Highschool student needing advice

[Nikee]

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Hello everyone. Hopefully everyone's doing fine this evening. Well, I need some advice. First, let me tell you a bit about myself.

I'm a junior (about to be a senior) in highschool, 16 years old, and have a GPA of 3.15. In ninth grade, I had this strong desire to be a physician, but I lost it due to my negative thoughts. I didn't believe in myself, I didn't think I was the doctor type, even though I did rather well in ninth grade. So eventually, that dream came to an end and a few other career choices popped into my mind in tenth grade.

Eleventh grade comes around (Aug. 2003) and I go through the year, still not knowing for sure what I wanted to do after highschool, although nursing did pop up. I had signed up for Anatomy just for the heck of it, and then, about three weeks ago, we were informed that we would have to do a project entitled "Career Investigations". I had no idea what career I wanted to investigate (within the medical field), and then, the doctor came into mind. I chose that profession and went onto the internet, found a whole bunch of info on the job, and my heart just started beating faster and faster with excitement. It was the job for me. So now, I'm just so excited, thinking, "This is it, this is what I want to do with my life - help people."

However, I'm a bit skeptical about even dreaming about wanting to be a doctor. I know the requirements are tough, and the work is strenuous. What I can conjecture, however, is that as long as one sets their mind to something, they can do it, right? Even become a doctor. The fact that my GPA is not as high as I'd like it to be worries me, though (3.15). Lately, I've just laid all my worries upon God, knowing that he can do anything. And if this is a dream of mine, I can accomplish it.

What was ya'll GPA when leaving highschool?

I guess what I'm looking for is a bit of advice, so if anyone would like to, please feel free to reply.

By the way, I want to be an Emergency Physician.

Nikee

 

[DrQuinn]

Hey bro/sis:

I was going to tell you my GPA anywyas, but see youa sked for it in the end of your post. Fear not! I graduated high school with a stellar GPA of...... (drum roll please): 2.8! Yee-haw!

Its a wee bit too early to start worrying about if you will be able to get into medical school. Its great that you're interested in medicine, and I think you should pursue that interest! Right now, you need to enjoy your last year of high school, take lots of pictures, enjoy being "king of the hill," go to the Prom, go to the Prom After Party, get into college, then join the rest of the pre-meds on here worrying about if they should retake Organic or not.

Seriously, though, your high school grades don't matter one iota once you have an acceptance letter to any of the thousands of colleges in the US. One you get into college, no one cares where you went to high school, what your GPA was, or if you were valedictorian. Again, once you get into medical school, no one cares where you went to college or your GPA. THEN, once you get into residency, no one gives a hoot where you went to medical school.

Enjoy high school (but try not to enjoy it as much as I did... ahem, 2.8)

Q, DO

 

[DocWagner]

Go to college, study hard, have fun, be focused.

That is my advice.

Doctors are leaders, doctors have fun, doctors are athletes and doctors are sometimes first in their class. THey don't necessarily have to be all of the above, perhaps just one of them.

 

[aliraja]

As Quinn pointed out, go to prom and have an absolutely amazing time. That might just be one of the very few things that I remember from high school and I'm so glad that I went with some great friends, a great date (who was, at the time, 17 - so I guess thinking about her now is probably illegal), and had a blast. Ahhh... good times...

You're in Houston? I grew up there... went to Alief Elsik (was a senior when Beyonce was a freshman... shoulda paid more attention to her then) and if I can get an EM residency coming out of that ghetto high school then I'm absolutely positive that, a decade from now, you will too.

As much as this isn't the advice you wanted, it really is WAY too early to worry about this. You're GPA is fine to get into any number of good schools and then, when you're a junior in college, you can come back here and worry about med school. Then, when you're a third year in med school you can come back and worry about residency. And, when you're about to finish your EM residency, you can come back and ask about jobs...

You'll have plenty of time to come back here and ask a ton of questions - but not much time left to have an amazing time in high school.

Oh wow... I sound so old. 🙂

 

[edinOH]

Quinn beat me. I think I had like a 2.25 or some other worthless number.

About a year later once I started working in the paramedical field in the military I started college part-time and ultimately finished with a gpa of 3.6. By this time I had found what I wanted to do with my life so I had the motivation to follow through.

It isn't so much about intelligence as it is work ethic and motivation. The two seem to go hand in hand. Motivation certainly leads to the ethic.

I had a blast in highschool. I did learn a thing or two along the way, possibly by accident.

Enjoy the last year or two you have which truly don't have any lasting (academic) consequences. As the other poster pointed out, you have the next many years to worry about this stuff.

Ultimately if you choose medicine, you still have plenty of time to reach that goal.

