Hi! When I grow up I want to be an Anesthesiologist. I've heard that they make lots of money and that's one of the reason why I want to be an Anesthesiologist. I want to be able to support my mum and dad and I don't want to be in the same situation we are in right now when I grow up. I go to a talented and gifted school in Downtown Dallas ( which is in texas ) where I'm doing very good in all of my classes except French. For high school I want to go to School of Health Professions at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview. After that I want to start at SMU then perhaps go to Harvard Medical School. What I'm most concerned about is that it takes 12 years of college and I want to also find out what kind of jobs I can get while I'm in college besides working at McDonald, instead I'm wondering if I could work in like a hospital or something and get paid. I also what to know how much time your able to spend with your family. I want an Anesthesiologist to answer my questions and maybe tell me some other things that I should know. Thank You!!!
Hey, xeon. Lazylikeapanda gave some really good advice, so I'll just re-iterate with my own spin. To become an anesthesiologist, it takes ~12 years of post-high school instruction. ~4 years for college, 4 for medical school, and 4 years of residency.
You mention your high school grades, but rest assured they have almost no impact whatsoever on your future career. As soon as you get into college, what and how you did in high school is pretty irrelevant. This may be disappointing, or you may be thrilled with that idea. At this stage though, you only need to concentrate on getting into college. SMU would be a fine school to get into. I don't know how competitive it is, so you'll have to gauge for yourself how hard you need to work to get in there.
Once you're in college, if you're really set on becoming a doctor, you probably should start working toward it almost right away. You can do some volunteering at a hospital, join some sort of health society, and shadow a few doctors around. Lots of med schools look positively on research these days, so maybe somewhere in those 4 years find a professor who seems cool and help out with a small paper or something. During this time, you need to consistently get great grades as well, as a 3.5 is probably the minimum GPA you want to maintain to give yourself a good shot at getting into medical schools. Finally, you get to take the MCAT which you'll need to score pretty well on to keep yourself in the running. As for jobs, you can probably only get a few restaurant type jobs. A job in a hospital would be possible, but it still wouldn't pay much and you'd probably be cleaning out bedpans.
I can give a lot less advice on medical school as I'm just starting this fall. However, I think the above continues to apply. Show some interest in anesthesiology early. Maybe do a touch of research. Get good grades. Etc. Again, as for jobs, you probably can't do much. Some people have jobs in med school, but they're in the minority. And if you go straight from college to medical school, you probably don't have many high-paying skills to leverage. So, again, you'd be working for low wages at a restaurant or something like that. Finally, I'd probably not set my heart on any particular medical school (especially Harvard). No one can really count on getting into one specific school as the competition is fierce.
Residency is a can of worms I won't even try to open as I'm a long way from there. You do get paid in residency, and it's not bad by general American standards (low to mid 40's to start, with raises every year), but for the hours you work, the education you've received, and the responsibility you have, it's not much. By this point, you're in an anesthesiology residency, so as long as you continue to do well, you'll be an anesthesiologist at the end of those 4 years.
Geesh, I always end up tapping out novels in these forums, but that's my best advice. Enjoy each step of the way as best as you can. I see the phrase "lost my 20s" a lot on SDN, and I think you have to be very conscientious about taking time out and spending time with people you care about. I'll be 29 before I start med school, so I guess my 20's are already mostly over. Hopefully I won't lose my 30's.
Regardless, medical school and residency are long and hard. If family time and monetary comfort are your highest concerns, I think there are some other jobs out that that would let you get
