Grade 11 student needing some good advice

[Jazzie]

Darn, I can't believe I missed that line. LOL.

 

 

It was waving a red flag at me lol.

[AnxiousBoy]

Grade 11 student needing some good advice

Hi. I currently live in Vancouver British Columbia Canada and I am currently in grade 10 going into grade 11 this September. I am now dead set on becoming a doctor(I am constantly thinking about it). And no I am not becoming a doctor for the money. I am pretty interested in internal medicine(for what I heard landing a residency spot won’t be to difficult and hopefully this is not an understatement) and hopefully I will earn a good fellowship like cardiology(but I won’t hold my breath) if not I will be an internalist then. Will it be difficult in obtaining an internal medicine residency spot and a fellowship?

 

This year my final report card was 3 a’s and the rest were b’s. I know it doesn’t sound good but I got these marks because I basically put very little effort into school this year and didn’t do a lot of my homework and when I did I just completely rushed it. I know I am capable of straight a’s or near straight a’s and I am going to start trying in school now. My writing skills/reading skills are pretty weak and was wondering what I can do to improve them. So basically I want to make one of my weaknesses into one of my strengths. Also can someone give me a list of decently hard books to read?

 

I have good leadership skill(heck I am currently in the Windermere Leadership Program lol), pretty athletic, and have pretty good social skills(sorry if I sound arrogant but people describe me as a very modest person).

 

I plan to go to UBC for my undergraduate degree and really want to stay here for medical school and residency. I predict that my GPA may be a little bit lower but for sure my extracurricular and leadership skills will be very strong. I am asking these questions now because I want to stay a step ahead of the competition and almost guarantee my admission after my Bsc.

 

Another question I have is about time management for undergrad. Will it be possible to go to the gym 5 days a weeks, play some intramural sports/competitive rugby, go out on Fridays/not lose my friends, volunteer, while keeping a competitive gpa? I also want 7 hours of sleep on weekdays and 10 hours of sleep on weekends if that’s possible. Also I won’t have to work during my years at university because my parents are probably going to pay for most of my education.

 

And finally is there anything else I should be doing to almost guarantee admission to UBC after 4 years?

 

Note: I know a lot of people are going to say to enjoy my youth while I still have it and my answer to that is that I am living my youth to the fullest but I just wanna stay a step ahead of the competition because I know that a lot of people who are going to apply are smarter than me.

 

Wow, there are so many things wrong with this post, I don't even know where to begin. In a nutshell, you should come back to this forum in minimum 3 years time when you have matured enough to stop using word's like "guaranteed admissions" and trying to cut corners everywhere. I'm sure that if your aspirations of becoming a doctor are genuine, what you would have done up to that point will surely fall in line with what is necessary to gain admissions.

[leviathan]

I was absolutely sure I wanted to be a physician when I was in grade 12. That was when I had my "epiphany" because I enjoyed learning about human biology so much, got 99% in the class, 96% on the provincial exam, etc.

 

But in the last few years, I've had the chance to get exposed to a lot more professions in health care such as nursing, respiratory therapy, paramedicine, and medicine too, and I'm no longer 100% sure I want to be a doctor. I know I defintiely want to be somewhere in health care, but sometimes I wonder if the way a doctor is integrated into that system is the most rewarding way for me, or not.

 

Honestly, the reasons I wanted to be a doctor at your age were not based on a detailed understanding of the profession, and more on generic concepts like helping people, making a difference, learning about human biology/physiology, and other ideas which apply not just to medicine, but to all health care fields. I think everyone should get a chance to see how all of the careers work before they apply for medicine, to be sure this is really what they want.

 

One of the reasons I'm not so sure about medicine anymore is that the amount of physician-patient contact is a lot more limited than other professions such as nursing. I think I'd much rather be in a field where I can have more individual time to spend with each patient, because I think it's much more rewarding if you can take care of someone you know a bit better than "Patient #16, Mr. Smith w/ Crohn's disease" on your rounds.

 

On the flip side, you are obviously capable of providing much more definitive care for a patient than as a nurse or other allied health professional. It is the surgeon that does the repairs, or the physician who ultimately makes most of the orders on how the treatment course will run. Although again, nowadays they are letting nurses and other staff be involved in these decisions a lot more than the past.

