Can an average student get into medical school?

In this brief guide, we are going to answer the question “Can an average student get into medical school?’’ and which requirements need to become a doctor.

Can an average student get into medical school?

Yes,  an average student can get into medical school. Having the best grades won’t make a student be a better doctor, but a better student. Medicine requires passion, responsibility, perseverance, critical thinking, desire to improve, and interest in research.

Medicine is a very traditional career, although it is not for this reason the most chosen among the wide academic panorama that is offered today. 

There may be plenty of lawyers, politicians, and engineers but the medical community is very small

People who choose to study Medicine must take this career as a true vocation because it is nothing like the others. However many students choose it due to family tradition or pressures from their environment and then regret it.

The role of doctors has been defined across time and cultures to be hope, be supportive, be warm, be able to help regain the health of others.  Medicine is focused on being one of gathering patient data and treating disease, of caring and curing. The practice of medicine is founded on being attached to science and humanism.

However, are grades important? Grades are a fundamental tool for signaling our knowledge and abilities. 

Nevertheless, grades play an important role in students that aspires of going to college. 

Colleges may consider accepting or deny students according to their grades. Bringing as consequence a big competition among students for having the best grades for the Medical Schools application.

What is Medicine?

It’s the science dedicated to the study of life, health, disease, and death of human beings and/or non-human animals. In other words, it is the art that deals with the maintenance of health or with curing and preventing conditions and ailments in humans. Medicine encompasses various professions such as physicians, nursing, dentists, pharmacists, physiotherapists, etc.

How to become a doctor?

If you want to become a doctor you will have to develop the skills and knowledge necessary in medical practice. However, this process is very complex and requires a multi-step process. That’s why it is so important to research the training process before taking the start plunge. 

Study medicine is not easy so starting to plan ahead can be an advantage. In more detail, here are the major steps that physicians follow to prepare in their careers: 

1. Do well in high-school: If your dream is studying medicine and become a doctor, you will have to focus on high school subjects, as we mentioned before, this career is a very competitive field, so you will have to distinguish among others students. 
2. Complete an Undergraduate Education: To complete the academic preparation of a general practitioner, first of all, you must study an undergraduate degree. These undergraduate programs must be within the areas of Biology, Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Physics. All medical schools require an undergraduate education without exceptions.
3. Apply to medical school: Once pre-grade or undergraduate is already, you must pass the medical school admission test, an exam that is designed to measure student knowledge and skills in four critical areas: writing, verbal assessment, biological sciences, and physical sciences. Once you’ve passed this test, you can really start studying.
4. Complete training medical school: Generally, training in medical school requires four years of full-time study. During those four years, students must take pre-clinical and clinical studies. Pre-clinical studies are generally completed in the first two years and consist of related courses in Biology, Anatomy, Chemistry, and Research. For the next two years, students begin clinical studies, which consist of more practice and research.
5. Residency: To complement the medical school program, it is required 3 minimum years of residence in the hospital. However, it can be extended up to 7 years depending on the medical specialty chosen.
6. Graduate from medical school: Once you complete medical school with residency included, you’re officially a doctor!

Why should I study medicine?

If you are considering the idea of ​​applying enter to the medical school, surely you have many doubts and would like to know more reasons to study it, in this brief guide we will show you some of the main reasons of why you should choose the medicine career: 

• Have many job options: The possibilities of work being a doctor are immensely wide in any country.
• Never get bored: As with its immense possibilities of work, medicine is one of the sciences with the greatest number of advances that occur every day, new drugs are created, medical equipment, invasive and non-invasive procedures, increasingly effective treatment options emerge than the previous ones. There is a constant change that can be overwhelming for some, but lovers of innovation, it is a pleasure.
• Social prestige: For centuries, the figure of the doctor is considered one of the most relevant, they are authorities par excellence within any society and it is understandable when thinking about everything they work.
• The satisfaction of helping others: The doctor’s actions can mark for better or for worse the life not only of one but of large numbers of people, who pass through his hands at a certain moment.

Is medicine the perfect career for me?

Careers related to the field of health, are specialties that have a great responsibility. Applicants to this type of profession must evaluate their decision, making a self-analysis about their abilities, skills, and aptitudes. In this way, you can reaffirm your vocation or reconsider an option more suited to your profile.

We will share some questions that respond to the profile that must have a professional dedicated to the field of health.

