question of the path to becoming a doctor.?

Question

I know that becoming a doctor is hard. but i am not too familiar with the procedure of becoming a doctor. after bachelor degree, then medical school, then internship, then...?
also any advise of getting into medical school. i am preparing to go to university now. What are the important factors other than gpa and mcat that the top medical schools look for?

thank you

Answer 1

Make sure you get some volunteer work and shadow a doctor. Shadowing a doctor means you basically follow a doctor around and see what he/she does and learn from that experience. Med schools love that stuff. Requirements for most med schools are as follows
1) MCAT
2) atleast 90 credit hours of undergrad
3) 1 yr biology, 1 yr chemistry, 1 yr Org chem, 1 yr Physics, 1 semester English, 1 semester Math/Calc.
Some schools also require a semester in psych, especially true if applying to DO schools.
Take MCAT in junior year of college.
Do a summer research internship if you can get one. Don't be afraid to ask your professors about it.

Once you get in, it is 4 years of med schools which is divided as 2 years of basic science and 2 years of clinical rotations. At the end of first 2 years of med school, you take USMLE Step 1. In 4th year of med school, you take USMLE step 2. Your residency match depends on these two scores. After taking step 2, you apply for residency match where you state your preferences of what field and what hospital you want to go to for residency. Obviously it helps if you rotated at the hospital before toget residency in that hospital.

Residency can range from 3 years for Family Practice to 7 years for neuro surgery. Most medical residencies are 4 years, most surgical residencies are 5 years. 1st yr of residency is called internship. You have to pass step 3 during residency to get license.
Good Luck.

Answer 2

Look on the AAMC website. By the way, the old system of a rotating internship for almost everybody and then a residency for the few going into a specialty has been gone (for all intents and purposes) for decades. Now it's normal to choose a residency in the match towards the end of medical school. The internship has become PGY 1 of a combined residency program, though informally it may still be called an internship.

Answer 3

This is not really mentioned often outside of circles of medical school admissions, but doing biological research during university is one of the best things to do to improve your application outside of academics. The academics really only gets you through the door. You have to reach certain cutoffs for most schools to have your application considered. After that you should have some medical volunteer work, only because every other applicant will have this. Next having worked in a research lab for a long period of time during your undergrad and having the professor you worked with writing you a glowing letter of recommendation will get you an interview somewhere if the rest of your application is in order. If you published, you're practically a shoe-in. Then you just go to the interview and show them that you're not some crazy person and you're likely to get in. Having spoken with many people involved in admissions when I was working on my applications, the general consensus was that the personal statement wasn't really looked at heavily unless the interviewer needed some material to draw from if the conversation wasn't flowing naturally.

Answer 4

After an internship, most people will do a residency in order to specialize in some area of medicine like surgery or pediatrics....

US medical schools, in addition to grades and MCAT scores, look closely at your motivation for becoming a physician. They look for evidence of your interest, for example, in volunteer activities, in involvement in leadership positions in organizations, in your activities that demonstrate caring..basically, they want to see evidence that you're not going into medicine just for the money or the lifestyle.

Answer 5

Science Background.

Answer 6

at first, it is not any longer proper what your GPA is in extreme college, whilst it comes time for utilising to med college. It relies upon on your college GPA, MCAT score, college/community involvement, extracurricular activities, adventure working in a healthcare putting, your letters of advice, your person assertion, and how do on the interview. the 1st step is to take the required circumstances for med college. some colleges require extra or much less classes than others, yet in many circumstances, all of them require a million 3 hundred and sixty 5 days Biology (with lab), a million 3 hundred and sixty 5 days ordinary Chemistry (with lab), a million 3 hundred and sixty 5 days organic and organic Chemistry (with lab), a million 3 hundred and sixty 5 days Physics (with lab), a million semester Calculus, and customarily a million semester Biochemistry. some colleges additionally will require in keeping with danger Microbiology or a undeniable style of social or humanities classes. commence volunteering early on on your college profession, which contain at a wellbeing facility or in a health center. Any pastime the place you could definitely artwork/help with sufferers. Med colleges additionally like in case you have shadowed a healthcare professional before or have participated in any form of learn. as an occasion, your undergrad professors will frequently be performing some form of learn in the process the 300 and sixty 5 days, and that they frequently have undergrads helping them. grow to be in touch. additionally grow to be in touch with your college's Pre-professional wellbeing Committee early on, because of the fact those are the folk who write your committee letter of advice. I recommend taking the MCAT as quickly as you end the prereqs. The MCAT includes questions approximately Bio, Chem, O.Chem, and Physics. i want to advise taking it the summer season after your junior 3 hundred and sixty 5 days. That way in case you do no longer do properly, you have lots of time to take it returned before utilising. you're able to carry on with the summer season before you intend on attending med college. as an occasion, in case you needed to bypass to med college in Fall 2008, you're able to carry on with in the process the summer season 2007. the 1st step interior the app technique is submitting the AMCAS. Then come secondary applications, then interviews. wish this facilitates & stable good fortune.

Answer 7

You must have a back-up plan in case you fail out or burn out.
This is one thing schools insist on and look for. Like can you fall back on pharmacy, nursing, biology, chemistry, physics, biomed engineering if it doesn't work out. And it doesn't work out for alot of smart, hard-working folks.