Medical Doctor Timeline from HS graduation

[greensoup]

What does the process entail? Here's what I know
4 yr undergrad
finish mcat and apply for school (0-1 years)
4 yr medical school
?
residency
?
private doctor!

Can someone fill in the blanks, correct any wrongs, or add more detail?

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[DrYoda]

Residency length will depend on your specialty, it can be anywhere from 3-7 years. Sometimes a fellowship (sub-speciality training) is done after residency, again with a variable length.

 

[typhoonegator]

4 yr undergrad
finish mcat and apply for school (0-1 years) <-- can be done during undergrad or you can graduate and apply while working
4 yr medical school
? <-- internship is the first year of residency, and is usually included in the 3-7 year tally
residency <-- 3-7 years as stated
? <-- Fellowship for another 1-4 years (optional, for sub-specialization)
private doctor! <-- or hospitalist, or clinician-scientist, etc.

The shortest reasonable course is 4 years undergrad, 4 years medical school, and 3 years of internal medicine. While you can technically be fully licensed after 1 year of internal medicine (internship) in some states, it is very difficult to get insured and you won't be board-eligible, so it would be hard to recruit patients or get hired on a permanent basis (you could do locum tenens work I suppose.)

 

[BigRedBeta]

The shortest reasonable course is 4 years undergrad, 4 years medical school, and 3 years of internal medicine.

Or Pediatrics or Family Medicine or Emergency Medicine - residencies in these fields are also only 3 years in length (though there are 4 year Emergency Med programs, but the trend is towards 3 year programs).

 

[kansaskid]

-4 years undergraduate

-4 years medical school
-USMLE step 1

-3-7 years residency (specialty dependent: pediatrics 3, surgery 7, others in between)
-USMLE step 2, 3

-1-4 years fellowship (definitely optional)

It's a long road with lots of hurdles! I'll be 30 by the time I'm board certified! (but I did take two years off between undergrad and medical school for the Peace Corps)

 

[DD214_DOC]

-4 years undergraduate

-4 years medical school
-USMLE step 1

-3-7 years residency (specialty dependent: pediatrics 3, surgery 7, others in between)
-USMLE step 2, 3

-1-4 years fellowship (definitely optional)

It's a long road with lots of hurdles! I'll be 30 by the time I'm board certified! (but I did take two years off between undergrad and medical school for the Peace Corps)

This isn't quite accurate.

4 years of undergrad, possible less or more depending upon how you structure your courses and how much you can handle. More likely, how many times you do or do not change majors. MCAT usually in your junior year, applications in senior year.

4 years of medical school
USMLE/COMLEX part I at the end of your second year of medical school. USMLE/COMLEX part II and part II CS/PE in late third year or early fourth year. During fourth year are your "audition" rotations/elective, applying for residency, going to interviews, etc. It's basically like applying to medical school all over again.

Internship
Similar to fourth year but a lot more responsibility and autonomy. USMLE/COMLEX part III at some point during this time.

Residency (2-6 years depending upon what you do)
Yearly in-service exams. Get your unrestricted license starting PGY2 (if you have passed part III and intern year) and are able to moonlight if the program allows. Family Medicine residents were making about $65-$70 an hour moonlighting in the ER their second and third years.

Fellowship (1-3 years depending upon your field)
Further subspecialization training (such as Forensic Psychiatry, Addiction Psychiatry, Gastroenterology, Infectious Disease, etc). Usually adds a nice bump to your yearly income and gives you a "niche" to practice in. Sometimes, it doesn't add anything but knowledge.

Attending
I left this category broad because you can do pretty much whatever you want at this point. Private practice, hospitalist work, faculty at a medical school, etc.

From college to attending is at minimum 11 years if everything goes perfectly. It usually doesn't.

 

[2662]

From college to attending is at minimum 11 years if everything goes perfectly. It usually doesn't.

Looking back: eleven years, my whole 20's... whoosh!

 

[kansaskid]

This isn't quite accurate.
...

4 years of medical school
USMLE/COMLEX part I at the end of your second year of medical school. USMLE/COMLEX part II and part II CS/PE in late third year or early fourth year. During fourth year are your "audition" rotations/elective, applying for residency, going to interviews, etc. It's basically like applying to medical school all over again.

You are totally right. I didn't realize the USMLE step 2s (CK, CS) were completed before graduation. Good catch!

Here's the University of Chicago-Pritzker page on the licensing information requirements if anyone is interested.

http://pritzker.uchicago.edu/md/curriculum/usmle.shtml

 

[torshi]

4 years undergrad

during junior yr in undergrad take MCAT/Apply to med schools.

