Hello!
I posted this under “High School Student Topics” in the Pre-Med & Medical School Forum, but I didn’t get many responses, so I though I’d post it here, since it relates to my future career.
Throughout high school (I am a senior now), I thought I want to double-major in history and political science as an undergraduate, and then earn a PhD in political science and/or go to law school, with the eventual goal of becoming an professor of politics or law and later entering politics as a legislator. As I took more and more classes in these subjects, I started to doubt my interest in political science and the realism of my plans. After taking a cross-registered history/political science class at UW-Madison (under my school’s dual enrollment program) on Africa, I got interested in Global/Public Health, and after reading and researching some more, I started thinking about going to medical school, becoming a physician, and perhaps getting an advanced degree in Public Health or Immunology and Infectious Disease. Ideally, I would end up working for the CDC or the WHO, or something like that.
Will I be at a disadvantage in pre-med courses if I didn’t take a lot of extra science courses in high school? I took Biology, Chemistry, (both at my old school, which didn’t offer honors or AP classes) and Math Physics (honors) and I am going to be taking AP Environmental Science and Anatomy & Physiology this coming semester. I am also taking AP Calculus AB this semester and AP Calculus BC next semester.
Also, is it common for people to become interested in medicine at my point in life? It seems most people who want to go to medical school have always done so and then, in college, decide they no longer want to do that.
Thanks for reading!
In case you’re still looking for a response, you don’t really know what you want to do yet–and that’s ok. Take some classes in both fields. You’re not at a disadvantage. Don’t completely give up poli sci and don’t throw yourself into the pre-med lifestyle just yet, but take classes in both fields and see what you like more your second semester. Look into schools with programs dedicated to things like this.
It’s very common for people to become interested in medicine in your point in life. I went through the exact same thing, and that’s why I’m writing this even though this thread is a week old with no replies. When I was a kid through my junior year, I wanted law school; a senior, med school. Now, I’m a double major in poli sci and economics once again set on going to law school (although I didn’t take any pre-med related courses this semester; I watched lectures online, read scholarly articles from both fields, and used other tools to gauge interest and decided law school was the better path).
Every other kid on this site thinks they want to be a physician. Read some of the thousands of posts from wannabe doctors. Think about just getting into college for now.