*long post* Interested in Neurosurgery.. Senior in High School

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valeseus

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Hi. I'd like to start this post with an introduction. I am a senior in high school now, but I am graduating with a two year Associate in Arts degree, for free, thanks to a program created by a local but popular community college. The program started me out in my sophomore year by making me finish my major high school requirements. After sophomore year, I was moved to a full time college position on the college campus, taking college courses with other students that were older than my grandparents.

Up until the second semester of Junior year, I had my mind set on a business major. This was partially because of my first "retail" job and partially because I had a false ego that I would be able to succeed on a completely different level than anyone else with a business degree. However, over the semester break, a friend of mine who has been interested in neurosurgery his whole life and has a family based around the medical field (step-dad anesthesiology, dad nurse, mom CRNA, list goes on and on) completely changed my mind on where my career was going to be headed. He made me realize that the good grades I had achieved and the good education that I had been blessed with was supposed to go towards something great, compared to something that anyone who just finished their GED could do.

I was already signed up for the second semester business courses, basically a bunch of free-A classes. I managed to change most of my classes to get started on some pre-req's for medical though, like Chem 1, Precalc, etc. I've continued on the medical path and now that I am onto my senior year I have completed a variety of pre-med courses already : Chem 1, Chem 2, College Algebra, Precalc, Trig, Statistics, and I am currently in Bio 1, heading to Bio 2 next semester. It's hard to manage a bunch of medical-based and math courses in my program though because I still have to take humanities, ethics, national government, etc. I'm resting at about a 3.8 GPA, 4.6 weighted (not sure if this even matters).

With my background out of the way, I need some advice for my Bachelor's and then so on. In terms of a University, I wanted to attend the University of Florida, due to it's med school and the fact that it's an in state college, which my Bright Futures scholarship will help pay for. I took the SAT on Saturday, and I'll post my scores when I get them back. I am scheduled to take the ACT in a few weeks. I haven't started my application for UF yet, but it is due on November 1st.

The only thing I am worried about right now is getting accepted into UF; I don't have that great of an extra-curricular background besides a Science and Engineering Club that I just joined, as well as the National Honors Society. Also, I am not sure what my test scores are right now. Not only that, but I have to get into a medical school as well. I'm going to post my questions at the end.

Neurosurgery was not really interesting to me until my friend told me how much money could be made (don't go flame me yet lol). I decided to just hop aboard this dream and change my intended major blindly, but now I have been actually looking into a medical career. I kind of see the medical field as a place that I can contribute. The long hours that doctors have to work, the early morning emergency procedures that they have to rush in with slacks on, and the achievement that can found from going through and not giving up on the path to being a doctor are just a few examples that make me so interested in it. All of the posts that I have been looking at for the past few days have drawn me into the realm of medicine.

I've been delving through pages and pages of forum posts on this site as well as a few other more-specified sites about the path to becoming a neurosurgeon; what it takes, how "you" will fail, "why don't you just pick another profession", and countless other topics, with only a few being complete and useful.

However, I'd like to recieve some feedback about my path and ask a few questions that a lot of people like me are probably searching for the answers to.

Personally, what advice do you have for me?
1. What would you consider "on track" in pre-med? GPA, volunteering, courses taken, etc.
2. What would you do differently on your journey?
3. Should I apply to any other colleges, in or out of state? What about med schools once I get there?
4. What other medical professions are not as daunting but still close to neurosurgery (a "less time, less reward" or even "less time, more reward" kind of thing, whether the reward is achievement or money)?
5. Are the stereotypes of a neurosurgeon not being able to have a social and healthy lifestyle true or just exaggerated?
6. What would you say the single most important thing is on the path to becoming a neurosurgeon?

Feel free to answer one or more of these, or just one. PLEASE allow for this thread to be constructive. In advance, I appreciate your replies and thank you for your time and advice. And if you have something rude or destructive to say.... just dont be that guy.

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Hi. I'd like to start this post with an introduction. I am a senior in high school now, but I am graduating with a two year Associate in Arts degree, for free, thanks to a program created by a local but popular community college. The program started me out in my sophomore year by making me finish my major high school requirements. After sophomore year, I was moved to a full time college position on the college campus, taking college courses with other students that were older than my grandparents.

