Originally Posted by
Augans
when i graduate highschool i'm thinking of going in to medical studies, how hard would you say med school is?
Not in med school yet so I can't speak to that precisely, but I enjoyed university and for the most part found it fairly easy. Some parts, such as my biochem classes and my work in the lab, were challenging but in a good way. I tend to believe that if you're
really interested and involved in any subject then you'll do much better than if you were just grinding it out to get a good grade. Yeah, you need to have good grades and a high MCAT score to be considered by schools, but those really shouldn't be your primary focus in college. You should be learning because you
really enjoy learning, because a.) It'll make school much less stressful and (in my opinion) easier, and b.) Because science and medicine advance so quickly, being a doctor means committing to being a learner for the rest of your career. The "learn for grades" strategy does
okay when you're getting grades, but - and this applies to pretty much every field outside of medicine as well - there's not really "grades" in real life.
In addition, if you're really interested in medicine I'd highly recommend finding an opportunity at some point to get some actual hands-on experience with patients. A lot of people will shadow a doctor, which is okay in terms of getting a first glimpse into the field, but I don't think it ever really puts you in a situation where
you need to interact with the patient in any meaningful way. Volunteering at a hospital can be good, depending on the scope of your duties. Even then, however, I feel like volunteers will pretty much only ever see patients in a good mood - volunteer visits are intentionally structured so that the patient is happy to see the volunteer.
The ideal experience, in my opinion, is one where you're seeing patients not only at their best but also at their worst. Sure, I have a lot of good times with patients at my job. We make dumb jokes and have a good time. But I also see patients when they're frustrated and aggravated and when they lash out at me just because I'm available. And it's those experiences which really help you decide whether or not you want to go into the field, because as a doctor you're likely to be seeing patients when they're frightened and confused because they have no idea what's going on, not happy and content.
Obviously a position where you get that kind of experience is going to involve a lot more work and time, because it carries a much higher responsibility, but I firmly believe that it's worth it. I'm doing this
after I got my undergraduate degree because I was already pretty set in going into medicine, but you might want to look around and try to get some experience before or during undergrad.
That was long and perhaps a bit offtopic but I hope it helps.
Last edited by hanz0; Mar 22, 2014 at 01:00 AM.