Every student who thinks they want to go to medical school also needs a Plan B….because the vast majority of medical school applicants don’t get accepted to medical school…at all. Actually, most of the freshmen who think they want to go to medical school never actually even apply.
If you are interested in health care, I would suggest you read this. There are tons of careers where you can make a difference in the world…aside from medicine.
Alright, I got it, I’m going to begin reading both of the threads and will come back when I’m done 
This part is probably tough anywhere, and is certainly tough in the US. Near where I live there are currently discussions related to possibly closing down some existing hospitals, basically because they are losing money and have run out of money. I know someone very well who works in health care administration and hear about how tough it is. Medical insurance in the US is complicated. There are insurers who are slow to pay or who will deny payment after medical care has already been provided (both private and government insurance can cause problems). Negotiating prices is tough. Some patients you pretty much know up front you will lose money leading to the issue of whether you take them so that they can get the care that they need, or if you reject them so that you will not lose enough money to end up going out of business. Pretty much everything about running a hospital is tough in the US. I do not know if it is any easier elsewhere, but I sort of doubt it. It might be less complicated in some other countries, but making money and staying in business is probably still difficult.
As others have mentioned medical school is a graduate program in the US (and in Canada, which is the other country that I know something about). You first need to get a bachelor’s degree while completing premed required classes and getting quite a bit of experience in a medical environment. Many premed students major in a related field such as biology. However, you can major in pretty much anything and complete the premed requirements. As one somewhat extreme example a number of years ago I had robot-assisted surgery (which went well). Before having the surgery I looked up on-line the system that was used. I found a video of a surgeon, who specialized in robot-assisted surgery, who in the video used the robotic surgery system to paint a very small picture of the hospital where he worked. His undergraduate major had been art. He had then gone to medical school and ended up as a surgeon.
This issue of “where to get a bachelor’s” is something that I have discussed with a couple of doctors that I know, and also seen what has occurred for example with the friends of daughters who were premed and went to medical school. If you look at top medical schools, or at other highly ranked graduate programs in medical-related fields, you will find students who came from a wide range of universities. I got my master’s in a very different field, but saw the same thing. The other students in my program had come from a huge range of universities. What you do as an undergraduate student will matter quite a bit more compared to where you do it.
This does indeed happen at a wide range of universities.
As @thumper1 has alluded to, most students who start university thinking “premed” end up doing something else. Some find the premed classes too tough. Some don’t get in anywhere. Many just decide they want to do something else. Some do super well in the tough premed classes, discover that they love lab work, and decide they would rather do research. There are medical related careers that do not involve medical school (although many do involve some form of graduate school), and of course lots of non-medical related careers.
Thus it is a good idea to think about other possible careers.
I have been a strong advocate that if you are serious about medical school, then you need to budget for a full 8 years in university. If you do stick with medical school as the goal, you don’t want your budget to stop you and medical school is very expensive in the US.
You should also look for a school that is a good fit for you. However, what is a good fit for you might be very different from what is a good fit for me or for anyone else. Do you want a large university, or a small liberal arts college? Do you want to be in a big city or a small town? Do you like what I living in the northeast might call real winters? It is probably a good idea to visit a few schools and see what appeals to you. In many cases you can get a guided tour, and in some cases get to sit in on a class and/or talk to a professor in a potential field that is interesting to you.
Hope you have a venture capitalist on speed dial. Opening a new hospital costs billions of dollars. The price is just the start. A hospital has to be approved by state and local regulators, plus it has to meet federal requirements as well. (CMS–Medicare–pays the bulk of most hospitals operating expenses.)
Now, you may be able to open a stand-alone specialty clinic for a few million, providing you can raise the capital and it has been approved by your state and local governments. (And CMS.)
Here some advice about med school–
Med school admission officers do NOT care where you went to undergrad. There are surveys done every other year of med school adcomms and name of undergrad has consistently placed in the “among the least important” category for more than decade.
Med schools care about your GPA, your MCAT score, your LOEs, that you have the expected pre-med ECs; that you embody the 15 Competencies for Entering Med Students, how well you are able to explain why you want to be a doctor, and your interview skills (assuming you actually are able to get an interview).
A recent very large cohort study involving multiple US universities found that only 17% of freshmen premeds actually persist all the way thru completing the pre-reqs. Not all of that 17 % had a strong enough GPA or the desire to pursue med school. Of those who did decide to pursue med school, only ~40% get even one acceptance.
Make sure you have a back-up career in mind you can pivot to if you decide med school isn’t your dream career.
AMCAS is great and very reliable source of information about med school admissions
Got it, will definitely use the tips you’ve given me, ty!!
Alright, checking this out rn 
Have to considered the UK. There will be no funding available to you at all and even student loans will be problematic, but there are a handful of globally high ranking med schools if to can afford them. They are also cheaper than the US.
You would go straight into medicine day one ( no liberal arts or other requirements - no ‘pre-med’). There are specific exams for entry and you would need to show abilities in STEM subjects especially chemistry, but they will not give a hoot about your extra curriculars.
I see, thanks a ton, and will definitely research more on this topic
Doing something you love and appreciate is always a correct use of your time, regardless of whether or not you are trying to use it as a means to another end.
There is a quota set by the government on the number of medicine places for international students though (for example Oxford takes a maximum of 14 entrants each year across both its undergrad and grad medical programs, and Cambridge takes 22) so competition is intense. It may be a bit easier at lower ranked unis, but you were taking about top programs.
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