 

Overall, there are pros and cons to every field and I think a lot of people who want to be doctors because they want to "help people" should step back and look at exactly in what way they want to do that, rather than just focusing only on medicine.

[The Law]

I was absolutely sure I wanted to be a physician when I was in grade 12. That was when I had my "epiphany" because I enjoyed learning about human biology so much, got 99% in the class, 96% on the provincial exam, etc.

 

But in the last few years, I've had the chance to get exposed to a lot more professions in health care such as nursing, respiratory therapy, paramedicine, and medicine too, and I'm no longer 100% sure I want to be a doctor. I know I defintiely want to be somewhere in health care, but sometimes I wonder if the way a doctor is integrated into that system is the most rewarding way for me, or not.

 

Honestly, the reasons I wanted to be a doctor at your age were not based on a detailed understanding of the profession, and more on generic concepts like helping people, making a difference, learning about human biology/physiology, and other ideas which apply not just to medicine, but to all health care fields. I think everyone should get a chance to see how all of the careers work before they apply for medicine, to be sure this is really what they want.

 

One of the reasons I'm not so sure about medicine anymore is that the amount of physician-patient contact is a lot more limited than other professions such as nursing. I think I'd much rather be in a field where I can have more individual time to spend with each patient, because I think it's much more rewarding if you can take care of someone you know a bit better than "Patient #16, Mr. Smith w/ Crohn's disease" on your rounds.

 

On the flip side, you are obviously capable of providing much more definitive care for a patient than as a nurse or other allied health professional. It is the surgeon that does the repairs, or the physician who ultimately makes most of the orders on how the treatment course will run. Although again, nowadays they are letting nurses and other staff be involved in these decisions a lot more than the past.

 

Overall, there are pros and cons to every field and I think a lot of people who want to be doctors because they want to "help people" should step back and look at exactly in what way they want to do that, rather than just focusing only on medicine.

 

Great post levi.

[leviathan]

Great post levi.

Thanks.

[Destiny Gundam]

Holy crap! Cardiology?!? I don't even know how to GET INTO cardiology yet and you're dead set on becoming a cardiologist?? Fellowship?? WHAT?!

 

Maybe I should come to you when I am applying for CaRMS...

[leviathan]

Holy crap! Cardiology?!? I don't even know how to GET INTO cardiology yet and you're dead set on becoming a cardiologist?? Fellowship?? WHAT?!

 

Maybe I should come to you when I am applying for CaRMS...

Hahaha...

[GotRice?]

LOL, iwannaplaylock's hilarious. I had a real good laugh when I read the post. Seriously, I bet it's just some guy who's on his summer holiday and is bored out of his mind, so he's coming up with some compete bs to get everybody all worked up.

[sfuguy]

Why don't we try to be a little more supportive toward the grade 11 student instead of brushing him off as immature and laughing at his thinking regarding med school admissions and career!

 

The motivation for becoming a doc at an early age may not be too clear or may be different or less solid than the older, 'more mature' posters on this forum, but, as many of us know, as we get older, our ideas regarding medicine evolve and become more clear. Although the idea may not yet be solid, having an interest in the career and trying to gather information directly from people going through the application process is a good thing and shows initiative.

 

I just think that the comments on this thread toward the student have been a little harsh and condescending. These attitudes are reminiscent of those made by physicians that I have dealt with in the past and are the opposite of what most med schools look for when they recruit.

[leviathan]

Why don't we try to be a little more supportive toward the grade 11 student instead of brushing him off as immature and laughing at his thinking regarding med school admissions and career!

 

The motivation for becoming a doc at an early age may not be too clear or may be different or less solid than the older, 'more mature' posters on this forum, but, as many of us know, as we get older, our ideas regarding medicine evolve and become more clear. Although the idea may not yet be solid, having an interest in the career and trying to gather information directly from people going through the application process is a good thing and shows initiative.

 

I just think that the comments on this thread toward the student have been a little harsh and condescending. These attitudes are reminiscent of those made by physicians that I have dealt with in the past and are the opposite of what most med schools look for when they recruit.

 

I'm pretty sure most of us gave serious replies, albeit with a bit of playful jabbing thrown in.

 

I already explained to him why people in high school and even a great majority of undergraduates have very superficial reasons for applying to medicine, and should really get exposed to how health care professions work.