 

[Echinoidea]

I'm not in an EM residency yet, but I am starting medical school this summer. My high school stats: Final Average: 68.5%, Ranked 213 out of 235 students. After that, I became a soldier for 4 years before returning to college. Obviously, my college grades were much better, high enough for me to be admitted to medical school. My point is this: as you grow older, you will find that your performance in high school becomes laughably irrelevant. I think my teachers (except for one or two excellent ones) all would have voted me least likely to succeed at anything. Don't be afraid to wander off the beaten path in life. There is no set recipe for success. Question everything. Make your own decisions, and for god's sake, do not let other people's preconceptions of you and your abilities influence what you know you are capable of.

 

[Andy Kahn]

glad to hear you are interested in becoming a doctor, especially in the field of EM. I would like to point out that I was an "all A's student" in school until my jr and sr years of high school where I really made the mistake of wanting to party too much and trying to fit in with the "in crowd." my grades suffered, but i really had great times skating which was what did most of the time during those last years of high school. i thought i would turn the switch on during college and work hard again, but i didnt do as well as i had done in jr high and my first 2 years of high school immediately b/c i still hung onto wanting to hanging out with the "cool" people. i finished my first semester with a 3.19 and was failing organic chemistry during my spring semester (i think Trinity was the only university to have students take orgo that early). things were looking bleak but i got motivated to turn things around. had i known i would make it into med school, i would have been much relieved, but i really didn't think it would work out.

so i defnitely agree with everyone that no one will ask what you did in high school. i think the texas med school applications may have asked you SAT/ACT, but i cant remember if they asked where you finished in your class or anything else, but the admissions committees mainly just care about your accomplishments in college and everything after high school (unless you did some amazing things in high school like save a village or start an orphanage).

i do have some pre-med advice online at:
http://www.geocities.com/andykahn/med.html

Just keep working hard. Like you said, He can do anything. Just do your best and He will take care of the rest. I screwed up early in college (which is where it counts... high school has no bearing on your med school application) and it wasn't too late either. I have heard of others who had more trouble deeper into college and were able to take graduate classes and do some research and later made it into med school.

sometimes it's a blessing to fall short early so that you learn from your mistakes and get motivated later on. you have plenty of college ahead of you it sounds like to put yourself in a great position for med school so good luck!

-Andy Kahn

 

[leviathan]

Hello everyone. Hopefully everyone's doing fine this evening. Well, I need some advice. First, let me tell you a bit about myself.

I'm a junior (about to be a senior) in highschool, 16 years old, and have a GPA of 3.15. In ninth grade, I had this strong desire to be a physician, but I lost it due to my negative thoughts. I didn't believe in myself, I didn't think I was the doctor type, even though I did rather well in ninth grade. So eventually, that dream came to an end and a few other career choices popped into my mind in tenth grade.

Eleventh grade comes around (Aug. 2003) and I go through the year, still not knowing for sure what I wanted to do after highschool, although nursing did pop up. I had signed up for Anatomy just for the heck of it, and then, about three weeks ago, we were informed that we would have to do a project entitled "Career Investigations". I had no idea what career I wanted to investigate (within the medical field), and then, the doctor came into mind. I chose that profession and went onto the internet, found a whole bunch of info on the job, and my heart just started beating faster and faster with excitement. It was the job for me. So now, I'm just so excited, thinking, "This is it, this is what I want to do with my life - help people."

However, I'm a bit skeptical about even dreaming about wanting to be a doctor. I know the requirements are tough, and the work is strenuous. What I can conjecture, however, is that as long as one sets their mind to something, they can do it, right? Even become a doctor. The fact that my GPA is not as high as I'd like it to be worries me, though (3.15). Lately, I've just laid all my worries upon God, knowing that he can do anything. And if this is a dream of mine, I can accomplish it.

What was ya'll GPA when leaving highschool?

I guess what I'm looking for is a bit of advice, so if anyone would like to, please feel free to reply.

By the way, I want to be an Emergency Physician.

Nikee

Hey there Nikee,

First off, let me tell you that your high-school GPA is hardly relevant at all to your ability to become a doctor. As you've noticed in here, these people had low GPA's and now excelled in post-secondary to become doctors. I came out of High School with a 4.0 GPA, and did very bad in my first year of university. However, I've learned a lot about what kind of things are expected of me at university, and I hope to do a lot better in my upcoming second year. Here are some good questions for you to reaffirm if you want to be a doctor or maybe choose another career.

1) Do you love learning about the human body, anatomy, and medicine? (If you have already been exposed to it)

2) Are you prepared to work your butt off like you never have before, both while at college, med school, in your residency, and then as a doctor?

3) Are you prepared to spend more than 10 years after high school in training?

4) Do you find that helping other people and/or saving lives is one of the most rewarding and best things you can do in life?

Hell, I'm sure you've heard all these quetsions before...But I think the most important question to answer "yes" to is #4...Without that, I think you'd become bitter after being exposed to all the negative stuff that MD's deal with. Well, anyways, good luck with your studies and I hope everything works out for you in the future!