Medical School

Most prospective medical school students, unlike law school students, enter into the decision to go to medical school with care, since the work required of a medical school student is well-known. A student can study hard for two years without knowing that he or she will be placed in a medical school, and out of all prospective applicants, only 33% are actually placed in a medical school. After four years of medical school, three to twelve years of residency is required of prospective doctors; many residencies require doctors to work long hours and some night shifts.

If the prospect of many years of hard work as not deterred you from attending medical school, it is good to start researching various medical schools and their requirements early on to increase your chances of earning a place. Most medical schools require their students to take undergraduate courses in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and lab work in addition to traditional distribution requirements such as math and English. As long as you take these pre-med classes, you undergraduate major can be anything from Political Science to Theatre, and there is no reason why you have to adhere to a strictly science curriculum.

Some students prefer larger medical schools, while some prefer a smaller student-teacher ratio. Since medical school usually entails a large expense, you might opt for going to a medical school close to where your parents live and living with them, if they allow it (after all, they should be proud of you for making it into medical school). Completing a medical degree usually takes the better part of a decade, if not longer. Since few students can put their life on hold, balancing marriage and family life and medical school becomes an issue for many students. This usually means that a spouse needs to contribute substantially to the household income or take care of children when necessary. Medical school requires a lot of energy and persistence, but for most students, it is worth it.