Just not intelligent enough for Medical School..

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Dingodile

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Hi, I'm currently 18 in my second semester of college at a CC. To start off, I was god awful in high school. Not that I couldn't do it, but I was more of a punk and failing classes was the cool thing to do. I obviously regret it now and pulled myself together for junior year and senior year and ended up with a 3.0 or higher GPA, but nonetheless still was lowest of the low for class rank.

Anyways, not that matters (I hope) you guys are probably going to question why I want to be a Psychiatrist in the first place. Well to make it short, When I turned 14 or 15 or so, I developed a serious anxiety disorder to the point where I needed a signed paper for missing so much school. It got worse as the days went on and I soon developed major depression. I was forced to see Psychologist after Psychologist to a therapist then to a few psychiatrists. It got to the point where my parents tried slipping me Lexapro to help me. I refused to take medication as I was a horrific hypochondriac. I was scared of everything that harmed me, including drugs. I studied disease upon disease and could most likely list off every known symptom of every type of cancer there was in this world. After becoming so symptomatic I sought help from specialists from seeing if I had a brain tumor to retinal detachment etc etc. The main reason behind my determination of wanting to become a Psychiatrist is that all the mental health specialists I've seen were terrible. As a shy human being opening myself up was pretty hard for me, and the only response I would get is a "Is that so?" or something along the lines of "You should try medication". Even the Psychiatrists I've seen basically didn't care about who I was as a person, but basically just handed me medication right after the word anxiety was said. I find it frustrating that mental health is a serious issue and the majority of the specialists in this field hand over mediation basically telling patients to take medication the rest of their life or else you'll have constant anxiety attacks.

Sorry for the rant, but as you can see why I'm so determined to fill the space as a Psychiatrist. You could ask why I don't want I just don't want to become a clinical psychologist, but the answer to that question is that there are obviously more mental illnesses than just anxiety and depression. I don't want to limit myself to helping just a few mental health disorders. I want to be able to help a wide variety of them.

Moving on. In my opinion, I do not think I'm intelligent enough to get into Medical School. My first semester of college I had a 3.2gpa, which is amazing to me, but obviously low to all medical geniuses out there. Now onto my current semester, I'm struggling horribly. First off, I can't do math for the life of me. I'm in basic Algebra that seeks help daily for it just to get by with a D. It isn't the end of the semester yet so I'm hoping for a B at least.. Anyways, i'm also taking intro to chemistry. This an INTRO to it, and I only have a C. Again hoping to get it up to a B by the end of the semester. As you can see, I'm clearly not smart. Yes you can bring up the point that I have a negative attitude and that won't get me very far. I do NOT have a negative attitude. I went into this courses with confidence. I studied hours on top of hours only to not do well. I seek help from the help my college provides along with friends and family.

I thought about switching my major to nursing, as from being such a hypochondriac, I consider myself sort of medically inclined I guess you can say, but I really do not want to be a nurse. I wanted to help mentally, which is why I picked Psychiatry for my career.

My cousin is a ER surgeon and was wanted by just about every single medical school you can think of around the globe, and here I am struggling to do basic algebra. I don't know how I expect to do harder math classes such as Calculus or organic chem etc.

Yes I am working hard, I just don't think i'm intellectually up to par to succeed to even come close to getting an acceptance letter from a Med school. I am surely going to try, but I really don't know what to do.

I thank everyone that took time to read this post fully. I could use some advice. All is appreciated. Thanks!

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No one is going to reinforce your statement that you are not smart enough to cut it. You probably do have some catching up to do. If you are going to make it, you will need to figure out how to get more As than Bs.:bookworm:
 
You probably just haven't gotten the hang of college yet. I felt absolutely ******ed my first two semesters of community college, and ended up dropping three classes (one being general chemistry) because I just wasn't understanding the material. I would stare at textbooks for hours, but nothing would stick. Slowly, ever so slowly, I learned how to learn at the college level, which was an entirely different process than how one synthesizes information at the high school level. Similar concerns to your own were a large part of the reason I never considered medical school until years later, after I'd finished a bachelor's degree with a cGPA of 3.71 at CC and 4.0 at my university. Got a mid-30s MCAT score, something I'd never have believed to be possible in my wildest dreams when I was handing in the form to drop general chemistry after failing the first test horribly and not understanding anything.

