Greetings22

I have a question.Before I ask this question I would like to introduce my self I am sammy I am a 13 year old in 7th grade I want to be a doctor when I grow up, I am a straight A's student.I am in accelerated classes I want to be a doctor when i grow up (kids doctor-Peadatrition) Therefor, I have a question ``Is Med. School very hard, Because I do doubt i will make it into it because there are smarter people out there then me.Well i hope you can answer my question.Farewell <(O.O)> :P (first post ever o

Brian1

MDs, college profs, PhDs in hard sciences, and lawyers are tied for the highest IQs. http://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/Occupations.aspx. Many professors and PhDs get paid less than nurses do. "Should" they is a weird argument. When I was younger, I used to share a similar sentiment, but the world is far more complicated than that. Good athletes, who probably have lower IQs, are fewer in supply and probably should get paid more. A lot of jobs do not require a high IQ and I'm not even sure what a high IQ signifies in terms of practice on a day-to-day basis. I think most people are smart enough that, if they put in the work, can pursue almost any profession they want except maybe rocket science/Physics/NASA type stuff/theoretical fields that rely heavily on conceptual understanding rather than grunt work.

limabeans

Hi Greetings. You certainly seemed poised to head to med school, but there are many years before you need to think about that. For now, continue studying in your classes and enjoy seventh grade. Don't worry about how hard the process of getting into medical school may be. That's in 8 years, which is like a very long time from now.

CookiesCream

I still don't understand why (beyond financial reasons) so many excellent, above average, and even average students who apply to med school don't get in everywhere. Is there a reason medical school apps are so cutthroat?

With a shortage of doctors in the US, I don't understand how people with great apps (3.7+ GPA, 31+ MCAT, shadowing, etc) are being rejected. Especially when so many of them go on to become great doctors through other routes. Anyone care to illuminate me on this?

curmudgeon

It 's just math. Too many applicants. That 's it. It's like a popular club. Getting beyond the velvet rope is limited by the "maximum occupancy".

mcat2

Some may ask: why can we build a giant-sized club then since there is such a high demand?

I think a reason is that building a club is very expensive. The society as a whole is not willing to allocate more resources to build such a club.

It just costs too much to train a doctor. To put it bluntly, as long as there are enough doctors to serve those patients who are financially capable of paying (which roughly translates to the pool of people who have a good enough job), many are not willing to shell out their tax money to take care of those who "do not have" (or the bottom 47 percents who are not able to take care of themselves and become dependent on other people's pocket?). Considering the fact that how "stingy" the Congress is willing to increase the funding of the residency program which is key to produce more doctors (I think it has not been increased for several decades), you would know why there are not more residency slots available. Another example is that BCM shut down a very high quality residency program for producing primary care doctors a few years ago. Why? There is not enough financial incentive for doing it.

otis

A couple of options for applicants that have difficulty gaining admission to a US med school:

- - consider applying to med schools in Ireland and Israel. Med schools in Ireland and Israel place a bit less emphasis on MCATs and provide solid medical education. In particular grads from The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland enjoy favorable residencies in the US.

- - consider attending one of the credible Carribean medical schools: St. George's, Ross, Amer.U of the Carribean, and Saba. See linked article: Caribbean Medical Schools: A Good Option?

- - consider attending an Osteopathic Medical School. See link: U.S. Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine

Good luck to all. Don't be discouraged.

Columbia09

The demand for doctors is going up any way especially for primary care. So it might be a tad bit easier to get into med school.

bluebayou

I'm guessing you haven't taken Econ yet.

Columbia09

I only got a B+ in micro so I'm no expert

boysx3

Columbia....the fact that there might be more demand for primary care appointments does not by itself create more seats in medical schools.

eadad

The AMA asked all Med schools to increase their enrollment to meet the pending shortage a number of years ago. To this date, only a handful have complied.

commserver

There are many who apply who have less than 3.60 GPA and get accepted.

Much is taken into consideration. For example how rigorous are the courses taken? Can you compare a school where it is easy to get A with a school where it is much harder to get A? The expectation is that those schools that are harder will have students who do much better on the MCAT.

I was led to believe it is similar to the undergraduate process. The admission committees consider the strength of the school

My daughter goes to very tough school where statistics are kept on those who apply to medical school. It was said that 80% of student with at least B+ overall GPA and slightly better science GPA will be accepted into some medical school. Those sound like very goods odds to me.

commserver

There have been several new medical schools opening in the past 5 years. One of these is Hofstra University Medical School. It had its 1st class in 2011 with 40 students.

There was a proposed University of California Medical School at Riverdale that was to start but having problems.

I think that a new school started in Chicago recently.

These new schools should allow for additional students to become doctors.

somemom

That should be UC Riverside, last I heard the med school was still moving ahead, but who knows with the budgets the way they are!