Overview of medical process?

innocentwanderer

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As I move through my education, I hope to one day work as a neurosurgeon - a path that I know carries with it many years of competitive training. However, I can't seem to piece together exactly how the process works, so could someone please enlighten me?

As far as I know, first you finish pre-med/med over (typically) 8 years. Then you pursue residency and fellowship.

How exactly does life after med school work? After you get into a residency, do you reapply for a fellowship? Or do you get into both at once? I've looked at Hopkins neurosurgery residency (yes, I know it's crazy selective and it's several years down the line; I just wanted a reference and haphazardly chose it), and its residency program is 7 years (http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/neur...cies/neurosurgery_residency/program_overview/). After these 7 years, do you have to apply for fellowship, or is it included? And if so, is this always the case?

Ultimately, I'm looking for someone who can help me distinguish between residency and fellowship, as well as tell me how long each is. Thank you in advance!!

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From what i know , after medical school you do your residency, then you APPLY for a fellowship after taking your boards and when your fellowship is done you become an attending (senior doc)
 
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Not going to click your link or look into specific programs.
From what i know , after medical school you do your residency, then you APPLY for a fellowship after taking your boards and when your fellowship is done you become an attending (senior doc)

Yes, you apply every step if the way. So youll be building your CV and forever auditioning and networking and interviewing throughout your training. And don't bother looking at things like specific NS programs at this stage -- you have to walk before you can fly and right now you aren't even at a crawl.

The whole specialty of NS is extremely competitive -- most places take 1-2 people each year so you have to apply to a lot even if you are a superstar, and be happy with any. And this assumes you are a top med student with good scores who even still liked surgery after your med school rotations -- silly to decide this now without any basis for comparison.
 
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A bit of clarification:

fellowships are not mandatory. If you wish to work as a neurosurgeon, you don't need to complete a fellowship after residency unless there were a super specialty (spine, critical care, skull base etc) you wished additional training in. If so, you generally apply for these during your final years of residency.
 
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  1. Premed - 4 years. This is where you have your most fun. Seriously, this is not about how smart you are; it's all about how you manage your time.
  2. (Optional) - Gap year(s). This is where you really look into medicine, live life outside of college, and get more real world experience. As I see more and more school-specific threads (for medical school), the more the applicants have a gap year or two to really beef up the app outside of classes. As the years progress, I wouldn't be surprised if top 10 schools encourage taking time off to learn about who you are in the real world.
  3. Medical School - 4 years. This is where your career begins. EVERYTHING YOU DO IS ESSENTIAL. The friends you make, the grades you earn, the mentors you gain (to write you a LOR and give you a direction in medicine), how you perform on Step 1 and 2, the residency programs your school provides (if you go the DO route), and where/how you interview.
  4. Residency (NS) - 7 years. There's a thread floating around in pre-allo that has a neurosurgeon doing an Ask Me Anything. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/ask-a-neurosurgery-resident-anything.958231/ Long read (a lot of questions!), but I hope this really gives you an idea of what neurosurgeons go through.
All of the best luck OP! Don't worry about what is 8-10 years ahead of you now! You have a lot of time!
 
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