<p>Appreciate your very thoughtful post jct. However, I would think that, if you really want to be a physician, a big if considering that you are only 17 or 18, it would be a lot less stressful and enjoyable to be in a program where you don’t have to be constantly worrying about whether you’ll be accepted to Medical School after 4 years of college (most don’t make it). It’ll be interesting to know the retention rate of students in programs like this. (also remember that from the perspective of a 17 year old, 1 year is 1/17 of your life. For a 50 year old it’s 1/50).</p>