what class do i have to take to become a pediatrician?

Hi Sheila,

Education
General - As a Pediatrician, you will ALWAYS be learning!
After high school, you need 4 years of undergraduate courses at a college or university (which will get you a BS, BA, or other Bachelor's degree). After completing college, you will need to attend 4 years of Medical School (which will get you an MD or DO degree).

After this, you are a "general" doctor. Most of the time, these new doctors go on to learn a specialty in medicine, such as pediatrics. This entails at least 3 more years of "Residency" training (the first year of residency was formerly called an "Internship"). In the case of pediatrics, the training of residency is 3 years.

After completing these 3 years, you are now a pediatrician and are "eligible" to become "certified" in pediatrics by passing a rigorous test that deals with medical conditions related to infants and children. This is the ultimate goal of a pediatrician's training.

Bottom line: 4 years college + 4 years medical school + 3 years of residency = 11 years (after high school).

High School -
Classes: Basic Sciences (biology, chemistry, physics, algebra, geometry, calculus if possible).
Humanities (English, a foreign language - we'd recommend Spanish)
Get involved in high school charity organizations, like the Key Club, and extracurricular programs like student government, music programs, and sports.
Plan to get into the best 4-year college your grades allow. The better (and thus the harder) the more likely you are to get into medical school.

College-
You simply need to fulfill the basic science course requirements that most medical schools recommend. These include:
Biology - 1-2 courses of basic, 1 course of genetics, 1 course of microbiology, 1 course of molecular biology.
Chemistry - 1-2 courses in basic, 1-2 courses of Organic Chemistry.
Physics - 1 course in basic.
Math - 2 courses in calculus.

Medical schools LOVE to see volunteer activities during college - such as Circle K, volunteering at your local hospital or homeless shelter, etc. It is important to show you have an interest in the medical field by working in some manner around medical people - whether it is getting a summer job in a pharmacy or in a nursing home as a nurse's aide.

Medical School (or Medical College)
The first two years are focused on basic medical sciences, like human anatomy, physiology, chemistry, microbiology, pharmacology, neuroanatomy, etc. The second two years focus on clinical sciences, where you start to really get "hands-on" experience with patients. These courses include Internal Medicine, Radiology, Cardiology, Surgery, Emergency Medicine, OB/GYN, etc. (and Pediatrics!).

Sometime during your 3rd or 4th year of medical school, you will decide on a specialty area of medicine. Specialties are divided into "Primary Care" specialties, like Family Practice, Internal Medicine, and Pediatrics; and "Subspecialty Care", like surgery, orthopedics, cardiology, neurosurgery, gastroenterology, etc.).

Residency
Once done with Medical School, you are now officially a doctor. Your skills will now be refined, and if you choose Pediatrics, you will enjoy the wonderful and challenging world of dealing with and treating children.

This will be the most difficult 3 years of your training, and likely, of your life! You start becoming more and more responsible for the care of patients -often extremely sick patients in the hospital with the most severe types of illnesses. In Pediatrics, be prepared to not only deal with fun children, but children that are ill, often severely so; be prepared to deal with anxious parents - some rightly so, others unrightly so - regardless, you must deal with them professionally and compassionately.

Read more important information in:

http://www.yourpediatrician.com/BecomingAPed.htm

Success in your studies!