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Charm
Student
Smallwood, NY
1
Question
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What should I do as a 11th grader who wants to become a Cardiothoracic Surgeon which requires a good college to get into yet my school doesn’t offer AP classes which colleges strongly look at ?
I'm enrolled in my school's BOCES Career and Technical Education where I take Health Occupations where we learn about the medical field in 11th grade, and in 12th grade I can continue to the second class where I look forward to joining New Visions as it's more rigorous which I need. I’d love to go to John’s Hopkins University or Yale but under if my school is providing me with the classes needed to get into these high and selective colleges.
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1 answer
Karin P.
Lecturer, Academic Advisor, Career Coach
1085
Answers
Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany
Updated
Karin’s Answer
Hi Charm,
You are getting ahead of yourself. There is no need to decide on medical specialties just yet. You have another 8 or so years of school before you get there.
Right now, you need to focus on your math and science classes in high-school and on getting into college. Yes, AP classes would be good to get used to rigorous work, and Admission Officers look for that, but they also look at what you have available at your school. AOs have all the stats about your school. They look at what you did with the opportunities you had.
Having said that, if you have the opportunity to take dual enrollment classes at a local Community College, you should do that.
You also need to accumulate medical experiences and volunteer activities for your college and med school applications.
Are you doing any other extracurriculars that might be helpful in the admission process?
I hope this helps! All the best to you!
KP
You are getting ahead of yourself. There is no need to decide on medical specialties just yet. You have another 8 or so years of school before you get there.
Right now, you need to focus on your math and science classes in high-school and on getting into college. Yes, AP classes would be good to get used to rigorous work, and Admission Officers look for that, but they also look at what you have available at your school. AOs have all the stats about your school. They look at what you did with the opportunities you had.
Having said that, if you have the opportunity to take dual enrollment classes at a local Community College, you should do that.
You also need to accumulate medical experiences and volunteer activities for your college and med school applications.
Are you doing any other extracurriculars that might be helpful in the admission process?
I hope this helps! All the best to you!
KP
Thank you for you response. I’m in the Red Cross club and my school program with boces has us in a hospital setting where we learn about patients junior year and senior year we actually work with the patients, nothing major mainly shadowing. Also why is it bad to know what specialty I want to be in? I hear from a lot of people my ideas will change or I’m too ahead of myself, which I somewhat believe but also think I know what career and that it’s good to know, no?
Charm
You are very welcome! It's amazing that you are so passionate about medicine and get to have all these experiences at a young age!
It's not bad that you know what you want to be. You can certainly dream and plan ahead. But it doesn't matter at this point because your undergrad years and most of med school will be just the same if you become a cardiothoracic surgeon or a dermatologist. If you change your mind about your specialty, you will still get the same basic training.
Karin P.