QuestionDear Dr. Borucki,
My name is Jill and I am a grade twelve student in Canada researching a future
career is Medicine. I have a few questions about what it takes
to become a doctor though and hope you can answer a few of them.
1. What do you believe is the hardest part about getting into a college of medicine and
what would one do to help avoid such problems if possible?
2. What is the best class you took while taking your medical degree and which class was
the worst?
3. Is their any class in high school that you feel helped you get through your medical
training more easily or was a great asset to have taken?
4. What influenced you to get into Medicine?
5. Was their any other careers that you considered before going into Medicine and is this
the type of job you always thought you would have?
6. What are the benefits and disadvantages to being a doctor?
7. What advice would you give a person like me who is sincerely interested in medicine
as a career?
8. What schools would you say have the best programs for Medicine in
North America?
9. What is the biggest challenge(s) about being a doctor?
10. What is the most interesting thing about your job and the worst thing about your job?
11. Is their anything else you think I should know or be concerned about?
Thank you in advance for all your help.
AnswerI get these requests pretty often... will answer best I can with the limited space I have...
1)The competition is tough... hardest part is to do well on the MCATs... to help, I would take the Stanley Kaplan Study course, and put in an hour an evening for 3-6 months prior to taking the testing.
2)Best class was probably pathology... the study of diseases... it put together all the other courses and gave me a better perspective of medicine. The worst was neurology... lot of memorizing of esoteric info that I would never really use... lots of long words and info that wasn't intuitive and just needed to be memorized to pass.
3)No specific course, other than AP calculus and AP science that allowed me to get college credit and not have to take them my first year in college. But, a good idea in high school is to volunteer at a hospital. Gives you a good idea of what doctors do in the hospital and looks good on an application...shows your interest.
4) I always loved science/math and working with people and it seemed natural to use this to shape my career.
5) I wanted to be in medicine since I was in grade school. I also loved computer programming and considered doing that as a career.
6) advantages- job security... society always needs doctors. It offers good (not great) income, and allows me to do something I love doing. Disadvantages- high stress with malpractice, making sure you don't mess up and hurt someone, and working long hours and some uncomfortable hours, like middle of the night emergencies.
7) Volunteer in the hospital and in a doctor's office, to really see what is going on and make sure your career choice is right.
8) All med schools prep you for the real world well. If you were doing research as a career, then some of the high research schools like Harvard, Johns Hopkins would be good, but otherwise, any school is OK.
9) Being able to manage your own life between job, family. We get pulled in many directions to work harder and harder and a lot of times, we forget to take care of ourselves.
10) Worst thing is the long hours and stress. Best and most interesting- I have story after story of interesting cases, exciting cases, and rewarding cases where I was able to make a big positive impact on someone's life.
11) If someone goes into medicine for the $$$, they will be disappointed. The money is good, but doctors work very very hard for it. And the money is actually going down a lot with insurance cutbacks, etc.
Hope this helps....