[Guest iwannaplaylock]

LOL, iwannaplaylock's hilarious. I had a real good laugh when I read the post. Seriously, I bet it's just some guy who's on his summer holiday and is bored out of his mind, so he's coming up with some compete bs to get everybody all worked up.

haha ur a tool(sorry but u deserve it)... well thanks for your advice everybody... i will start working hard in school now and do some good reading.... and for everybody who thinks i am obsessing i am not lol(i was just bored on the weekend)... i am a pretty chilled guy...

[GotRice?]

Come on, how can you ask me to take seriously a guy who just finished grade 10 and is not only dead set on being a doctor, but a cardiologist?? Seriously, how much do you know about cardio, or even IM?

 

If it's someone who's purely having an interest or aspiration to become a doc, that I can be supportive of. But we're not even talking about that here.

 

You're basically saying that you MUST become a doctor, and that you know you're gonna get into med school, but you need advice on what you can do to guarantee an admission right after you finish your 4-yr bachelor degree.

[sfuguy]

Come on, how can you ask me to take seriously a guy who just finished grade 10 and is not only dead set on being a doctor, but a cardiologist?? Seriously, how much do you know about cardio, or even IM?

 

If it's someone who's purely having an interest or aspiration to become a doc, that I can be supportive of. But we're not even talking about that here.

 

You're basically saying that you MUST become a doctor, and that you know you're gonna get into med school, but you need advice on what you can do to guarantee an admission right after you finish your 4-yr bachelor degree.

 

I'm just saying be positive and help NOT negative and dismissing!

 

When I was in grade 11 and 12 I "knew" I wanted to become a doctor. I was also interested in how the heart works because I had heart problems and therefore wanted to become a cardiologist. Yes, perhaps at that time I didn't have a clue what med admission and career involve (if I did perhaps i would have prepared earlier and have been admitted sooner)...but that doesn't matter because it was my interest. Reality strikes as you mature, but there is nothing wrong or premature to be interested in medicine or a specialty for that matter. You know, I'm no longer interested in cardiology, but who cares!!

 

I'm not saying you should spend hours and hours explaining to young people what med school is like, what i'm saying is that people should be more encouraging.

 

Let me ask this: Would you like it if a person tells you that you probably won't make it in to med school because it is too hard to get in or come back when you know more - there are better ways to interact with people!

 

I have shadowed a number of physicians in the past

 

Some of them looked down on me and wondered why I was there while others totally enjoyed taking the time to explain things. Which would you rather have?

[Smurfette]

Hey! I'm really glad to hear that you have dreams for your future. That's certainly a step in the right direction. If you don't have dreams, you'll never achieve anything. Nothing is by chance alone.

 

But having said that...

 

Life is a remarkable journey. It comes with all sorts of twists and turns that you don't expect. As much as you might think you're "sure" about medicine (or anything else), you're probably not. Chase your goals, but don't be so set on them that you don't learn from what life is teaching you.

 

If I could go back and redo high school (and even university), I would try more things and try to become a broader and deeper person. Even if you end up becoming a doctor, this is really important because it is your experiences in life that will help you relate with your patients, your colleagues. You must be able to communicate with people of different attitudes, backgrounds, cultures, interests.

 

Try new things, read lots, make friends with different people, push your personal boundaries and, most of all, LEARN ABOUT YOURSELF. I've learned so much about myself over these past few years and will undoubtedly continue to do so for the rest of my life. These are some of the most valuable lessons I've learned.

 

So, relax and see the bigger picture!

 

Good luck!

[THX]

Hm, is this kid for real? It's good to have ambition, but take it one step at a time. You are in high school, you shouldn't be worrying about this stuff.

[Vitum Medicinus]

I find it shocking that almost everybody on this thread is being so condescending to iwannaplaylock.

 

Put yourself in iwannaplaylock's shoes for a minute. Don't you remember what it was like being in Grade 11? in Grade 10 for that matter?

 

I remember at the end of GRADE 9 I was being told to choose my electives for Grade 10. I asked, "How do I decide which subjects I want to take?" Rather than being told "Choose some that are interesting to you," I was told, "You should choose electives based on what career you want to go into."

 

Yes, when I was a mere 14 years old I was being told that I was expected to have a career plan already. (Mind you, I only had 1 or 2 electives in Grade 10, but by the time Grades 11 and 12 rolled around, there were more and more electives to choose.)

