First of all, I am sure all of you are sick and tired of my type of sob story. Kids like me who have no direction with flighty interests come in here to lament their lack of decisiveness to a bunch of strangers . I am a high school student (a senior) who loves learning new things, and I've been interested in everything from music to political science to computer engineering. About three months ago the tumbleweed that is my brain came upon medicine as an interesting, engaging, and ever changing field that would also fulfill my passion to help people. Becoming a doctor is now my number one goal, but some things hinder me from selecting pre-med as my major.
1. Am I smart enough? I took the ACT 4 times and ended up scoring a 33. (I didn't study but 4 is a lot of chances). I also slacked a whole bunch in high school and ended up with a 3.86 gpa my junior year. Now that I have decided to increase my work ethic, I have since arrived at the tail end of senior year a gpa of 3.96. ( not top 10% of my class but i do come from a good school district: 18th in the nation)
I'm really scared Ill fail out of pre-med, or even worse, get into med school and fail, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt.
2. Is the paperwork headache unbearable? If the stars align and I do end up graduating medical school and finish residency, is the amount of paperwork under our incredibly complicated healthcare system too much to deal with? I want to be able to focus on my job and my patients, not on the accompanying stacks of insurance hoohah.
3. How do you feel about the debt? Time spent in school and the sacrifices of years aren't really issues for me. I am concerned, however, with the amount of money required to graduate. I just want to know if anyone knows, or if anyone has experience with methods of paying off debt.
4. I am truly interested in psychology and philosophy. Should I major in biology, or take the chance and do psychology on the pre-med track? Does it matter to medical schools, and if so, should I major in something more intensive like biomedical engineering?(University of Alabama will be where I do undergrad, and they have this option available).
I know this is an absolute mess of questions and tangled up thoughts so I thank you for any answers you may have.
1. Am I smart enough? I took the ACT 4 times and ended up scoring a 33. (I didn't study but 4 is a lot of chances). I also slacked a whole bunch in high school and ended up with a 3.86 gpa my junior year. Now that I have decided to increase my work ethic, I have since arrived at the tail end of senior year a gpa of 3.96. ( not top 10% of my class but i do come from a good school district: 18th in the nation)
I'm really scared Ill fail out of pre-med, or even worse, get into med school and fail, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt.
2. Is the paperwork headache unbearable? If the stars align and I do end up graduating medical school and finish residency, is the amount of paperwork under our incredibly complicated healthcare system too much to deal with? I want to be able to focus on my job and my patients, not on the accompanying stacks of insurance hoohah.
3. How do you feel about the debt? Time spent in school and the sacrifices of years aren't really issues for me. I am concerned, however, with the amount of money required to graduate. I just want to know if anyone knows, or if anyone has experience with methods of paying off debt.
4. I am truly interested in psychology and philosophy. Should I major in biology, or take the chance and do psychology on the pre-med track? Does it matter to medical schools, and if so, should I major in something more intensive like biomedical engineering?(University of Alabama will be where I do undergrad, and they have this option available).
I know this is an absolute mess of questions and tangled up thoughts so I thank you for any answers you may have.
Last edited: