I have a question about the degrees. Is it hard to becoma a doctor? How long do you have to be in school?

Question

Hey I just want to know how difficult it is to become a doctor.

Answer 1

First you get a bachelors degree in chemistry or biology, preferably, and get good grades. In your junior or senior year of college, you take the MCAT, which is the medical school admission test (like the SAT, only harder).

Then you start medical school, which is four years of 11 months a year (there are NO summers off in medical school). You can't work at all because there is so much studying and in some schools you start clinical hours the first or second year (meeting patients or pretend patients, learning bedside manner).

Toward the end of your medical school period, you start taking tests so that you can graduate (and they are hard), and then you graduate (and get to call yourself a doctor on graduation day)...ah, but it's not over!

Then you do a residency (often in another city) in whichever specialty you choose (although you can do an undeclared first year as an intern). If you wanted to be a pediatrician for instance, it's another 2 years after the first year, working usually in a hospital setting. There are some other tests in there somewhere as well. If you wanted to be a surgeon (like on Grey's Anatomy, that could be a total of seven years (it's different for each specialty). Sometimes people even take post-doctorate fellowships, which adds even more time, or they get a PhD if they want to do research as well as take care of patients.

So--bottom line, a minimum of nine years after high school, and up to 15 years. And lots of students loans! But it's a rewarding career, if you are so inclined.

Answer 2

Yes, being accepted to a Med. school is quite hard and total schooling can be upwards of 12years. Nursing only takes two and you can start out making $40,000 a year

Answer 3

What the first guy said, but you don't have to major in chemistry or biology, you can major in anything you like, just do your pre-med requirements.