high school so that their interest is soundly based. Many others are simply smart kids, they get good grades in their courses, including science, so people tell them "you should be a doctor". Once they get to college and discover that there are lots of other things to do, they find something else.</p>
<p>So there are certainly people who drop out of premed because their grades are too low, or it is too hard, but plenty change focus because they realize they do not want to be doctors. </p>
<p>Going overseas for school works if you go to a good overseas school. Top applicants from top western european medical schools can do well in getting residencies. Those not at the absolute top, and those from less well regarded schools do encounter an assumption that America is the only place to learn medicine. If you are an American, and you went overseas everyone will know it was because you did not get in an American school. This will limit your options when you apply.</p>
<p>Possible careers with only a BS/BA in biology are few and are not well-paying. I think this is what you are asking, binghamton. Possible options are being a technician in an academic lab (mid 30s) or in an industry lab like Pfizer (low 40s). If you go to grad school your options are similar with an MS, but you can then apply for technologist positions which make 4-5000 more. You could also teach at a community college, many only require a master's degree, the starting pay in Ohio is low 40s. If you continue and get a PhD you are then qualified for a much broader range of careers including lab work, teaching, medical science liaison and more. The pay for these types of jobs can vary from the mid 30s up to 100s. Of course, the usual pay for someone with a PhD and only a few years of experience is going to be in the low 40s. My figures are all for Ohio since I am very familiar with the pay scales around here.</p>
<p>If you don't get into med school but are interested in medicine there are still lots of options. You could try nurse practitioner or physician assistant. There are more and more technologist/assistant degrees and certifications becoming available, too. </p>
<p>Listen to what Gizmo said, major in something you love. There is NOTHING that suggests that only biology majors get into med school. If you really love English or Antropology or Basket Weaving then major in that. To have the best chance to be part of that 50% who gets in you want to have excellent grades.</p>
<p>thanks hoberto</p>
<p>Remember, only 30% of people who apply to US medical schools actually gain admissions. This means that 70% of premeds who apply to medical schools do not get in--this is a very sobering statistics. Of course, life is too complex to draw generalizations and you will always find someone who is one of the best who did not get admitted while someone who partied hard and did poorly got it. But these are, as far as I know, exceptions to the rule.</p>
<p>[</p>
<p>It is about 50%, check aamc.org. This is the association of american medical colleges, and it has the correct stats.</p>
<p>OP, there are many avenues you can follow if you don't get into med school. hoberto's post is right so far as it goes, but there are other options. You can view them on scales of being direct medical care and closeness to medicine in general. For example, closely related on both would be becoming a nurse, a nurse-practitioner, etc. There are also jobs working in the medical field such as pharmaceutical sales. I know someone who didn't get in but went into a successful career in hospital administration. Moving a bit farther away would be careers in public health and the like. </p>
<p>Jumping completely away would be to treat the degree as simply a college degree and look for positions in the business world, the same way any history or english major does. Note that for this latter option internships are going to be key in standing out, but they're probably a good idea even if you do enter medicine because then you'll be able to confidently tell med-school interviewers that you investigated medicine (you know that you need volunteer work in medicine, right?) and the business world and found you preferred medicine.</p>
<p>BTW statistics are helpful, but its also worth keeping track of the larger trends. Unfortunately on this count momentum is swinging against you. Med schools tend to admit about the same number each year; the odds change because the number of applicants rises or falls. There are slow cycles that take years to run, and it looks like we're on a rise right now. If you look at the chart sakky helpfully provided, you'll see the admit rate has been slipping (slightly) the last 3 years but I think the trend will continue. It takes a few years to complete the required courses so the 2004 applicants entered college around the time the internet boom was going on and many people weren't that interested in medicine. I expect this to have changed since then, and more pre-meds in the pipe means acceptance rates must decline.</p>
<p>I actually read and posted an article a few months ago that the AMA said to the medical schools that they must start accepting more people or else there will be a shortage of docs. They plan to do this over a 15 year period, and plan to increase admissions quite substantially. So in reality if med schools follow through, which they probably will, then people may have slightly better odds of getting in.</p>
<p>There is no shortage of physicians, just a distribution problem it seems. The gov't controls that issue by issuing more visas when necessary.
With Medicare & Medicaid cutbacks for teaching hospitals at such critical levels and with resident hours much curtailed, keeping med schools & their post grad teaching pgms above water at all may be the real challenge.</p>
<p>I don't know if its ok to post this link but here it is, they want 2,500 more students per year for the next 10 years for a total increase of 15%. <a href="http://www.aamc.org/newsroom/pressrel/2005/050222.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.aamc.org/newsroom/pressrel/2005/050222.htm</a></p>