Guest redsuperman Posted February 15, 2004 Report Share Posted February 15, 2004 Hi I'm 15 years old and am considering a career in medicine. I am posting in regards with what profession to go into, due to the vast fields in medicine. At the moment,m I only have 2 years left in my high school career so forming possible choices now is important. If anyone could give me possible fields of medicine and present positive and negative aspects of it, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 0T6 Posted February 15, 2004 Report Share Posted February 15, 2004 Are you talking about what specialty in medicine you should go into? i.e. cardiovascular surgery, family medicine, internal medicine? If so you make those choices in 10 years from where you are now. In high school all you need to do is make sure you've got the grades and the courses you need to get into the program and undergraduate institution of your choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest redsuperman Posted February 15, 2004 Report Share Posted February 15, 2004 Do all program and undergraduate institution require the same courses despite the field of medicine? Sorry I wasn't more specific. What I am trying to explain is that I'm looking for possible specialty in medicine, and the positive and negative of their field. This is because I have no clue weather programs or undergraduate require you to have certain high school courses depending on the field you are trying to take, and if they do, I would need to make a decision on what specialty in medicine I must consider and research the courses I must take. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 0T6 Posted February 15, 2004 Report Share Posted February 15, 2004 Undergraduate institutions/degrees don't have much to do with medicine. You could do a degree in immunology, nuclear physics, or American history and you could still apply to med school. The choices you make in high school WILL NOT affect what specialties you can apply to AFTER medical school. That depends on what and how you do in medical school. If you want to visualize it there are three stages: High School to University University to Medical School Medical School to Specializing What that's showing is that high school won't affect medical school, and undergraduate won't affect what you choose to specialize in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest redsuperman Posted February 15, 2004 Report Share Posted February 15, 2004 0T6 Thank you, That was really helpful. Do you have any advice I should consider while I am enrolled in high school? Or any valuable resources on medicine I should condier looking at? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 0T6 Posted February 15, 2004 Report Share Posted February 15, 2004 Not really, you're in high school so just stay focussed on doing well enough to get into the university of your choice. Check out the programs they offer, consider the requirements, and make sure you have your bases covered. Honestly high school is not the time to be stressing out about med school, there's plenty of time for that in undergrad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ibraheem Posted February 15, 2004 Report Share Posted February 15, 2004 just chill dude, i am in high school too, just take it easy because as soon as you graduate, your life will be ALLOT harder.... further you roll into life the more your brain will be cramed... so just try to do well in high school. i know thats what i am doing :rollin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest aneliz Posted February 16, 2004 Report Share Posted February 16, 2004 Okay...seeing as there seems to be some confusion about what one needs to do to become a say, surgeon, here is the general time line: 4 years - high school....nothing special you need to do here. Take math and science courses, but don't forget to take arts and social science courses too...balance and 'well-roundedness' are important to a good high school experience. Participate in some extra-currics you care about and maybe do some volunteering or get a part-time job. No need to stress about marks....do your best and don't slack off...but being #1 in your class isn't going to really help you at this stage. 3-4 yeasr - undergraduate university degree....pick a degree that you are interested in...whether that is biochemistry or Russian history or industrial engineering, it doesn't matter. Make sure that you take a full course load and do the best you can academically but don't let it take over your life. Start investigating what med schools you would like to apply to....you need to know what their admissions requirements are and make sure that you take the required pre-req courses. Make sure that you save some time to work/volunteer/do some research/have a life. Write the MCAT if necessary. You usually apply to med schools during your third or fourth year of undergraduate work. 3-4 years - medical school....which covers ALL areas of medicince (no specialising yet!)....you need to narrow down the areas that you are interested in by actually *experiencing* them both as a clinical clerk (3rd year of med school) or during your 4th year electives. 2-7 years - residency....this is where you are training for your specialty whether it is family medicine or super-top-secret-ultrasubspecialised-surgery-of-the-left-big-toe. After you finish your residency you are fully trained and able to practice independently. As you can see, it is a long, long road...and not really one that you can influence too much at the high school level. The first thing you need to worry about is succeeding in high school and getting into an undergrad school that you want to be in...the rest is something to worry about in the future. Check out Ian's website for more info: www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Oasis/8998 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted February 16, 2004 Report Share Posted February 16, 2004 Heya, Just as a quick note, all the content that was available on that old Geocities website is now available on the "new" website at: www.premed101.com I agree with the other folks. When you are in high school, that's the time to be a high school student. As far as what to do in university, that's something that you may choose based on your high school interests. For example, I studied Biology in university because I had an amazing high school biology teacher who really got me fired up on the subject. Otherwise, I might well have done something else like Chemistry or Physics, based on my interests in those fields. You have a decade before you would be put in the position of choosing a specialty, and LOTS of stuff will happen in those ten years. You might well discover that medicine really isn't your thing, and that there's another subject or career that really makes you excited to get up in the morning to go to work. As a result, please don't get focussed on medicine at this stage of your education or you might miss out on some other fantastic potential interests. Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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