4 years of medical school
3+ yrs of residency

 

[DD214_DOC]

In some regards, the whole medicine thing isn't really worth it; you basically kiss your 20s goodbye unless you take a couple years off or you are "alright" with not graduating at the top of your class. There's also all of the debt. There's also having to watch your friends buy their first $200,000 homes when you're still living in a ****ty apartment and eating PB&J almost every day.

In some regards, it's also totally worth it. You get the feeling of knowing you, "saved a life", know that people will turn to you during their time of need, and you can sit at a computer with your wife and be seriously "house shopping" for 5300 square foot homes in the $400,000 to $550,000 range.

Medical school is the ultimate delaying gratification activity.

 

[prass]

What if one takes to heart the motto of this noble profession and desires to work under UNO ?
Can the student loans be waived off ?

 

[bonedoc82]

Hi guys, I recently graduated medical school and in residency for Orthopaedic Surgery. Please send any questions my way and like my facebook page (www.facebook.com/awebbmd) to receive updates, etc.

4 years of undergrad
4 years of medical school
3-7 years of residency (depending on your specialtiy you choose. For example, Pediatrics is 3 yrs long, Neurosurgery is 7 years long)

================
Follow me at:
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facebook.com/awebbmd
antoniowebbmd.wordpress.com

 

[Stagg737]

I posted this in another hSDN thread, but it's a general timeline for the path with advice up to med school (I can't give advice past undergrad since I am just about to start medical school):

Junior in hs: Take ACT/SAT start looking at colleges. Maybe visit a few.
Senior in hs: Visit and apply to colleges (start in the end of summer). Get accepted and attend a school that you will enjoy and succeed at. Don't just go to Harvard for the prestige, go somewhere that you will truly enjoy (once med school hits things will change quickly).
Overall hs goals: Have fun, do well enough in class/tests to go to your desired college.

Freshman: Adjust to being independent/self-reliant. Make new friends and have fun. Explore various majors and clubs/teams/organizations. Learn the best way for you to study.
Sophomore: Continue with freshman goals. Declare a major and start taking classes for it. Continue developing your study goals. Look into volunteering/shadowing/research.
Junior: Continue previous goals. Continue with major classes and volunteering and/or research. Begin shadowing. Start seriously preparing for the MCAT in winter. Take the MCAT in the spring or summer right afterwards. Start researching medical schools and begin preparing applications in the spring. Find people to write letters of rec if school does not have a committee.
Senior year: Submit medical school applications in the summer or early fall (should have secondaries submitted complete by September at the latest). Continue volunteering and shadowing if necessary. Interview and get accepted to medical schools.
Overall goals: Become a mature and self-sufficient individual, develop strong study skills, get the grades and test scores to get accepted to any med school (preferably a school you choose), and ENJOY LIFE!! This will be the last time that you will be able to spend more time having fun doing whatever you want than doing work/studying. This is also the best chance you'll get to travel and really explore the world before you are tied down with studying and career obligations, take advantage of this if you can.

(This is where I am, so past this is speculation/advice I have received from others)
MS-1: Survive! Adjust to learning massive volumes of material in short periods of time. Look into and possibly begin research. Enjoy your last summer vacation.
MS-2: Keep working hard. Start thinking about specialties and studying seriously for Step 1 of the boards (this will consume your life from what I've heard). Take step 1 of the boards during the summer and dominate them.
MS-3: Start your clinical rotations and continue/begin research. Start seriously exploring what specialty/field of medicine you hope to enter.
MS-4: Study/take step 2 at some point. Do your audition rotations (electives at locations where you may want to do your residency). Apply to residency programs and the match. Match into a residency program (hopefully the one you want). Enjoy the end of your clinical rotations. While it's still hard work, it is nothing compared to residency.

Residency year one (internship): Understand you're basically a child and pass your final board exam.
Rest of residency: Learn how to be a doctor in whatever field you're pursuing. Finish your residency. Possibly do a fellowship.

Last step: You're now a licensed physician. You win. Go save lives or something.

Obviously this is not the path everyone takes, nor is it mandatory by any means. There are dozens of paths to becoming a physician, and there are great doctors who took vastly different paths. If you end up going into anesthesiology, you won't even be done with med school in the next 10 years. At this point, I'll give you advice that I wish someone gave me in high school. Take one step at a time, and enjoy every step you take as much as possible. Long term goals are great, but you'll never get there if you don't live in the here and now. Enjoy high school (no matter how hard that can sometimes be). Focus on the classes you are taking now, and when the time comes make sure you're ready to dominate the tests needed to make it to the next step. If you can take care of what needs to get done now and in the near future, then you'll be ready for the next step when the time comes.