I agree. Most people I know who got into med school had either 3.8-4.0 GPA and MCAT's above 33. Osteopathic school is also pretty hard to get into these days, but they take a more diverse array of students, not your typical med school applicant. For osteopathic school you would probably need above a 3.5 from what I remember talking to someone from the osteopathic school based out of Dallas. Your friend's best bet would be to foreign medical school like in Aruba. Some schools don't even require MCAT. But med schools in general anywhere are no joke. You really will have to bust your ass even if you are doing med school in Poland or in Aruba. The only downside is some states like California don't allow people from certain foreign medical schools to practice in their state. A cousin of mine did his medical school in Aruba very recently. He spent the first two years on the island, but for the last two years he is doing his rotations in Baltimore and New York State. So thus you only have to be away from America for a little while.
I read a newspaper article about a law student who was a sex offender and he was able to pass the bar and practice as an attorney.
For those that keep saying an undergraduate degree is required, that's just not always true. Obviously it's harder to get accepted without one but a good friend of mine had a 4.0 from UT and got a 43 on his MCAT. He missed out on a few hours for his baccalaureate and never went back to get it. He went on to UTMB down in Galveston and has been working 8 years now. So I suppose it depends on the schools requirements.
You must be confused with the program where students are accepted into a combined BS/MD program straight from high school where they get their MD in 7 years vs the traditional 4 college + 4 med school.
OK, since these questions have been answered in pretty good detail I have a few questions of my own. 1. If one goes to college and the med school and graduates from med school are they automatically a doctor? If so, what area(s) can they practice in (ex. cardiology, oncology, etc.)? If not, how much longer is their process? 2. What exactly is residency? 3. What is the highest grade one can attain on the MCAT, if there is one?
I think technically you need to pass the boards and whatnot. And then you would need a license from the state you plan to practice in. It's like further hands on training for whatever expertise you want to focus on. At this point you're called a resident but are already a doctor. Generally it's 3 years but is longer for specializations like you listed above. I think it's 45 but anything above 30 is considered competitive.
So is residency part of medical school or is that 3 years after the 8 you put in for undergrad and med school? How long is specialty training?
1) even if you grad from med school you still need to pass the board exams to become a licensed doctor. without a license, you cant practice legally. after graduating med school and passing the board exams you can do a residency. the type of residency/fellowship you do determines what kind of specialty you can practice. residency/fellowships can be anywhere from 2 yrs (family medicine) to 10+ years (neurology) 2) residency is almost like an apprenticeship. you have learned all the book knowledge. now you practice under the watchful eye of senior physicians. 3) the mcat is broken down into 4 sections. Physical sciences (physics and general chemistry), Biological sciences (biology and organic chemistry), Verbal, and Essay. the first three sections are graded on a scale of 1-15 (1 lowest, 15 highest). the essay is graded J-T (j is lowest and t is highest). on the day of the exam, a national average score is calculated and it is set to 8. then from there scores are assigned 1-15 using a bell curve. the essay is graded by 2 separate graders who assign a raw score of 1-6. the score is averaged and assigned a letter grade. the national average is a 24. the essay portion is not weighed too heavily by med schools (although you have to demonstrate that you are a competent writer) the average score for accepted students in texas is 27. if you apply the equation that i posted before, a 4.0 gpa and a 30 on the mcat will get you a 70 meaning you have a good shot at getting into medschool. but the lower the gpa, the higher you mcat score needs to be and vice versa. a perfect score on the mcat is a 45/T but that basically means you missed 0 questions and you write like a thoreau, shakespeare... a quick comment on the guy who had a 4.0 gpa and 40+ on the mcat but no bachelors degree. this guy clearly demonstrated that he has high intelligence so im sure the admissions commitee made an exception. but the number of people like that are probably less than 1%. for your friend who has a gpa below a 3.0, hed have to break a 40 on the mcat to have a good shot. so hed have to average 13-14 per section. that roughly translates to missing only 2-4 questions per section. its not impossible but also not very realistic. also med schools are looking to recruit more african american and hispanic male/female students (especially hispanic females). they may give a little more lee way if your friend falls into one of these catagories (but not too much...) but like i said, if your friend really really wants to be a physician, then he'll find a way to make it.
residency is not apart of med school. it is something you elect to do. but if you go to a doctor, you generally want one who completed a residency. so typically, under grad = 4 yrs med school = 4 yrs residency = 2-4 yrs fellowship (like more residency for really serious specialties) = 2-6 yrs this is why doctors get paid so much. 8+ yrs of school while most people get out in 4 yrs. during residency docs dont get paid much.
my moms on baylors admissions committee...she tells me those kinds of scores are about average for baylor students, so i would definitely apply if i was you; give a good interview and youve got a good chance
I'm not sure I would have to ask him. I mean he seems determined to go to med school and go through all the work. He says once he becomes, if he becomes, a full-fledged doctor the hard, hard work will pay off. He is really thinking about the field because it truly interests him and he would like to be an inspiration for his kids and be able to provide things for them that he did not have. What must one do to become a physician's assistant? How much school does it entail? What are their salaries like? Give me as much info as you can please.
not sure about the avg gpa or stats of those applying and getting into PA school. but i do know that the mcat isnt necessary. you just have to take the gre. 2-3 yrs of school then youre finished. you take all the same courses as a med school student but i think there are no clinical rotations. also no residency. but theres probably some type of licensing exam. not sure what its called. you do almost everything a physician does but you dont get the final say in treatment and you cant prescribe medication. its almost like a hybrid between a nurse and a doctor. i think the pay can be up to $100k a year but probably more along the lines of $60-80k/yr. the good thing is that PAs dont have to get malpractice insurance. PA's can also open their own clinics. im applying to med school next summer. if i dont get in, i may look into becoming a PA.
not sure but if a PA opens up a clinic then he'll probably have to get insurance. but most PAs work under a physician in which case they dont need malpractice insurance
forgot to add one more thing. I heard this from a pediatrician that i used to work for. but pediatricans make the low end of physicians salaries.... with the rising cost of insurance, i think a lot of physicians are angry bc at the end of the day, some nurses and PA's take home about the same amount of money as a doctor. not sure if this statement is accurate but it surprised me.
I think that can be true because some doctors make $120k (working for others) and so do some nurses (CRNA). On the other hand, if you're enterprising and want to open your clinic then you have a bigger upside. Two of my bro's are doctors and make $400k+. Nurses can't do that.