 

Am I the only one who went through this?

 

With that in mind, iwannaplaylock is probably experiencing a certain amount of pressure to make up his mind about what he wants to do with his life. Not only from school - clearly, his father has already talked to him about working in construction as a career.

 

iwannaplaylock, good for you for taking the time to a) finish school, and consider your options instead of taking what seems like a golden opportunity being handed to you, the construction job.

 

When it comes down to it, the general advice that most of the people here are offering is correct (albeit offered a bit bluntly). Though you are wise to learn about different careers, at this point in your life you should enjoy your youth, and work hard in school so that you leave as many doors open as possible, in case you find a career that suits you better.

 

In addition, please accept my challenge to do each of the following 3 things:

 

1. learn a lot more about yourself (great advice from Smurfette)

 

2. learn a lot more about medicine and what it's all about (please tell me you're bright enough that you're not basing your decision to go into medicine on watching ER or Scrubs or House) - you might want to read through threads like this one: http://www.premed101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21736

 

3. seriously consider other careers, objectively and with an open mind.

 

Regarding #3 - At the end of the day, who knows, you might find that construction, not medicine is your life's passion - working with your hands, seeing the fruit of your labour; there's huge fulfillment to be gained through that for some people. Admittedly, this is so hard to do when your heart is set upon something. But if you do spend a lot of time thinking about other careers, the worst thing that can happen is that you still want to become a doctor, but you'll know it for sure, because you'll have clear reasons why you don't want to do anything else. Admissions committees love students who have thought through and can clearly enunciate their motives for entering medicine.

 

I'll leave you with this. When I was in high school, the best career advice I ever got was this, and I remember it word-for-word to this day:

 

When you choose a career, you are choosing what you are going to do for 40 years of your life.

Choose a job that you're excited to wake up to in the morning.

That way, your job won't ever feel like work.

[Destiny Gundam]

I dont think anyone responded to the original post is trying to look down on anyone it's just the nature of these forums, especially when you're dealing with the pre-med crowd... if you post something considered "immature" or "inflammatory," ppl will just jump on ya i think it's quite natural, everyone gets inflammed in different ways and respond accordingly. Just make sure you know what you stand for and be able to articulate yourself when your panel challenges you to explain what medicine means to you. Took me a good 5 years to figure that out hehe ^^

[wanttobedoc]

This forum is getting so negative lately...

How does one evaluate the thoughts of a 15/16 year old. That was a LONG time ago for me, and even I can appreciate where the OP is coming from. He or she is so young and ambitious. This is a GOOD thing! I'm happy that a grade 10er (going into grade 11) is posting on this forum during his or her summer holidays. I know when I was that age....I definitely would not be doing this. Just because some of his or her thoughts are a little ambitious and maybe a little unrealistic at this point, don't bash. I am getting sick of the negativity...it is so nonproductive and does not reflect well on the profession.

[The Law]

I dont think anyone responded to the original post is trying to look down on anyone it's just the nature of these forums, especially when you're dealing with the pre-med crowd... if you post something considered "immature" or "inflammatory," ppl will just jump on ya i think it's quite natural, everyone gets inflammed in different ways and respond accordingly. Just make sure you know what you stand for and be able to articulate yourself when your panel challenges you to explain what medicine means to you. Took me a good 5 years to figure that out hehe ^^

 

This forum is getting so negative lately...

How does one evaluate the thoughts of a 15/16 year old. That was a LONG time ago for me, and even I can appreciate where the OP is coming from. He or she is so young and ambitious. This is a GOOD thing! I'm happy that a grade 10er (going into grade 11) is posting on this forum during his or her summer holidays. I know when I was that age....I definitely would not be doing this. Just because some of his or her thoughts are a little ambitious and maybe a little unrealistic at this point, don't bash. I am getting sick of the negativity...it is so nonproductive and does not reflect well on the profession.

 

Yeah, I do think that sometimes the negativity is unwarranted, but most of the posters weren't negative... they were just telling the OP not to jump the gun. I pretty much agree with everything Vitum wrote, and yes, it's a good thing to be ambitious at a young age - but not to jump the gun!! Most posts on this forum are not met with negativity, but it's easy to see why people can get frustrated answering the same question repeatedly when the answer is on the same page. People should feel free to come and ask for help, but they should also realize that they should do a bit of research themselves.

