What do I have to do in order to be a medical examiner?

Question

How many years of college do I have to take? What kind of courses do I have to take? I live in Florida, if that helps.

Answer 1

MEs/coroners are of two types depending on the county: They are medical doctors (usually pathologists that did additional forensic training); then there are Coroners which are elected and are not necessarily MDs but have some training in medicine, law enforcement etc. You can get a master's in criminalistics as well which covers forgery, bullet analysis, questioned documents, trace evidence, blood spatters & typing, DNA, etc etc. (like CSI); many in this route are lab techs or bio majors first. For the MD ME its 4 years of med school, internship, pathology residency, forensics. In big cities there are many assistant MEs and a chief.
You might be able to get a job in the coroner's office (depending on where you are in school) to see if this appeals to you. (their biggest job is doing the autopsies).

Answer 2

First, become a physician. It is likely to take you 4-5 years to get through college, and 4 more to get through medical school. Then do a residency in pathology, followed by a 1-2 year fellowship in forensic pathology. These fellowships are offered at the medical examiner's offices in many large cities. If you want to do a forensic pathology fellowship in Florida, you should look at the program at Miami-Dade, but you really should seek out the best program you can get into.

Let's just say that finishing high school is not quite halfway there.

Answer 3

the ME is a physician -- you have to go to medical school.

that's usually four years of medical school after your Bachelor's degree, followed by intership and residency although I don't really know how those work for an ME.