Where do I start?

[sardaukar12]

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It has been 10 years since I graduated from high school, and I have had no college education whatsoever, aside from a computer technician certification. I want to start college now (better late than never 🙂) and gear towards pre-med. I have a family to support, so I wouldn't be able to do it full time, but it would still get done. So here are my questions:

1. What major should I focus on?
2. What classes should I take. I know be basic requirments like biology, chemistry, psysiology, etc, but what should I start off with?
3. What kind of GPA do medical schools look for?
4. Can I do medical school part time, or do they only take full time students?
5. With the way the economy is doing, will a medical career be profitable, or is it becomming a dead end career?
6. How much does it cost to get through medical school? How long does it take to pay off the loans once I start working as a doctor?

Lot of questions, but I'm starting from scratch here. Any help would be appriciated. 😀

 

[HumidBeing]

It has been 10 years since I graduated from high school, and I have had no college education whatsoever, aside from a computer technician certification. I want to start college now (better late than never 🙂) and gear towards pre-med. I have a family to support, so I wouldn't be able to do it full time, but it would still get done. So here are my questions:

Whoa! There are a lot of questions here! First, you may start by reading through different forums, especially the FAQs stickies at the tops of them. Two forums that might be very helpful for you are the Nontraditional Students and Pre-Allopathic [ MD ] . This forum IS for pre-college, but the main focus is on high schoolers.

1. What major should I focus on?

What ever major interests you and you can do well in.

2. What classes should I take. I know be basic requirements like biology, chemistry, phsysiology, etc, but what should I start off with?

What you start with will depend on your current level of preparation. The 4 basic sets of courses that you will need to prepare for the MCAT and as pre-reqs to almost every medical school are one year of each of the following with associated labs: General Biology (for bio majors), General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Physics. Plus one year of college level English classes.

3. What kind of GPA do medical schools look for?

There is a range. You pretty much want to strive for above a 3.5 for allopathic schools. The higher, the better.

4. Can I do medical school part time, or do they only take full time students?

No, it's a full-time commitment.

5. With the way the economy is doing, will a medical career be profitable, or is it becomming a dead end career?

A medical career will never be a dead end career until people no longer become sick or injured. I don't see that happening in the predictable future.

6. How much does it cost to get through medical school? How long does it take to pay off the loans once I start working as a doctor?

A lot. I believe that Texas has a lower cost for residents than other states, but tuition costs alone range from the lower range of the twenty thousands per year for some state schools into (I think) sixty or so thousand per year. It seems like most students accumulate 100-250 thousand worth of debt by the time they are out. How long those it takes to pay off the debt depends on how quickly you pay them off. It varies per person.

Pay range while in residency (after the first four years of med school) is in the low to mid forty thousands. After that, you may become an attending. The pay for that varies greatly, depending on specialty, geography, and type of practice.

My answers are just basic, and my price and pay ranges are ballpark figures, only.

Lot of questions, but I'm starting from scratch here. Any help would be appriciated

. 😀

 

[kdburton]

Whoa! There are a lot of questions here! First, you may start by reading through different forums, especially the FAQs stickies at the tops of them. Two forums that might be very helpful for you are the Nontraditional Students and Pre-Allopathic [ MD ] . This forum IS for pre-college, but the main focus is on high schoolers.

What ever major interests you and you can do well in.

What you start with will depend on your current level of preparation. The 4 basic sets of courses that you will need to prepare for the MCAT and as pre-reqs to almost every medical school are one year of each of the following with associated labs: General Biology (for bio majors), General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Physics. Plus one year of college level English classes.

There is a range. You pretty much want to strive for above a 3.5 for allopathic schools. The higher, the better.

No, it's a full-time commitment.

A medical career will never be a dead end career until people no longer become sick or injured. I don't see that happening in the predictable future.

A lot. I believe that Texas has a lower cost for residents than other states, but tuition costs alone range from the lower range of the twenty thousands per year for some state schools into (I think) sixty or so thousand per year. It seems like most students accumulate 100-250 thousand worth of debt by the time they are out. How long those it takes to pay off the debt depends on how quickly you pay them off. It varies per person.

Pay range while in residency (after the first four years of med school) is in the low to mid forty thousands. After that, you may become an attending. The pay for that varies greatly, depending on specialty, geography, and type of practice.

My answers are just basic, and my price and pay ranges are ballpark figures, only.

. 😀

I agree with all of the above. Its very possible to do undergrad part-time if you need to in order to work and support your family. You must, however, make sure that you're doing well enough in school to get accepted to medical school eventually. I think a 3.5 GPA may be a low number - especially if you're setting a goal. Sure there are plenty of 3.5 GPA'ers that make it into medical school, but definitely the higher you shoot the better your chances are going to be. Med school is full-time as far as I know (usually the only way you can take longer to graduate is if you're doing an extra combined degree or if you're doing something else medicine related in your time off). There are still people who have families and make it through medical school though. You may have to sacrifice some study time, but I know people in my class and those ahead of me with kids, so its definitely possible. You may not be able to contribute much financially to your family however, so it would be beneficial if your significan't other was able to compensate for the lack of income you'll have as a medical student. Good luck

 

[Terpskins99]

No offense, but you have a looooong long way to go.

4 years college + 4 years med school + 3-7 years residency/fellowship = 11-15 years

And this is assuming there are no hiccups to delay you along the way. If I were in your shoes, timing would be more of an issue than the money. Are you willing to compromise all that time watching your kids grow up?

 

[ertraumashield]

It has been 10 years since I graduated from high school, and I have had no college education whatsoever, aside from a computer technician certification. I want to start college now (better late than never 🙂) and gear towards pre-med. I have a family to support, so I wouldn't be able to do it full time, but it would still get done. So here are my questions:

1. What major should I focus on?
2. What classes should I take. I know be basic requirments like biology, chemistry, psysiology, etc, but what should I start off with?
3. What kind of GPA do medical schools look for?
4. Can I do medical school part time, or do they only take full time students?
5. With the way the economy is doing, will a medical career be profitable, or is it becomming a dead end career?
6. How much does it cost to get through medical school? How long does it take to pay off the loans once I start working as a doctor?

Lot of questions, but I'm starting from scratch here. Any help would be appriciated. 😀

1. You should major in Pre-Med and then go onto med.
2. Biology with Laboratory, Inorganic Chemistry with Laboratory, Organic Chemistry with Laboratory , Physics, English, Calculus or College Level Math & Biochemistry
3. Usually a 3.5 or higher
4. You can usually pick and choose your courses and times of the courses
5. Right now, their are an overabundance of cardiologist and doctors. The med. field is in need of nurses more.
6. This all depends on the med school and how well you do in med school and the type of doctors that you network with.

I wish you the best of luck as you start this new chapter in you life! :]

 

[MilkmanAl]

Most schools don't have a pre-med major. You just have to major in whatever you want and take all the required pre-requisite classes that your major doesn't encompass.

Just for the record, the average GPA for matriculants was something like a 3.65 last year.

Right now, their are an overabundance of cardiologist and doctors.

Uh...no. There are more people going into medicine these days due to the economy, increased class sizes, and increased number of schools, but there is still a massive doctor shortage, particularly in primary care fields.