Med School?

Lots of stuck up and uninformed people at a meeting tonight...like literally just think applying will get them in hahah
 
senior year of high school isn't exactly the best time to declare a

medical specialty, but it's good that you're motivated. id highly recommend lurking around the forums of SDN (student

doctor network) in order to educate yourself on the entire process. i

think its the most resourceful website out there to help guide any

pre-med into medical school.
 
For sure this. SDN is helpful as fuck, but don't be intimated since its basically the top 5% of the applicant pool that uses it and they're all wicked neurotic sometimes hahaha. But tons of good info
 
Couldn't agree more with this statement. It's good to see you're motivated. Also, DONT let anybody discourage you. I wanted to do medicine since freshman year of high school, only the reasons why have developed over time and become MUCH stronger. Literally 90% of people told me it'd be too hard and science is just stupid difficult; that I'd hate it. I ignored every word they said, stuck with it, and found this is absolutely the road to go for me. At the same time, don't stay close-minded on medicine. I have considered sooo many different options, strongly considered changing my path several times, but ultimately kept coming back to medicine. It was really just my junior year where I 100% stated I was applying to med school, and I will keep applying until either I get in, or every hope of possibly getting there is extinguished. May be a couple years, but I have a feeling the first option will happen before the second does. Definitely use SDN, I lurk there, but dont have an account of anything. Tons of useful info.
 
i think too many people (pre-meds in particular) have a terrible misunderstanding of the point of pursuing degrees in science. it's not hard to get an A in a science class, assuming you have a sane professor and you study and practice. the real hard part of science is in the research sector and applying it to real life. that's definitely one thing that bothers me about every other pre-med in my classes. they truthfully dont want to know the material and they could care less about basic biological research, they just want the grade. if you took a bunch of pre-meds and placed them into an upper level english class with open-ended assignments, most of them would surely panic. because for once they're not told what's what and what to do in the straightforward format they're used to. im in a music class this semester and the first day of classes my professor pointed out that about 50% of medical students were music majors in college. although im not sure how much validity that statistic held, (ive heard that math majors are actually most successful in gaining accepted to medical school) it really wouldn't surprise me if it were true.
 
VERY true. A's are really not that difficult to get. Sure, science courses are hard, but they are manageable. I wont lie, I would absolutely detest an english course. Not because I couldn't figure out what to do, but because the material is boring to me haha. Just wanting the grade isn't near enough. Granted, the first couple years of college, thats mainly all I was trying to do. We hadn't gone into much application, it was just basic biology and chemistry. However, my second semester junior year and start of my senior year have been INCREDIBLE. My grades have never been better. Why? I'm starting to connect everything I have learned previously, and see its real world application. Taking Cell Biology was phenomenal, because I learned so many molecular pathways within the cell, along with how other chemicals could alter those pathways. Come to this semester, I'm in human pharmacology, biochemistry, and neurobiology and everything is tying together even MORE. Pharmacology is truly incredible, it's a lot to swallow as about half the class is graduate students, but man is it fascinating. My brother is currently in veterinary school, and he admits he never felt the way I do about science, and it shows my decision for medicine is probably well founded. I could branch out more, and take different courses, but I've found something I really enjoy learning. I know many other subjects I enjoy, but none have the grip with which these advanced science courses hold me. The connections forming between everything else I've learned is one of the greatest feelings in the world in my opinion.
 
thats awesome that you're making those connections because it shows youre actively learning and not not just regurgitating information like some others do. and my initial comment about the upper level english class is something ive experienced personally at the start of this semester. the upper level writing class im enrolled in right now is definitely one of the most practical courses ive taken in all of college. if i could advise any underclassmen with a desire to go into medicine i would tell them to major in something that really gets you thinking critically with minimal boundaries. something that you're genuinely interested in while fulfilling the required and recommended prerequisites, not simply by majoring biology or some hard science like everybody else. that way you can really carve your own pathway into medicine. for example, atul gawande was a philosophy major in undergrad and paul farmer majored in anthropology as an undergrad. but then again, im working toward a B.S in human biology so it may seem a bit hypocritical for me to be saying this. but it is one of the first things i would change or take into consideration if i could go back to freshman year and start over again, rather than taking advice from a slightly biased or misinformed prehealth advisor.
 
That point cannot be stressed enough. Do something you enjoy. If you love art, but still want to do medicine, then do both. Major in art, and take the pre-reqs to apply to med school. I was VERY close to getting a degree in culinary arts/sciences and doing the pre-med coursework, but I would have had to go somewhere that wasn't great for the sciences if I wanted to do that. Luckily, I found in college that I absolutely LOVE science as well. I'm not majoring in it because its whats expected of pre-meds. I'm majoring in it because I have a passion for it. I'd probably be doing science regardless if I wanted to do medicine or not. It's just truly gripping for me. I'm honestly wishing I would have gone into biochemistry opposed to physiology now that I'm getting to my later years, but I'm not changing now. I love organic chemistry, and I love really getting to the basis of biological function, and those two things intermingle quite nicely in biochemistry.

Anywho, I think getting into this discussion has taken us way off topic hahaha. Maybe, Im not sure. I like the discussion though. But to summarize. Do what you like in college. You're not restricted to sciences. You just need to do pre-med course work if you want to apply. Shadow doctors. As much as you can. I'm fortunate in this aspect, I know several surgeons personally that worked on me. I told them I was going into medicine and I am setting up shadowing opportunities with all of them. Get some form of relevant work if at all possible, and volunteer. Do well on the MCAT(this is huge). Do your absolute best in classes, this doesn't mean you need to get straight A's, but if you put your best effort forth, good grades in college are not difficult to get.

Anyway, I've gotta get back to studying. Human Pharmacology exam in approximately 3 hours, and it's going to fuck me sideways.
 
Medical PhDs require a lot more work than just a medical degree and they pay less as well. Hence, you'd have to be a faggot to want to do one.
 
1. MD/PhDs get paid to go to school as apposed to paying ~50k a year2. More MD/PhDs go into academia, which in general pays less well than private practice. MD/PhDs on average make more than MDs in academia, and the ones that don't often use their MD/PhD to get into competitive, well-paying specialties like Derm.
 
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