How do I become a medical doctor?

Question

medical doctor

Answer 1

Becoming a medical doctor is a long and arduous journey but extremely worth it if it's something that you enjoy. I went through it myself and now am an ob/gyn in private practice. The steps are as follows:

1) Graduate high school

2) At college, take the required pre-med courses, including biology, chemistry, organic chemistry and physics. You can major in any subject you desire as long as you meet these prerequisites. Also, during your junior year, you need to take the MCAT (the standardized exam for medical school applicants). Ideally, you would also accomplish something that you would make you stand out from every other bio-major premed applicant...such as an outstanding act of community service or study abroad or publishing original research.

3) During your senior year of college, you do your applications to medical school and some of them may invite you for an interview. If you do well, you will get offered a position in the entering class. Often, this is rolling admissions --- i.e. the earlier your application is in, the earlier you get invited to interview and the earlier you get accepted. Sometimes you are waitlisted and don't know until the end of the year until you are accepted.

4) Attend medical school and pass all of your courses. Obviously, you want to do well, but there is a running joke: "What do you call the person who graduates last in their medical school class?" The answer: "Doctor"

5) During medical school, take (and pass) the first two steps of the USMLE, otherwise known as the medical licensing exam.

6) During the last year of medical school, apply to internship/residency in the specialty that you are interested in pursuing. You will need to, once again, do applications and interviews, and then there is a "Match" where you open an envelope and it tells where you have matched for residency!

7) At the end of your intern year, take the 3rd step of the USMLE. Now, you can apply for a permanent medical license in the state that you reside and can actually practice medicine. At this point, you are truly a doctor that can treat patients on your own.

8) But ideally, you would want to finish your residency and then become board-certified in your specialty. This is the holy grail at the end of the road. Some doctors go on to subspecialize further by pursuing a fellowship and others go into private practice. There are many ways to practice medicine in today's world.

Hope this helps! This was a fun trip down memory lane!

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

OMG! It takes AT LEAST 8 to 10 years of study and then an internship in an emergency room! The cost is enormous, I'm sure these days it can run into hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition and you make a piddly amount as both an intern and when and if you start your own practice for several years. The medical malpractice insurance cost alone USED to cost $1 million and that was years ago! That is one reason healthcare costs are so high, the doctors must protect themselves and they have to pay that million dollar insurance somehow! In any case, if you are determined to become a doctor, you need to first have a strong ability in mathematics but especially in chemistry from high school onward and of course, your grades should be as good as they can possibly be. You also should contact colleges (community first to cut the costs the first two years for an AA/AS degree and get your basic classes out of the way) and their financial aid offices/counselors who can give you a more accurate idea of what the educational costs would be and how to plot your educational and training course toward your goal. You might want to pay for college by working as an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) or Paramedic for an ambulance company which you can do if you take emergency studies at your local community college and would give you an idea of how basic medicine works and you'd have some tangential interaction with ER medicine as well. That would prepare you a bit for your upcoming ER internship. Hope this helps.

Answer 4

The aspiring pre-med needs to check a few more facts. The beginning of her answer is correct. However regardless of one's desire of specialty after becoming an MD, we all take the same MD course, at the end of which ones is a fully fledged doctor. that is the 4 years of medical school. Then one specializes in a residency program. The length depends on the specialty. Also to correct that previous answer, Family Practice is a specialty in it's own right and one needs a three year residency to complete it and pass the American Academy of Family Medicine boards to call oneself a Family Physician. That is the same length residency as Internal Medicine or Pediatrics for example. OB/GYN is typically 4 years and some of the surgical specialties are up to 6 years. then one can still do further specialization. But rest assured at the end of Medical school which is the same for everyone, one is a fully qualified doctor, entitled to be addressed as doctor and eligible for further training via residencies.

Answer 5

Becoming a doctor is not an easiest carrier for anyone. One has do a tough job, after you completed your schooling, you have to prepare for a medical entrance exam of medical college. In medical college you have to do the study of medical and then have to complete the internship from a medical organization or health center.

Answer 6

In order to become a physician you need to get an undergraduate degree, which usually takes four years, it doesn't matter what your major. But you need to make sure that you take the required courses (or prerequisite courses) for the medical school to which you desire to attend. Most medical schools require that you take inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, physics and some biology courses. Calculus is often recommended as well, but for the schools I want to attend it is not a requirement but english courses are. Your grades need to be top notch because this is a very competitive field.

You apply to medical school a year before your matriculation. The application process is lengthy and somewhat expensive. You need to take the MCAT (Medical College Admissions Test) which is a very difficult test that covers physical science (math is incorporated in this section), biological science, verbal reasoning and writing. Your score on this test and your undergraduate course grades determines whether or not your primary application, which is sent to a company that is hired to sort out the applications, is good enough to send to your dream schools. Once your primary application is accepted you will be sent a secondary application and asked to an interview if the school is interested in you.

When in medical school you will get your masters or M.D (also four years on average), the actual amount of time you have to spend there is determined by the specialty area you choose whether pediatrics, obstetrics, gynecology, surgery, psychiatry, etc. It only takes four years to become a family care physician, which is where you treat patients of all ages. A specialty would take an extra 2 or more years. Finally, you need to go through residency which is about three years.

Answer 7

Step 1. finish a pre-medical course such as BS Biology, BS Chem, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology.. etc etc.. (will take you around four years)

Step 2. Get into a medical school. (around another 4 years)

Step 3. Take your medical board exam and pass it..

Step 4. have your field of specialization and practice for at least two more years (pediatrics, surgery, etc etc)


voila! you are now a fully pledged medical doctor.

Answer 8

Go to medical school

Answer 9

i don't know what exactly you want to do...or if you're really positive that you want to go into the medical field...one way to kinda "test the waters" is to take an Emergency Trauma Technician course...it's the first step to becoming a paramedic...and i know that's not what you said...but it'll kinda give you a feel...

Answer 10

major in biology at a four year university, go to med school, 7 year residency