Am I smart enough for medical school?

[Taylor DeMarcken]

Hello everyone! I'm new here, but I've heard this is the website for all aspiring doctors.
Anyway, I've been wanting to be an anesthesiologist since 11th grade in high school. However, science and math have never really been my strongest subjects. Actually, I was to focused on my social life and didn't try too hard in school. I got As in history because it was my favorite subject and knew most of the stuff we studied, I got Bs in English because I found it easy but never did the homework, and I got Cs and Fs in math because I found it boring and didn't do the homework. During 11th grade I had completed all the necessary science classes required to graduate and didn't take any extra ones but I continued to take math due to the fact it looks good on resumes. (I should also note that during this whole time period I was convinced I wanted to double major in International Business and Political Science).
Anyway, I discovered anesthesiology towards the end of 11th grade when I was looking at colleges and saw that one of the colleges offered a CRNA program. I looked more in depth at it and found it vaguely interesting so I then continued to look at just anesthesiology and found that even more interesting. I decided that I wanted to become an anesthesiologist and tried to shape up my math grade with the little time I had left in the year and ended up getting like an 88 in the last quarter.
During my senior year it was too late for me to take a science class but I did take another math course and received high 80s in it all four quarters. I was actually on the honor roll all of my senior year.
I know science is a huge part of anesthesia, and I know I hated science during high school, but I'm convinced I just hated it because I thought I'd never use it after I graduated.
During 12th grade I applied to a bunch of schools and I actually got accepted to my top two choices (which I was actually surprised about because they were really good schools and I didn't do to well throughout most of high school). Anyway, I got really stressed out when it became time to pick a college and ended up deciding on going to a community college for a while.
It's now nearing the end of my first quarter at community college and I'm just taking basic courses at the moment (History, English 101, Computer literacy, Math Module, Sociology, and Accounting). I'll note that my math module doesn't count because I slacked off too much in high school and didn't place high enough on the entry test. (However, now that I'm actually trying, I'm quickly getting closer towards where I should be).
I know in the end it all depends on me, but in your opinion, do you think anesthesiology is right for me?

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[justAstudent]

It's really hard to say. Most people have a general idea of what type of doctor they want to be, but it tends to change a lot over the course of medical school and whatnot. I think what you want to figure out is whether or not you want to become a doctor and whether or not you like everything that comes along with it. I would suggest taking some sciences classes (chemistry or biology perhaps) and see if you like enjoy it. I would also maybe try shadowing a doctor or two and volunteer at a clinic or hospital to get an idea of what it means to be a doctor.

 

[yehhhboiii]

why dont you find an anesthesiologist to shadow and find out for yourself
look at local hospitals or check your social network to see if you can find someone who can help

 

[Neurodelic]

It seems like the science part is biggest problem (in both difficulty and interest). I suggest you take some basic science courses (biology and chemistry in particular) next semester/quarter. That should help your perspective on the matter.

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

There's only one way to find out. Sign up for general chemistry and major level intro bio next semester, apply yourself, and see how you do. FWIW a lot of successful premeds were slackers in high school. I nearly failed an entire semester in high school out of laziness and still managed to do pretty well in my science classes and on the MCAT.

 

[NYCNative]

ima try to keep it real on this thread. being a doctor is not in the cards at this point. you should do everything you can to go in the crna direction. given your level of preparation, you probably will even want to get an associates in nursing before getting your rn. then do an rn to bsn bridge program. academically, i just dont think you are prepared to compete with 48,000 other premeds for 20,000 spots. you are likely to find yourself in a lot of debt, pain, anguish and sorrow if you go down this road.

to answer your initial question: what was your SAT score? It's a reasonably good indicator of both IQ and what your MCAT will look like percentile wise i.e. if you are around the 50-60th percentile, you shouldn't just expect that you will pull off a >90th percentile score. If you scored off the charts, though, then you might have the test taking skills that it takes.

 

[armybound]

at this point it sounds like maybe you're suffering from a lack of discipline and direction more than anything else. I had some real idiots in my class, but they knew how to work hard and they succeeded that way.

going to CC for a while to work on discipline and maturity might be a good thing for you before pursuing the rest of your degree and deciding if you have it in you to pursue medicine. if not, you may wish to pursue a BSN and go the CRNA route.

 

[Escape_Goat]

I can't tell if these threads are for real or not anymore.

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

what did I just lol