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Going into college, how do I balance pursuing a career as a famous actor and a pediatrician?

I am a senior about to graduate high-school. I want to be a famous actor and am set on being a pediatrician too. I've been told doing both is impossible, but that won't stop me from doing what I love. There is so much to learn in each field and I love helping people. Both careers give me that opportunity. I feel like at this point I'm off to a good start both academically and professionally and I want to ensure I stay on the right path to accomplish both.
Thank you, Ashton. #pre-med #pediatrician #film #theatre #actor #film-acting #musical-theatre #broadway

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Nicole’s Answer

<h1>1 Nothing is impossible.</h1>
<h1>2 There are 24 hours in a day.</h1>

I don't think you have to limit your dreams, but they may need to take turns do to time limitations. You want to succeed in both fields, and that will take time and energy. Since they don't overlap in fields of study, you will either need to split your focus or structure your education in a way that allows for you to grow first in one field and then in another.


My suggestion -- given these two inparticular -- would be to go to college to study to be a pediatrician, and act in Community Theatres, small non-professional companies and such in your spare time. (The reverse would really work.)


And if people give you any grief, you can always cite this actor from the Big Bang Theory as your inspiration:


"Mayim Bialik is best known for her role as the title character in US sitcom Blossom, which ran from 1991 to 1995. She has also acted in several movies, including 1988’s Beaches, and appeared as a guidance counselor in TV show The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Currently, she has a recurring role as Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler in CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory.


In 2000, Bialik earned a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience, Hebrew and Jewish Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. Seven years later, after a brief break to pick up her acting career, Bialik graduated from UCLA with a PhD in Neuroscience, specializing in hypothalamic activity in patients with Prader-Willi syndrome. Bialik became interested in science thanks to an inspirational biology tutor. “She was an amazing, amazing teacher,” says Bialik. “I think having that one-on-one experience and having a female role model really gave me the confidence to fall in love with science.”
Thank you comment icon Thank you very much, i am leaning toward structuring my education to do one and then the other. This is both encouraging and reassuring advice. Ashley
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Hank’s Answer

Which one is the hobby? One concern I'll share is over your desire to be a "famous" actor. Acting is a demanding profession. Most actors are not famous. Most are not even known, really. The quest for fame is a dangerous one. Why? It focuses on the wrong goal. It's also in conflict with your statement, "...and I love helping people." Fame is all about you. No one else. And fame finds you, which means it can't really even be a goal -- not an achievable one anyway. As a result, fame is a fool's goal because nothing one does will ever truly lead to it.


Better, perhaps, to strive to be the best you can possibly be. Set no limits. Set no boundaries. And forget fame - the odds of it finding you are nearly zero.


Nearly. :-)
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Rachel’s Answer

I would say go for it. There was a student in my medical school class who had been in a boy band and then a couple of Hollywood films prior to starting medical school. I must emphasize that you have to get A's in your pre med classes and maintain a 3.8+ GPA. If you can do that, you are free to pursue all other dreams simultaneously.
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Richard’s Answer

You will need to get good grades in college in order to apply for medical school. At the medical school I attended, the average GPA is reported to be 3.85, so even one or two B's can hurt your chances of acceptance.

So you probably need to focus on one at a time. There would be no problem with focusing on with concentrating on acting while you are young and then going to medical school a little later. We had several people in my class that had careers before med school. The oldest student in my class was 38; and graduated when he was 42.
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Bob’s Answer

Ashton;
You've received some wonderful advice from both Nicole and Hank above and it's important to heed it. While it's important to be ambitious and have lofty goals, I hate to say, there's also a point at which you have to be somewhat realistic. Becoming a pediatrician takes years of study as you know. It's not a part time endeavor. Neither is acting, it also takes years of study and practice. I would agree that it's best to pursue your doctoral studies at this point and consider acting as a hobby until you get a sense of it and learn it, and then if work comes from it, you can balance it against your medical career. Therefore, from a time and focus standpoint, it seems much more practical to fit acting into the academic requirements of medicine than the other way around. And, whatever you do, do not go into acting because you want to be famous. That's the worst reason and as Hank said above, one based upon ego. True actors pursue acting because it is a passion, a calling, a love of the craft. Like medicine, that takes years to hone.
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