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How do I know if pursuing medical school is right for me?

I’m a sophomore in high school, and I’m beginning dual enrollment classes. I’m trying to figure out what I’d like to do in the future so I can gear my electives towards that. I have an interest in medicine, specifically surgery, and I think I could be good in it, but I’m just not sure if I’m ready for the commitment.

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Hamidou’s Answer

Yes it's a good idea 💡
Thank you comment icon Hi Hamidou! Can you give Grace some reasons why it would be a great idea? Sharyn Grose, Admin
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Madison’s Answer

Personally, I always tell people that if these anything else that you’d enjoy as much, you should do something else. If there is nothing else you see yourself HAPPILY doing then become a doctor. You CAN become a doctor, even if you take longer, take a different path, you can make it happen. However, medical school and residency are very long hard commitments and will change your life forever. You need to want it and enjoy it daily for many years and the only way to do that successfully is to know it’s the dream career for you and the one that would make you and your life personally the happiest on MOST days!
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Madison’s Answer

Email local doctors in your area and see if you can shadow them! If there’s a teaching hospital they are more likely to have students shadow but even private offices you can call and sometimes those doctors will let you come spend a few days shadowing them and this will give you a better sense of how this career looks and if you might enjoy it by seeing it first hand!
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Michelle’s Answer

Hello, Grace !

You have good insight while thinking about becoming a surgeon because it is a long road and strong commitment needing support in many ways. It's about twelve years and tuition will be large from undergrad to graduating medical school, so you are thinking correctly and carefully about it.

Your decision is going to depend on what you're able to commit to. Ask yourself which part or parts of this academic route seem not doable for you. There may be other things in your life that you want to develop and focus on that don't fit into long hours studying, lab work, projects, etc. so maybe you should consider something more short term if you find yourself still not ready next year or still not at ease with the idea. Explore other things that you are good at, too. People in medical school sacrifice a lot, not being with friends and family, replacing parties and events with studying, tight financial budget, but they manage and become doctors in the end. It will depend on how you feel about it next year, but don't cancel out other health based careers as there are many to think about that don't require the commitment that medical school requires.

It's never too late to decide, however. You may feel ready for the commitment in your senior year. Things seem to always change and that could mean something else comes along.

Information about particular courses can be accurately obtained by your school guidance counselor because they will be aware of what are the best classes to take regardless if you know what career you want. This requires individualized advice, knowing your situation and the courses you've already taken. I would not worry about the courses too much because you can always enroll in undergraduate college. Take classes that help your GPA stay high.

You still have time to make a decision for your future career. Many people don't know what they'd like to do even while they're in college. We all figure things out at different times. See how you feel next year about choosing medical school and take it from there. Trust your instincts.

I wish you all the best in whatever you decide !
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Hanh’s Answer

I guess you never really know if you like something until you actually try it. But, the effort it takes to get into medical school and finishing with it before you get into a surgical residency is enormous and to find out you don’t actually like it will be crushing on your soul! However, having been in your shoes many years ago, I think I can provide you with some valuable input to ease your fears to a degree but you have to be honest with yourself first. While in high school, I liked biology and health science. That in combination with my strong desire to help people and make a difference in their physical lives made the decision to be a doctor rather easy. You see, my grandfather in Vietnam died due to uncontrolled diabetes. It was the years right after the Vietnam War and the country was devastatingly poor (thanks to the vengeful embargo that the US placed on the country after it embarrassingly hightailed it out of there after causing all the death and destruction but I digress) so even if you had money to buy medicine you couldn’t because there was none available! So, he withered away…went from a robust man to a skeleton (that’s what insulin dependent diabetes will do to you; your cells cannot get the nutrients it need because insulin is not there to allow the cells to pick up the nutrients from the blood stream. You are basically starving to death) This had a profound impact on me and was the driving force for me to be a doctor, so I can help people. Like you I wanted to be a dermatologist! That’s because I suffered from very bad acne while I was in high school so naturally being a dermatologist was of great interest. So, I got a pharmacy degree and although I loved it and at one brief point decided to pursue either pharmacology or medicinal chemistry instead of medicine, I returned to medicine after spending a month at the VA hospital in my last rotation of pharmacy school. There, we interacted with the medical residents and attending physicians while they were evaluating and diagnosing patients. This investigative inquiry was right up my ally as I am an intensely curious person who likes to solve problems! So, I switched back to pursuing medicine. While in medical school, I decided I wanted to be a plastics and reconstructive surgeon because I have an eye for aesthetics and helping to reconstruct people who are disfigured would be very gratifying. And when I finished medical school and was in my internship, I became interested in urology and decided to switch from plastic surgery to urology. One thing I will mention that most lay people don’t know is that what your medical specialty is is not really determined by you especially if it’s a surgical specialty because there are less training spots available than there are applicants. So only the “best” medical students will be given the opportunity. That means that someone who really wanted to be a surgeon will have to settle for some other specialty. That has to do with economics by the way as the government essentially pays for doctors’ post medical school training and they want the person who statistically has the higher chance of succeeding to get the position. That’s understandable however, with a field such as surgery, where it necessitates that you have manual dexterity, someone who is book smart and therefore looks good on paper may be a so so surgeon while someone who didn’t score as high in school but with great hands will have been deprived of a rewarding career! While I was accepted into a urology residency, I looked at the reality of things. First it was going to be a long residency. Because I switched in the middle of internship, I had to repeat the internship year which meant that I would have to do 8 years of training (2 internship years plus 6 years of urology). I would have been 35 years old by the time I actually become a urologist. Then, as a female urologist, if I joined an established practice as a general urologist (not specializing in anything in particular), I would have been relegated to doing female incontinence and I didn’t want to be stuck doing that only! So, I switched to anesthesia because I wanted to stay in the operating room. It was not anything I ever considered while going through medical school but it turned out to be the best overall profession for me… from a scientific standpoint the physiology is incredibly interesting. From a practical standpoint, female doctors who want to have a family can work part time if they wish whereas a part time surgical practice is not feasible. And if you need to move for whatever reason, doing so as a surgeon would give you a financial hit as you would have to re establish your practice in another community. Having said all this, don’t be concerned about a medical specialty because things will pop up that can change drastically what you thought you wanted to do all along. Maybe you might end up not going down the medicine route either once you get into college! Best of luck to you in whatever you end up choosing though 🙂
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