The point is, you might have jumped into some hard and heavy courses before you learned how to properly function at the college level. How you study in college is very, very different from how you study in high school. It takes a lot more time to build up the neural connections to handle the hard sciences, and you haven't yet put in the time. But give yourself a chance. Worst case, you might end up re-taking some courses down the line, but don't give up this early in the game. You're barely two steps off of the starting line.
 
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@Dingodile
I cannot write you a conversation.... so I post it here:

Hi, I am lurking here in the forums from time to time and just read your post and just registered to write you this message ;)

I am studying in Austria medicine so the application system for medical school is different. However in high school I was the worst student from my whole year (roughly 100 students), just because I didnt care.
However, in the first year of medical school I managed to start over and get my **** together and finished first year of medical school with the highest exam scores out of 400 students. Now I managed to start a PhD in neuroscience parallel to medical school and want to be a psychiatrist after medical school. Why I am telling you this? Because I am average smart, nothing special, there are a lot of medical students out there who are much smarter than me, but the point is it doesnt matter how high your IQ is, it is just about getting your **** together and read/study more than other people. Just try to find some love for the subjects you are studying for... it is possible.
Good Luck with your path!
 
As for getting into med school, most of us are several years removed from that process, so you'd get better advice in the pre-med forum.

As for what to do if you're not able to get into med school - there are several ways to have a psychiatry-focused career without being an MD. A physician's assistant or nurse practitioner can emphasize in psychiatry and see patients on a mostly independent basis while retaining the ability to prescribe medications and/or get trained in psychotherapy.

You also seem to be interested primarily in being a psychotherapist with a focus in anxiety disorders. You don't have to be an MD/DO (or a PA/NP) to do psychotherapy - you only need those qualifications if you want to prescribe meds. There are several pathways to becoming a psychotherapist, one of the most common of which is to get a master's degree in social work (MSW) and get qualified as a psychotherapist. I think that an MSW with specific training and focus would probably make a better cognitive-behavioral therapist for anxiety disorders than a lot of psychiatrists, who don't usually focus on specific types of psychotherapy. Addiction therapists are also often quite good at cognitive-behavioral therapy, although I'm not sure if that particular area interests you.
 
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Medical school is a numbers game. The reason is simple. There are too many applicants for too few spots. An admissions board could not possibly go over each applicant and give them the in-depth evaluation each person truly deserves. You don't make the grade you're not getting in.

I'm not trying to be harsh but trying to reinforce this reality. If one can't make it they might be better off not getting in the first place. I know people who were kicked out of medschool with over $100K in debt.

I believe the system the way it is has too many flaws and is very dehumanizing. It emphasizes multiple choice tests over true quality. Problem is I cannot think of a better system.
 
I did horribly during my first 3 semesters at a community college. I withdrew from almost all my classes and had to eventually take those classes again to actually receive a grade. I transferred to a university, buckled down, and got a 3.98 at the university by the time I graduated. I'm a 4th year med student now. It's going to be tough but if you need to get a tutor, spend extra time with your professors, study with others who are doing better than you, etc. then so be it.

Keep in mind, getting into med school isn't about getting great grades..it's about getting great grades AND researching, volunteering, showing leadership qualities, etc. all at the same time.
 
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As for getting into med school, most of us are several years removed from that process, so you'd get better advice in the pre-med forum.
Oh, I would disagree with that. The one thing everyone at pre-allo has in common is that they haven't made it in to medical school. There's a whole lot of guesswork and catastrophizing. It's worth reading for any pre-med, but I wouldn't take their recommendations to heart too much.

OP- I was horrible in high school, barely graduated, went to a junior college. Transferred to a state school and did okay, and spent >10 years working before I realized I wanted to be a doctor. Once I set my mind to it, I looked into whether or not I had a realistic chance and went from there.

