5 Responses to “Question about becoming a doctor?”

1. Yo Says:
   December 27th, 2010 at 10:07 am

   You study anything that you want in college. All you have to do is take a few required classes. 1 year of bio, chem, organic chem, physics, writing, and some medical schools(Usually the very good ones) require calculus. Sometimes calculus can be replaced by statistics. Very few medical schools(Again, usually the very good ones) require biochemistry. It is advised that you also take more advanced science courses. However all of this can be done through electives. The majority of medical students have a bio degree but their are those with other science degrees, history, music, philosophy, and more of the like. You need at LEAST a 3.5 to get into just about any medical school. A 3.75 for you to have any good chances. They look at both the regular GPA and the science GPA. A very good MCAT score. This is a test similar to the SAT/ACT that you take after your sophomore year of college. They finally look at extracurriculars. Research, internships, volunteering in the community and local hospitals/clinics or laboratories. Competitiveness for medical school is like competing to go to a top 20 university. However, the majority of applicants get accepted.

   In medical school you do 2 years in a classroom and then 2 years in a classroom/working under direct supervision. Medical school is known to be very difficult. Most students spend on average 2 hours studying each day and the classes are twice as long as college classes. Most students don’t have a lot of time for fun and the average sleeping hours spent each day is 4 hours. That is not to say that you can’t have fun but that it is just difficult to have a lot of fun.

   After this you go to residency. This is where you work as a doctor under INDIRECT supervision. You are considered a doctor without a degree. You got your MD when you graduated medical school however that just means that you can call yourself a doctor. You still can’t call yourself a gynecologist, neurologist, dermatologist, cardiac surgeon, etc. You have to go through a specific residency before you can call yourself that. In residency you get payed a teachers salary, which is more then enough for a resident. You work more then your supervisors actually. The hours are horrible and every three or so days you have to work the night shift. They call you in the middle of the night for you to go. You don’t go and you can get kicked out. Although residency can be fun, as you see in scrubs, you won’t be having that much fun outside of the hospital. Residency can be done in either a hospital or a university. Don’t think that you can slack of in medical school because you can’t pick your residency location. They pick you. That means that you need excellent grades to go to an excellent residency location. Unless you don’t care what residency you go to but if you go to a bad one most employers won’t hire you. Their is also the case that NONE accept you. It has happened and then you basically did everything for nothing. This is only the cases though if you were truly horrible in class. Residency length depends on what you want to study. A surgeon is 5-8 depending on the type of surgery. Everything else is usually 3-5.

   After this you CAN(Optional) go through advanced training. This is called fellowship. Lets say you become a neurosurgeon(brain surgeon), you can then specialize in a certain area of the brain or nerves or a certain medical problem. This training will get you an extra 100,000 a year at least. It takes anywhere from 1 to 3 years. You also get payed a teachers salary. The majority of medical students go through here.

   After this you finally become a doctor! The whole process take at least 11-16 years, counting college, depending on the residency. After a couple of years you can take a board certification test which can nab you an extra 50,000 a year. Every three years or so you are required to go back to medical school for a week to take extra classes on the new things which have been discovered in the past three years or so. Life as a doctor can be very relaxing but also very demanding if you are a surgeon. It is nice to be able to relax after quite a few years of hell.

   All in all the process is very difficult but very rewarding in the end. Also, did you know that a scrub is what a doctor wears? Just thought you should know since you like the show and all.

   hope i helped,
   s

   PS I forgot to say that after two years of medical school you take the USMLE you take a more advanced test at the end of your 4th year(USMLE part 2) and then an even more advanced one during residency(USMLE part 3). The first one is 8 hours. The second is 9 hours. The third is compromised over two days. You have to pass these exams if you wish to continue learning medicine.

2. Arbitrary Person Says:
   December 27th, 2010 at 10:07 am

   Yes to both of your questions. You need to take premed classes in college, but you can major in underwater basket-weaving if you so choose.

3. mark43 Says:
   December 27th, 2010 at 10:07 am

   is this right? yes! you’re an MD after finishing med school… that doesn’t mean your medical training id over yet, but technically, you’re a doctor.

   also, you can study anything your heart desires in college, as long as you also take the pre-req med school classes, which will prepare you for the MCAT as well.

4. eri Says:
   December 27th, 2010 at 10:07 am

   Yes, and then after that you’ve got 3+ years of residency (training) in the field you want to specialize in (no specialty is 3 years). At the beginning of Scrubs, they’re doing their residencies. Yes, you can study anything in college as long as you take the premed classes.

5. omgwtf Says:
   December 27th, 2010 at 10:07 am

   Pretty much yeah. You should get your 4 year bachelor degree in something that will benefit you when you get your doctorate like Biology or Biochemistry. Of course you can major in whatever you want but competition for med school is fierce and those with science degrees will be preferred over those who don’t plus most of the science degree courses are prerequisites for med school anyways).

   Then you have to do 4 years for your medical degree, the first 2 are basically lab and book work, the last two are hands on training in the hospital.

   After you finish medical school you will need to enter a residency program to get specialized training for the particular medical field you want to go into (surgeon, GP, cardiologist, etc) and that can take up to 3 years, you will get paid but not as much as you will after you complete the residency.

   Its a very noble career field but not for the light heated. You have to make sure its what you want and have the drive to get you there. Good luck!

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