A cry for help from an aspiring Neurologist

[gdm121791]

This is my first post on any forum dedicated to neuroscience, but I feel that it is a very important one. I am going into my senior year of high school and I now find myself at an educational crossroad. Throughout my high school career, I have always told myself that I want to be a neurologist simply because I am very interested in the way that the brain works. I have always found myself curious about this field, but I basically only know that it deals with the brain, cognition and mental processes. Now going into my senior year in high school, i am attempting to gear many of my classes towards my desired field but am still unsure if it is right for me. Throughout high school, I wasnt especially interested in physics and had a terrible teacher for biology; thus, the only science course that I truly enjoyed was chemistry. I am looking to uncover any information that could potentially sway my interests towards the field of neuroscience. Reasons to pursue neuroscience and any personal experiences that pertain to my situation would be greatly appreciated. I just hope that neuroscience is the field for me.

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[neurologist]

This is my first post on any forum dedicated to neuroscience, but I feel that it is a very important one. I am going into my senior year of high school and I now find myself at an educational crossroad. Throughout my high school career, I have always told myself that I want to be a neurologist simply because I am very interested in the way that the brain works. I have always found myself curious about this field, but I basically only know that it deals with the brain, cognition and mental processes. Now going into my senior year in high school, i am attempting to gear many of my classes towards my desired field but am still unsure if it is right for me. Throughout high school, I wasnt especially interested in physics and had a terrible teacher for biology; thus, the only science course that I truly enjoyed was chemistry. I am looking to uncover any information that could potentially sway my interests towards the field of neuroscience. Reasons to pursue neuroscience and any personal experiences that pertain to my situation would be greatly appreciated. I just hope that neuroscience is the field for me.

If you live anywhere near a hospital, go talk to the local neurologists, maybe follow them around for a couple weeks to see what they really do, etc. They'd probably be happy to talk to you. That should give you at least some exposure to the clinical side of neurology.

Similarly, if you are near a university or medical school, seek out some PhDs or MD/PhDs doing basic science work in neuroscience.

Since you like chemistry, you can always start as a chem major during college, and do the bio and physics later on. You can tailor a chem major to biochem or neurochem at many places.

Do paid or volunteer neurosci research work in college.

Most importantly, make sure you have a fallback plan for when you find out that neuroscience isn't the field for you . . .

 

[minstral]

you may be more interested in being a neuroscientist than a neurologist... neurologist are doctors and some times that means being far removed from the interesting aspects of neuroscience. how is your HS GPA? youneed to kick *** in college to get into med school or a good grad program.

 

[gdm121791]

Right now I have a 5.0 GPA, but I'm not even sure if I want to major in neuroscience. If you can tell me why I should do it, why I shouldnt, why u got interested in it and anything else concerning neuroscience would be great.

 

[AlternateSome1]

To start, "neurologist" does not equal "neuroscience major".

A neurologist is a person who obtained a 4-year Bachelor's degree (BS, BA, BE, etc) in ANY major, then obtained a 4-year Medical Degree (MD, DO). Following that 8-year period, a neurologist trained for 4 years in internal medicine and neurology. This is at least a 12 year process (some receive other additional degrees or have other lives before entering into medicine). At the conclusion a neurologist is trained to practice clinical neurology, meaning they are able to see patients with neurological conditions and diagnose and treat them. Some neurologists participate in research relating to basic neuroscience, some participate in clinical research, and some don't do any research.

High school classes shouldn't alter your career path into neurology in any way. The only college requirements will be those required for admission into medical school, which is covered in many other threads.

 

[buckley]

Nobody can tell you why you should do it. If you're smart enough, you probably won't believe them anyway
It's good that you can see yourself interested in a particular field this early on in the game, but don't put yourself in a box. I seriously think you should take a good variety of classes to see what you want/don't want. You might surprise yourself.

1. Do you want to go to medical school? You can do neuroscience in and out of it.
2. What college major are you taking?


Personally, I made the decision to go pre-med by taking college-level biology in high school and loving it. But I also had economics, calculus, and homemaking classes enough to know i wanted medicine more than those And life sort of throws certain things your way that makes you think "hmmm....maybe this is the way for me." Like I got into a 6-year program where we finish our liberal arts years in 2 years then get combined with people who did their 4-year premeds. But I don't think you're ever really sure that this is the way to go. I just sort of had a gut feel and followed through. Look at me I'm a resident and I'm still not sure if this is what I want to do or this is all I'm going to do. I'm still dreaming of that Pulitzer or that Grammy

My personal bias towards the neurosciences? I think it's the field that's going to be most expansive in the next 20 years in medicine. There's just so much to be understood, and personally, how fascinating is it to try to understand that which allows us to comprehend in the first place? I personally love psychology and neurology. I don't really see myself as a psychiatrist, so with my MD, I'm doing the neurology track. Who knows where it would take me?

You are young--that's such a gift. People told me this when I was in high school, and I hated it. But it's true. For all the confusion of the teen years, it really is the time to explore. Good luck

 

[neurologist]

Right now I have a 5.0 GPA,

5.0 !?!?!?!?!?!?!

typo, weird grading system, or super-genius?

 

[exgatr]

It's called grade inflation--you get points added to your gpa just for taking AP classes.

Advice to the OP: Chill out bro. Take some time to develop more as a person. Med schools want interesting people, not bookworms.

 

[Doctor]

Right now I have a 5.0 GPA, but I'm not even sure if I want to major in neuroscience. If you can tell me why I should do it, why I shouldnt, why u got interested in it and anything else concerning neuroscience would be great.

That's great and all, but this forum is for the medical specialty of neurology, not the college major of neuroscience. Get good grades and you get into medical school, even possibly be a neurologist one day... but no one will ever care what your college major was at any step along the way. So neuroscience, philosophy, computer science, economics.... doesn't matter in the least what you choose to major in. Just pick something you enjoy studying.

 

[RugbyJC]

It's called grade inflation--you get points added to your gpa just for taking AP classes.

Advice to the OP: Chill out bro. Take some time to develop more as a person. Med schools want interesting people, not bookworms.

word.

Go to college, have fun, discover alcohol and sex. Worry about this later. Everything will fall into place at some point. Just take classes that interest you.

I'll have the letters MD after my name next week and I still don't really know what I want to be when I grow up. You will have plenty of time to stress over this. Live for today.

 

[dave2626]

I agree wholeheartedly with the above. I went to college and majored in Neuroscience. Big waste of time. Study something like economics or anthropology. Med schools dont give a crap what you major in. Just ace the basics and get a degree that will make you a more rounded person.


Now if you actually just want to get a PhD and do research, then yes, major in Neuroscience.

Otherwise, if you want to be a physician you need to do two things in college:
1. get good grades and a good MCAT score
2. make the same horrible mistakes involving sex and alcohol that your patients will so that you can actually be empathic.... find a hot chick who wants to hook up with a pre-med... they're all over the place.