Hello everybody! i'm interested in becoming a Surgeon and traveling the world in order to help the less fortunate. I'm 15 and i'm about to enter Ninth Grade, does anyone have any advice in order to further set me on that path. Other than the obvious ie Get good grades, try to get a Scholarship, ect it would be appreciated.
I made an account here just to reply to you. This is what I would have told myself if I was in your position back when I was starting high school. First, you have the interest in becoming a surgeon which means u have an idea of what u want to study after graduating. That sets you ahead of many others who graduate and don't know what to do, which includes me. Congratulations!
Now here are my tips which I wish I had known better:
- If in the future you decide to start at a Community College let me tell you that nobody cares about your grades in High School UNLESS you're trying to get a scholarship. So if you want a scholarship try to achieve a good GPA for that.
- But here is what EVERYBODY (community colleges and universities) cares about: your KNOWLEDGE. You can get bad grades on your science classes because your teacher's way of grading sucks or for whatever other reason and universities know that. But if instead of just trying to get a good grade by memorizing stuff or cheating or whatever you actually pay attention to LEARNING, you'll be able to use your knowledge to save a lot of time. How? Some universities and definitely community colleges allow u to take placement tests for classes like chemistry and other sciences. If you do well on the tests you can skip classes and jump forward even if you had a bad grade in high school. Saving yourself a class means saving yourself a whole semester. Trust me, you want to do that to to finish school faster, to have less debt and start working asap.
- I got good grades in high school but I focused on the grades and not really in learning. So when I graduated I had forgotten most of what I had learned and that dint help me because instead of being able to take placement tests for some sciences I have to actually take the classes which is making my career longer.
- So if you have a bad teacher or when you simply don't understand something in your bio class, your math class, your chem class or any other science (since it's what you mostly need to become a surgeon) go on the Internet, on YouTube or whatever and to try to LEARN.
- if you forget everything you learned a semester ago is because you were focusing on memorizing or not focusing at all. If you focus on learning that will stick in your brain. Be curious, study to learn about the world you live in, and you'll do great in life.
- Yes have fun like others said and enjoy being a teenager but you know what? You don't need to compromise your grades to have fun. I used to go to a lot of parties in hs, and used to hang out with people a lot but I still got good grades. How? By organizing my time and setting priorities (things that I learned to do thanks to the internet haha). I started scheduling times to study and setting aside times to have fun In high school and now I've become better. I still have lots of fun in college and my GPA is still strong.
TL;DR? LEARN instead of memorizing, be curious and schedule your time to study but also to have fun. That will take you far in life.
Congratulations too on having the incentive to ask about your future and care about what you want to do. Keep that attitude and you'll do great in life.