The hardest thing about medical school (at least US-MD) is getting in. After that, almost no one flunks out. After medical school, almost no one flunks out of residency. But I would guess that the number of folks who consider themselves pre-med in freshman/sophomore year of college who end up becoming doctors is <1 in 20.

Most of this attrition comes from folks giving up, but there is also going to be an issue of intellect. If you can't pull A's and B's consistently in science classes, the odds of you making it into medical school is very long indeed. That said, many folks have come from pulling C's in Chemistry and end up becoming doctors. You need to take a long hard look at what's preventing you from doing better, including tutoring and pouring on the hours. If you are still not able to get above C's, then there are many great alternative career paths in both the medical (RN, NP) and psychological (LCSW, therapist, psychologist) that will have less science-specific challenges of entry.
 
I'm primarily a lurker in this forum, but I just want to say that every time a pre-med comes here looking for career advice and gets several considered, sincere replies (regardless of the content), it warms my heart. Consider this a pat on the back for all of you who offer your time and energy to anonymous online mentorship.
 
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Nowhere in the post was there a question. I know I might be perceived as rude, but I don't understand why people go to a physician/residency sub-forum to post their diary entry of being a pre-med. There's no relevance.

I'm also wary of people (and it's usually high schoolers, but sometimes pre-meds) who post about their motivation for being xyz specialist (and they always somehow have a specific field in mind despite their premature stage in the journey) being to correct some deficiency in the field. OP, if you don't become an xyz someone else will and they may or may not be a better xyz than you.
 
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here I am struggling to do basic algebra. I don't know how I expect to do harder math classes such as Calculus or organic chem etc.

Don't sell yourself too short. You might be very bright in other areas. Some people aren't great at math but excel in areas that don't translate well for premed.

I've always told people not to think less of themselves if they don't become physicians. There are several alternative routes where one could treat patients that could be even more satisfying.

If I became a physician assistant, for example, I would've had a much better social life in my 20s, been able to pursue hobbies and interests that I had to dump while in medschool such as cooking, music, and art. Medschool could be very dehumanizing.

Think it through but I caution people encouraging hopefuls to pursue medicine to a fault as if the person will not fail. They could. Again, I've seen people get kicked out of medschool, or pass but not be able to pass USMLE step 1 or 2. It's a hell of a thing to be kicked out in tremendous debt and something that would've been best avoided altogether before one got trapped in that spot.

My advice is if you're struggling with math and science, try to figure out why and fix that to the degree where you can compete in the numbers game. If you can then go for medicine.

I looked it up because I was curious myself.
But I would guess that the number of folks who consider themselves pre-med in freshman/sophomore year of college who end up becoming doctors is <1 in 20.

About a little less than half of the people that apply to medschool get in. Don't let that fool you into thinking that means you got a 45-55 shot. You don't.

The thing is that colleges have a pre-med committee and several of them will not endorse a candidate they don't think can get in and they'll tell that to the applicant, killing that person from even applying. Further some give up after seeing their MCAT score. So yes, while the numbers getting in after applying don't seem so horrifically bad, a lot of the people get weeded out before they even apply.

I wouldn't disagree with the 5% figure (1 in 20) as a reality. My roommate my sophomore year was the salutatorian of a competitive high school and smarter than me and he gave up. I've often complained that where I went to college-Rutgers U, blew people out of the water and failed tremendous amounts of premeds while other institutions considered even more prestigious gave people As so long as they just showed up to class.
 
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Everything else aside, trying to get into a field by criticizing the existing doctors in the field is never a good strategy.
 
Everything else aside, trying to get into a field by criticizing the existing doctors in the field is never a good strategy.
Agreed, it definitely speaks to a lack of awareness. But my contention is more along the lines of "so what?" OP says "you guys are probably going to question why I want to be a Psychiatrist in the first place." No, nobody is going to question because nobody particularly cares. Yet there persists the idea that a "good story" (i.e. I have anxiety and I want to help other people with anxiety because I don't think they are helped currently) matters to strangers that aren't already invested in you. It doesn't.

That said, I want to apologize to OP for "calling her out" so much.
 
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