The academic requirements for Medical School

"I told the doctor I broke my leg in two places.
He told me to quit going to those places." - Henny Youngman

There is a strange air of mystery around the field of medicine, which is one of the 3 classic fields of study; the others being law and theology.

Here I will dispel some of those myths.

Myth#1 - you have to be a genius to be a doctor. Since my grandmother's former doctor prescribed a medication for her for 40 years, which had a maximum prescription length of 5 years, obviously this isn't the case. Recently, a friend in her forties was told by her doctor that she was pregnant. When she asked him to conduct a urine test to make sure, he berated her with "I have been a doctor for years, and years!" Well, turns out she has a fibroid tumor. One would think that after "years and "years" one might be able to distinguish between a tumor and a human baby. Go figure.

Myth#2 - You have to decide to be a doctor when you are 20. As the Roaming Gnome would say "Pish!". Most medical advancement is made by men and women in their late 40's to their 60's.

Myth#2 - You have to be a straight "A" student to be a doctor. Again, "Pish!" The truth is, it certainly helps to have a high GPA. The average is about 3.0. But a higher science GPA is better than a high overall GPA. For example, my undergrad GPA was 3.35, but my science GPA so far is 4.0. , which is better than having an overall GPA of 3.9, but getting 3.2 in your science courses.

Myth#3 - Medicine is a science. A science is defined as "The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena." (American Heritage Dictionary). Much of medicine falls into the theoretical portion, because as organisms, humans are most complex. Each individual is a subset of him or herself. If I develop a vaccine which provides a killed virus, it may react differently in different people, which is why some people have strange side effects to certain drugs while others do not. Medicine is not exact.

Myth#4 - You have to be a science genius before medical school. Does one have to be a theological genius before seminary? or a literary genius before graduate school? Medical school is no different. Medical school in fact, doesn't want people with bizarre preconceptions trying to act as if they know everything already. The basics are all that is needed - a foundation from which to build. To that end, here are the science academic requirements for admission to most medical schools:

1 year of Chemistry (with lab)
1 year of Biology (with lab)
1 year of Physics (with lab)
1 year of Organic Chemistry (with lab)

That's it! By the way, one doesn't even have to have a college degree. Only 90 hours are required (though most people do have a degree)

Myth#5 - only science majors become doctors. Nope. Actually, unless you are not going to practice clinical medicine (you are going to do research) liberal arts degrees are preferred!

If you don't believe me or are generally inclined to ignore God's mercy and be pessimistic, then you may obtain all of this info for yourself by visiting the American Association of Medical Colleges at www.aamc.org.

Happy doctoring!