1 answer
Chanhyeok
Student
LaGrange, Georgia
1
Question
Updated
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What is residency in context of medicine and doctors?
How long does a newly graduated and hired medical physician, such as a Neurosurgeon?
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1 answer
Karin P.
Lecturer, Academic Advisor, Career Coach
1085
Answers
Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany
Updated
Karin’s Answer
Hi Chanhyeok,
It's great that you are interested in a medical career. Medical education is long, and neurosurgery is on the long side, even for medical careers.
To become a neurosurgeon, you first need to earn a bachelors degree (4 years) in any field. Many students choose biology, chemistry, biochemistry or a similar science degree. But you can major in anything that you are interested in and that you enjoy. You also have to pass a list of pre-requisite courses before you can apply to medical school. You need to check the pre-requisites for each school that you might consider. The advantage of a sciency undergraduate degree would be that many of the pre-requisites will be covered in your curriculum for the bachelors.
In order to have a competitive application for medical school, you need to have an excellent GPA and pass the MCAT with a high score. You also need to have medical experience, i.e. hours as a volunteer or in a hospital job and volunteer activity. Get some research experience under your belt too, if you can.
You'll then be in medical school for 4 years. The first 2 years are mostly book-learning. In the last 2 years you'll do clinical rotations through several specialties. That's when you pick your specialty. You train in that specialty during your residency and possibly a fellowship. The residency for neurosurgery takes most commonly 7 years. After the residency you can take board exams in your specialty and now you are a doctor of e.g. neurosurgery and allowed to practice.
I hope this helps! All the best to you!
KP
It's great that you are interested in a medical career. Medical education is long, and neurosurgery is on the long side, even for medical careers.
To become a neurosurgeon, you first need to earn a bachelors degree (4 years) in any field. Many students choose biology, chemistry, biochemistry or a similar science degree. But you can major in anything that you are interested in and that you enjoy. You also have to pass a list of pre-requisite courses before you can apply to medical school. You need to check the pre-requisites for each school that you might consider. The advantage of a sciency undergraduate degree would be that many of the pre-requisites will be covered in your curriculum for the bachelors.
In order to have a competitive application for medical school, you need to have an excellent GPA and pass the MCAT with a high score. You also need to have medical experience, i.e. hours as a volunteer or in a hospital job and volunteer activity. Get some research experience under your belt too, if you can.
You'll then be in medical school for 4 years. The first 2 years are mostly book-learning. In the last 2 years you'll do clinical rotations through several specialties. That's when you pick your specialty. You train in that specialty during your residency and possibly a fellowship. The residency for neurosurgery takes most commonly 7 years. After the residency you can take board exams in your specialty and now you are a doctor of e.g. neurosurgery and allowed to practice.
I hope this helps! All the best to you!
KP