How long does it take to be a doctor and other questions please help

[Afghan]

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Hello everyone,

I'm wanting to be a doctor in the near future, God willingly. I'm currently in an open program in my University meaning I am taking University courses that counts towards my future degree; but currently I am in no degree as I am confused 🙁

Currently I am taking business courses, but the thing is Medicine has always interested me; the thing that stopped me is the length of time required to be a doctor. I am currently 19, took a year off after high school. My question is basically in Canada, how long does it take to be a fully licensed doctor, how many years of med school to get into residency and so on? How old will I be maximum, after I'm done? I also have another question, I am applying towards a degree this coming fall, would it be better if I take a Bsc as undergrad? Majoring in Biological sciences or Health Sciences? What happens if I take BBA? Or something else? Will it mess me up for the MCAT? Gaah so confused.

Thanks everyone. 🙂

 

[LV16]

To answer your question about how long it takes to become a doctor, four years of your undergraduate studies, then four years of medical school, and then 3-7 years of residency I believe (depending on the specialty you choose). So if you're 19, you'll be done with your undergrad. stuff at 23 right? Assuming you go to medical school right after with no breaks, you'll finish medical school at 27, then 3-7 years of residency. So the earliest would be 30-31 I think. Also, it does NOT matter what you major in. You can, and should major in anything that interests you. About the MCAT, there's really no way they can "mess you up" for it. But you may end up studying for the MCAT during your other school work.

Hope that helped. 🙂

 

[Arijos0222]

Hello everyone,

I'm wanting to be a doctor in the near future, God willingly. I'm currently in an open program in my University meaning I am taking University courses that counts towards my future degree; but currently I am in no degree as I am confused 🙁

Currently I am taking business courses, but the thing is Medicine has always interested me; the thing that stopped me is the length of time required to be a doctor. I am currently 19, took a year off after high school. My question is basically in Canada, how long does it take to be a fully licensed doctor, how many years of med school to get into residency and so on? How old will I be maximum, after I'm done? I also have another question, I am applying towards a degree this coming fall, would it be better if I take a Bsc as undergrad? Majoring in Biological sciences or Health Sciences? What happens if I take BBA? Or something else? Will it mess me up for the MCAT? Gaah so confused.

Thanks everyone. 🙂

If you are taking business courses, i'm assuming that you haven't shadowed a Doctor. Get some experience and actually decide if you want to become one. Also, since you asked how many years it takes to become a Physician, i'm not sure if you are aware of all the other pro's and cons of Medicine in general. Google it, look it up, research.... Before you go and make the decision to try to get into Medical School.

 

[Medstart108]

Hello everyone,

I'm wanting to be a doctor in the near future, God willingly. I'm currently in an open program in my University meaning I am taking University courses that counts towards my future degree; but currently I am in no degree as I am confused 🙁

Currently I am taking business courses, but the thing is Medicine has always interested me; the thing that stopped me is the length of time required to be a doctor. I am currently 19, took a year off after high school. My question is basically in Canada, how long does it take to be a fully licensed doctor, how many years of med school to get into residency and so on? How old will I be maximum, after I'm done? I also have another question, I am applying towards a degree this coming fall, would it be better if I take a Bsc as undergrad? Majoring in Biological sciences or Health Sciences? What happens if I take BBA? Or something else? Will it mess me up for the MCAT? Gaah so confused.

Thanks everyone. 🙂

My guess is you are from Ontario. I am also from there, so i know a bit about the undergrad programs.

The absolute earliest you can become a fully licensed physician is at 26 if you go to the University of Alberta (do 2 years and apply), get into med school at Calgary (3 years MD)
and do a Family medicine residency (2 years in Canada)

More likely you will take 4 years of undergrad, and get into a 4 year MD program (the 3 year MD programs are at McMaster and Calgary).

This is assuming no gap years and you get in straight after undergrad.

The easiest and simplest path for undergrad would be doing a degree in the health/bio sciences. You will likely already have your pre-req's finished when you apply for medical school. If you do a BBA at say Schulich or Laurier, you will need to do biology, chemistry pre-reqs. I've asked Schulich and they say you can be pre-med for BBA but not for iBBA because of the language courses, however you will have a difficult time because of the intensity of the program.

The maximum can go up forever. If you fail to get into medical school which happens to many Canadians, you will need to reapply. Depending on your specialty, residency can take anywhere from 2-8 years (keep in mind you will be paid and Canadian residency salaries rise faster, by 8th year you will make around 90k)

 

[Afghan]

Thanks for your replies, it helped a lot! and yes I live in Calgary, I'm looking to go into UofC's Med school 🙂

Thanks again.