This is not a vocational test, it’s only a help to better understand our interests and preferences, and make the best decision based on it.

• Are you interested in science and in its different fields?
• Do you have the ability to relate to all kinds of people?
• Do you consider yourself a patient person?
• Do you like to work in a team?
• Do you have a vocation for service?
• Do you consider yourself a persistent person in every area of ​​life?
• Do you consider that you have emotional intelligence? 

If you answered yes to these questions, then you may be looking at the career that is right for you.

Disadvantages of study medicine

• It is not easy.
• There is a huge market for doctors.
• It is one of the longest careers.
• The majority of early-career doctors don’t earn impressive salaries.
• There is no time for luxurious vacations and social life, medical careers need a full-time study.
• High costs to study in medical school.
• High pressure.
• The curriculum doesn’t matter practicing medicine, if you don’t know to apply the knowledge you’re out. 

What Type Of Courses Are Taught In Medical School?

• The First Two Years: You will have to take classes in basic sciences, such as anatomy, biochemistry, microbiology, pathology, and pharmacology.  You will also learn the basics of interviewing and examining a patient.
• Years 3 and 4: In the third and fourth years you will do rotations at hospitals. These years will be crucial to give you a breadth of knowledge and help you consider potential specialties in the future.

How Long Does Medical School Take To Complete?

In U.S medical training generally lasts four years, nevertheless is followed by a residency and that could amount to a combined 10 years or longer of medical training.

What is a specialty in medicine?

A medical specialty is the studies completed by a graduate in Medicine in their postgraduate period, and which derive from a set of specialized medical knowledge relating to a specific area of ​​the human body, to specific surgical techniques, or to a specific diagnostic method.

What specialties are in medicine?

In medicine, there is an expansive field of specialties. Currently, medical specialties are divided into a clinical area, surgery area, laboratory area, and medic-surgery area. However the most popular are

• Allergy & Immunology: It is the medical entity that is dedicated to the care (diagnosis and treatment), prevention, and investigation of diseases of the immune system related to IgE-mediated hypersensitivity reactions; as well as various immunological alterations of childhood and adults including immunodeficiencies and autoimmune diseases.
• Anesthesiology: It is the medical specialty dedicated to the care and special care of patients during surgical interventions or other processes that may be annoying or painful (endoscopy, interventional radiology, etc.).
• Dermatology: Is a medical-surgical specialty that deals with the knowledge of the human skin and the diseases that originally or secondarily affect it, as well as the methods for their prevention and for the preservation or recovery of skin normality.
• Diagnostic Radiology: Radiodiagnosis or Imaging Diagnosis is the medical specialty whose purpose is the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, using as fundamental technical support the images and functional data obtained by means of ionizing or non-ionizing radiation, and other sources of energy.
• Neurology: It is the medical specialty dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the nervous system such as headaches, low back pain, sciatic pain, neuralgia, stroke or cerebral hemorrhage, facial paralysis, meningitis, paralysis of the extremities, neuropathies, Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, etc. 
• Nuclear Medicine: Nuclear medicine radiologists, also called nuclear radiologists, are doctors who use radioactive materials, called radiopharmaceuticals, to diagnose and treat diseases.

What is the highest paying specialty in medicine?

In 2019 it was reported that Doximity physician employment Neurosurgery specialty has the highest payment with $616.823.

Other specialties with high payments are:

• Thoracic Surgery $584,287
• Orthopedic Surgery $526,385
• Vascular Surgery $484,740
• Dermatology $455.255
• Cardiology $453,515
• Plastic Surgery $433.060
• Radiology $428,572

Which skills all students must-have for being successful in medicine?

Medical graduates require certain skills to be sure they will be successful these are:

• Professionalism.
• Capacity for improvement.
• Empathy.
• Teamwork.
• Dedication.
• Resilience and adaptability.
• Medical Knowledge.
• Communication.

FAQ’S: Can an average student get into medical school?

In this brief guide, we have answered the question ‘’Can an average student get into medical school?’’ and which requirements need to become a doctor.

So, are you ready to start this journey?

If you have any questions or comments please let us know.

References

3 reasons to study medicine – David Geffen School of Medicine – Los Angeles, CA. (2014). Retrieved September 21, 2020, from Ucla.edu website.

Fulciniti, F. (2020). The 7 Steps to Becoming a Doctor: A Complete Guide. Retrieved September 21, 2020, from Prepscholar.com website.

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