My preferred career choice is to become a Pediatric Cardiologist. However, I’ve been saying this without knowing the actual process and tasks I need to complete to make it a reality. My questions are:
Is Pediatric Cardiologist a career? Or is there something similar that falls under the same category?
How does one become a Pediatrician, let alone a Pediatric Cardiologist? What schools do I need to go to? What tests do I need to take? How many years will I be spending doing what? At the moment, I know I need to go to pre-med college for four years, take an MCAT and get a bachelor's degree and then apply to a four year medical college. Is this information correct? If so, is there more specifics that I am missing?
My dad suggested that I go to pre-med college and study Pharmacy, and then from there, apply to a medical college to become a pediatrician. Is this a good way to go at it?
If you feel the above questions don't suffice as a guide for how to become a Pediatric Cardiologist, please feel free to describe how I should go about it!
Oh I also forgot to mention, what kind of colleges should I look for? What degrees am I going to need? What do I need to do that is going to get me where I want to be? Basically, I know what I want to be and what I want to do, I just don’t know how to get there.
After college and med school, you’ll spend 3 years in a pediatric residency, followed by I think 3 years in pediatric cardiology fellowship. (You wont be “merely” a pediatrician until you complete residency). Pretty much any US college can serve as a platform to get into med school. Where you go to college is less important than how you do in college. Med schools don’t care what you study in college. It can be bio, art history, Spanish, geography, etc. One needs to complete premed reqs. You should study what interest you as if you like material you’re more likely to do well GPA wise which is something med schools care, in part, a great deal about. Also consider studying something that offers you a Plan B should you change your mind. Most who start as premed never apply and chnage their minds, and of those that actually apply, to med school over 60% fail to start any med school. You wont be a pediatrician when you graduate from med school.
“My preferred career choice is …pediatric cardiology.” If you don’t mind how did you come to that conclusion?
undergrad + mcat/gpa -> med school + USMLE I & II + clinical evals -> pediatric residency -> pediatric cards
Yes, it’s a career/sub-specialty. Re: pharmacy, I don’t know if there is a “pre-pharm” in undergrad. Most pharmacists (but not all) did undergrad work that heavily resembled pre-med. Pharmacy school is like med school (normally 4 yrs - done after undergrad - but there are some accelerated programs) so if you want to include pharmacy in that pathway, then you will have to add an additional 3-4 years to what I showed above. The only people I know that did this were pharmacists that wanted a career change.
The pre-requisites and degrees/majors for med school are probably covered elsewhere so I’ll not comment here. Just find a college where you feel you belong and can excel at learning.
You say you like pediatric cards… any reason to pick it over adult cardiology? Pediatrics can be more challenging than salaries indicate and pediatric cardiology deals with some very complex situations. Was there something in particular that drew you or do you just want to work with children?
[EDIT: Jugulator20’s comments are spot on. I’ll leave mine in for the sake of coverage re: pharmacy and reiterating some points that I’d recommend you consider]
Yes, and we have dealt with a very good one (with very good results). One good thing about being a pediatric cardiologist: Most of your patients get better!
“At the moment, I know I need to go to pre-med college for four years, take an MCAT and get a bachelor’s degree and then apply to a four year medical college. Is this information correct?”
This is correct. You should be aware that to be any kind of doctor you are looking at 8 years (minimum) of university. Therefore you need to budget for 8 years of university. It is not uncommon for top expert specialist doctors to be paying off their student loans for a long time after graduation (>10 years) so you need to minimize the cost and minimize debt as much as possible. Also, the most important thing for admission to medical school are GPA and MCAT scores. Maximizing your undergrad GPA usually does NOT mean going to the most difficult and academically challenging university possible, but rather means going to a pretty good university where you can do well (noting that premed classes will still be very challenging). Also, there is no such thing as a “premed” major. To go to medical school most students major in something that is sort of vaguely related to medicine, biology or pharmacy would be reasonable options but are not necessary. Given the large number of students who start off planning to go to medical school but never get there, it might be a sensible idea to consider an undergraduate major that you are interested in and that can be somewhat helpful towards a possible alternative career.
As such, for most students who want to go on to medical school the first place to look is probably your in-state public flagship university (except for large states the top 2 or 3 state public schools or if you live in California more like the top 10 UCs would be good). There are MANY very good universities in the US that have very good premed programs. For most students from the US, IMHO it would be crazy to go anywhere that is significantly more expensive than your in-state public university for your undergraduate education.
First, you need to know how much money your parents have saved for your college, if you have a 529, how much they can pay from their yearly income, what your EFC is.
Second, you need test scores.
What year are you?
What classes are you currently taking?
Have you taken any standardized test?
Studying Pharmacy is not a good idea, because med schools will question your commitment to medicine - same thing for nursing and PA. Its not impossible but just harder and the typical path is already hard enough.
You’re supposed to have a major AND handle premed pre-reqs. That major should be whatever you love learning about and are really good at, philosophy, music, French literature, computer science, anthropology… (Med school algorithms won’t know your major, only your GPA, science GPA, premed pre-reqs GPA; when you get to interview your major comes into play and if you’re not the typical biology major and you love your subject, it makes you interesting. So don’t think you have to major in biology.) Medical humanities and bioethics are big right now.