[Guest iwannaplaylock]

I started a reading schedule now and it basically looks like this: Monday-Friday: 1 hour of novel reading. Saturday/Sunday:1 hour of magazine reading(this is to help me in verbal reasoning/english 12 provical) Can someone recommend some good magazines that i can get at the local libary? Does harpers sound good or do you think it would be too difficult for me? Or some interesting science magazines?

[Guest iwannaplaylock]

Also will reading medical school textbooks be worth wild? Can it be possible to obtain these at my local libary? I actually find this stuff pretty interesting and will it be any good at helping my reading/writing skills?

[Kyleh]

That schedule seems more of a task than something and individual would do for fun.

[Guest iwannaplaylock]

That schedule seems more of a task than something and individual would do for fun.

i should have rephrased my question then...

[Dwayner2]

Bud, it's great to see that you're trying to get a game plan together for your future; however, it's a bit too buck wild at the same time.

 

I'm not in medicine but I have about 6 friends who are, 3 of which I grew up with. From observing them, my advice would be to loosely follow the "formula" it takes to get into med school (grades, volunteer, extracurricular, mcat) and tighten up as you move through your degree. What I mean by that is for example, yes, you need to volunteer but since you're so young many volunteer experiences are yet to come, I presume. Due to space constraints on your application, the only volunteer activities that would benefit yourself by doing now is something that is very significant ie 2 years commitment. So don't "waste" your time on smaller volunteer efforts and focus on your highschool grades. As you go thru your degree, you can pick up smaller things if need be to fill in your experience, although, experiences showing commitment are likely stronger.

 

As for things like "reading medical books," I am assuming you mean these would be about the profession itself, and not Gray's Anatomy and Pathologic basis of disease.

 

For the time being, concentrate on doing well in highschool. Just getting into UBC is your first priority. Four years is a COPIOUS amount of time to volunteer, do extracurriculars and get a sweet transcript.

 

Like I said, I think it's great you are starting to think about this now, just don't worry about it too much. When I was in high school, I had my head up my hooha and really didn't think about college until the July of the summer I graduated. lol. That said, I still got into the program I wanted (dent) which may or may not be less competitive than med (depending on where you apply). So you can gauge how much "extra" you'll need to get into med haha (cue the jokes about dent students being rejected med applicants! I will defend myself prematurely, I was never a med hopeful!)

 

Now I'm just blabbling... In short, keep med in mind and slowly but surely, chip away at what's needed to attain your goal but don't forget to have fun and enjoy being an irresponsible teen.

 

Also...Don't take offence to all the other posters making attempts at giving you reality checks...Take note! You have a lot of life left to experience. Many of them know what it takes to achieve the goals you mention and are also well aware of how life's path tends not to be as the crow flies.

[Smurfette]

Re: Reading Schedule

 

I personally love reading. And if you do - that's great. Don't force yourself to read things you don't like though. Find out what your passions are and start reading through them. If you're interested in a life in medicine, you can try reading some med-related novels (eg. House of God). But don't restrict yourself. Reading is one of the safest, most passive ways of getting into the minds of other people. You can learn so much about how people think, what people's motivations are, what are the attitudes of different cultures, etc.

 

As for magazines...Of course the "good" magazines are things like Harpers, the Economist, etc. But you don't really need to force yourself. If anything, I'd go simple things like browsing the newspapers or MacLean's or something just to get an idea of what's going on in the world (if you're interested in that kind of thing, you should take History 12 as a good background - I really enjoyed that course).

 

Volunteering. Dwayner is right about loosely following the formula of GPA/MCAT/EC's. But I think it's a little premature to think about that so early. Approach school with the attitude of "I want to learn as much as possible and I want to try my best in everything I do." Approach EC's with the attitude of "I want to push my boundaries, learn more about the world, and learn more about myself." If you try to see it too much in terms of med school (ie. "Will this look good on my application?"), you'll miss lots of things in life AND you'll narrow your experiences which might actually be detrimental to your application. Having just gone through the application process, I think that the admissions committee really wants to see how you've grown as a person, rather than how many bullet points you've ticked off on some imaginary checklist of extracurricular activities.

 

So, in short, I agree with Vitum. The 2 most important things right now are: (1) Enjoy your youth, and (2) work hard in school.

 

Good luck!