Up until the second semester of Junior year, I had my mind set on a business major. This was partially because of my first "retail" job and partially because I had a false ego that I would be able to succeed on a completely different level than anyone else with a business degree. However, over the semester break, a friend of mine who has been interested in neurosurgery his whole life and has a family based around the medical field (step-dad anesthesiology, dad nurse, mom CRNA, list goes on and on) completely changed my mind on where my career was going to be headed. He made me realize that the good grades I had achieved and the good education that I had been blessed with was supposed to go towards something great, compared to something that anyone who just finished their GED could do.

I was already signed up for the second semester business courses, basically a bunch of free-A classes. I managed to change most of my classes to get started on some pre-req's for medical though, like Chem 1, Precalc, etc. I've continued on the medical path and now that I am onto my senior year I have completed a variety of pre-med courses already : Chem 1, Chem 2, College Algebra, Precalc, Trig, Statistics, and I am currently in Bio 1, heading to Bio 2 next semester. It's hard to manage a bunch of medical-based and math courses in my program though because I still have to take humanities, ethics, national government, etc. I'm resting at about a 3.8 GPA, 4.6 weighted (not sure if this even matters).

With my background out of the way, I need some advice for my Bachelor's and then so on. In terms of a University, I wanted to attend the University of Florida, due to it's med school and the fact that it's an in state college, which my Bright Futures scholarship will help pay for. I took the SAT on Saturday, and I'll post my scores when I get them back. I am scheduled to take the ACT in a few weeks. I haven't started my application for UF yet, but it is due on November 1st.

The only thing I am worried about right now is getting accepted into UF; I don't have that great of an extra-curricular background besides a Science and Engineering Club that I just joined, as well as the National Honors Society. Also, I am not sure what my test scores are right now. Not only that, but I have to get into a medical school as well. I'm going to post my questions at the end.

Neurosurgery was not really interesting to me until my friend told me how much money could be made (don't go flame me yet lol). I decided to just hop aboard this dream and change my intended major blindly, but now I have been actually looking into a medical career. I kind of see the medical field as a place that I can contribute. The long hours that doctors have to work, the early morning emergency procedures that they have to rush in with slacks on, and the achievement that can found from going through and not giving up on the path to being a doctor are just a few examples that make me so interested in it. All of the posts that I have been looking at for the past few days have drawn me into the realm of medicine.

I've been delving through pages and pages of forum posts on this site as well as a few other more-specified sites about the path to becoming a neurosurgeon; what it takes, how "you" will fail, "why don't you just pick another profession", and countless other topics, with only a few being complete and useful.

However, I'd like to recieve some feedback about my path and ask a few questions that a lot of people like me are probably searching for the answers to.

Personally, what advice do you have for me?
1. What would you consider "on track" in pre-med? GPA, volunteering, courses taken, etc.
2. What would you do differently on your journey?
3. Should I apply to any other colleges, in or out of state? What about med schools once I get there?
4. What other medical professions are not as daunting but still close to neurosurgery (a "less time, less reward" or even "less time, more reward" kind of thing, whether the reward is achievement or money)?
5. Are the stereotypes of a neurosurgeon not being able to have a social and healthy lifestyle true or just exaggerated?
6. What would you say the single most important thing is on the path to becoming a neurosurgeon?

Feel free to answer one or more of these, or just one. PLEASE allow for this thread to be constructive. In advance, I appreciate your replies and thank you for your time and advice. And if you have something rude or destructive to say.... just dont be that guy.

Hey, let me be blunt here. You are many, many steps away from becoming a neurosurgeon. Your main goal here should be getting into a good undergrad and everything else is on the backburner, way too into the future to think about. Since getting into a good undergraduate school is your current task you should be posting in the "pre-allopathic" or "high school section of SDN. The people frequenting this subforum are people who are applying to neurosurgery, are neurosurgery residents, or are attendings. I am personally almost 9 years past your stage in life, I couldn't tell you first thing about what undergrad you should apply to. If you go to the forums I mentioned above you'll get much better advice on that. One last thing on that is that there are thousands of kids just like you who did well in high school. Have a 3.8 in high school does not mean you are destined for greatness by any means, nor does it really mean you're special. You need to lose this mentality. What determines your trajectory in life from here on out will be your work ethic.

Another thing, it sounds like you have very little to no clinical experience. You should do some shadowing, go shadow some different doctors. Go work in a hospital. See what being a physician is like. Don't just talk to your friends parents, go into the hospital and follow a doctor around.

That is my advice to you as a neurosurgery resident. It is pointless to give you any other advice as you are so early in your path. Find out if you want to be a doctor and apply to medical school. That is your next step.
 
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