So, first, you need to get into an affordable college that emphasizes collaborative work between students and is supportive of its premeds.
As cliche as this might sound, when I was 8, I babysat some family friends of mine who were around 2 years of age. During the time I spent with them, I often found myself smiling and laughing a lot at the silly stuff they did and it got me thinking as to how I can make sure children of that age can enjoy life to the fullest without having to worry about their health. That’s why pediatrics came to me. I wanted to help children lead healthy and fulfilled lives. As for cardiology, it was more a spur of the moment when I was asked what specific field in cardiology I’m interested in. Overall I am dead set on being a pediatrician.
That sounds good @vacohp If I may just offer my opinion here, it sounds to me that at this early, early point in your journey, you should follow the advice the other posters have presented re: college and major. I’d skip on pharmacy school unless you want to be a pharmacist. If we fast forward and you make it into med school, you should really keep your options open (most incoming med students don’t know the nitty-gritty details each specialty entails. It’s much better to get exposure to everything during med school - and especially rotations - and decide at that time).
Having said that, it’s good that you’ve envisioned your purpose in medicine and specifically pediatrics. If you do end up in peds, keep your options open and make sure that ped cardiology is the right niche you want. There are several ways you can subspecialize in peds, in fact just about as many as if you went internal medicine. Find out about which niche resonates with you during peds residency and go for that.
I hope you understand that the super-majority of patients you’ll have in ped cardiology will have congenital conditions, and that will create a different work experience vs working with neonatology cases or as a peds hospitalist. I think you’d find it better to let your specialty choice grow more organically from your experiences vs declaring it in high school.
You can help children by becoming a teacher, nurse, psychologist, lab tech researching diseases or their cures, mentor, gym coach, crossing guard, etc.
How do you choose a path you admit you know nothing about? And based on babysitting at age 8? In the interim, how have you explored or gotten involved with kids or health issues?
OP, don’t feel compelled to justify your question to everyone on here. I let that happen to myself on another thread this week, and the whole discussion got sidetracked. Obviously there are other paths you could choose, but you are asking about this one here, which is fine.
I think it’s great that you have a plan. You should know that plans sometimes change, but it is good to have a plan of some sort. Just be aware that getting into med school is very difficult. So the advice you are getting is sound to pick a major that will leave you with a backup career you would enjoy if you decide med school isn’t for you, or if the med schools make that decision for you.
Also good advice to be open about what you want to specialize in. I think most of my friends who are doctors started med school with a different specialty in mind than the one they ended up in. One of their rotations just “clicked” and they decided to go that route. Or the opposite happens, one friend was planning on being an OB/GYN since I knew her in high school. After her rotation, she told me no way was she staring at THAT for the next 30 years, she switched to internal med to get more variety.
@lookingforward It’s true. However, I have though about many of the careers that could involve helping children but pediatrics just felt right and I don’t know how to describe that well. As for everyone else, I understand what you all are saying. While I am set on being a pediatrician for sure, I am completely open to different specialties or even a different field. I just pray that where I end up is a job that would match with my personality and is enjoyable.
Yes, but you’re saying you know little about it. You asked if it’s a career. Just about any actual research online will lead you to the who what and how.
Many don’t settle on a particular med path until in med school, doing student rounds, etc.
On your other thread, your grades and SAT are good not great and APs are not strong. You don’t mention AP sci or any math-sci grades. And the only health related is one stint as a hosp vol. How do you feel prepared for premed?
Im saying you have some work to do. Dreams are just step one.
@vacohp On your other thread you say that you have a 3.3 GPA (I do understand that it might have changed since that was probably before your last set of grades came out for last year).
I think there is a sort of good news and bad news situation here. Your grades and scores should be good enough to get you into a pretty good in-state public university. Also, most state public universities have very strong premed programs. Also, when you are applying to medical school you high school grades won’t matter at all, you will get accepted or not get accepted to medical school based on your university grades, MCAT scores (a test you will take near the end of your undergraduate studies), and to a limited extent other stuff such as recommendations and medical-related ECs that you do during your undergraduate studies.
The bad news is that university will be a LOT more difficult than high school, and a GPA of 3.3 in university is probably not going to be enough to get you into medical school. As such you are going to need to improve your effort and study skills very significantly if you want to have a chance of being accepted to medical school. I would suggest that you start now – since presumably your last year of high school is about to start. See if you can pull off a 4.0 for your last year of high school. This will help since some things you learn will be useful next year in university, but mostly because it will get you more used to the mindset that gets people accepted into medical school.
@vacohp :
What is your current unweighted and weighted GPA?
What classes are you taking this year?
(Are you a rising sophomore or an ex-sophomore about to be a junior)?
If that many years of schooling seems overwhelming, or you aren’t dead set on cardiology and want some flexibility, consider becoming a Physician Assistant. You would have a minimum of 5 years of education (program begins as a freshman, you’d have three years undergrad and two graduate level if you apply for a 3+2 program). There are some residency programs for specialties, but they aren’t required in most cases. PA’s are free to move from specialty to specialty, so if you decided that pediatric cardiology wasn’t for you after working a year or two, you could move to, say, a pediatric kidney specialist’s office, or even adult orthopedics or family practice, whatever you’d like.
