Finally, being able to write the letter “MD” after one’s name is a moment many young, prospective physicians dream of before embarking on the long, treacherous journey of medicine. In the United States, becoming a doctor requires a significant investment of time and money as well as the added stress of studying for challenging, comprehensive exams and presenting oneself well to one’s preceptors and professors. The medical education system today drastically differs from that of the era of Hippocrates, who was considered one of the founding figures of medicine. Students may undergo over a decade of medical education and training that, in addition to culminating in the accumulation of debt and stress, produces compassionate and knowledgeable physicians ready to serve and treat patients with care.
Undergraduate Studies
The first step out of high school for a prospective physician is to complete a bachelor’s degree at an undergraduate institution. In this phase, students may be known as “pre-meds” as they complete the required prerequisite courses, including biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, and more, to apply to medical school1. Pre-meds also take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) during their second or third year of undergraduate studies1. At the end of their four undergraduate years, pre-meds will submit their applications to their desired medical schools via the American Medical College Application Service® (AMCAS®)1. Similar to the Common App platform that several undergraduate institutions use for applications, medical schools evaluate the quality of an applicant by reviewing a student’s primary application and then requesting secondary applications that are more specifically geared toward a particular school. To pre-meds dismay, the vast majority of medical schools have acceptance rates lower than many undergraduate Ivy League schools, with only 41% of applicants to US medical schools getting accepted overall2. However, with sufficient grades and MCAT scores, stellar extracurricular activities, and strong letters of recommendation, diligent students are able to succeed in the medical school application process and take one step further toward achieving their dream of becoming a physician.
Medical School
If one is fortunate enough to receive an acceptance letter from a medical school, the next two years will consist of didactic learning (learning in the classroom)3. Although the environment may appear similar to the lecture halls and study sessions of one’s undergraduate years, the content comes in droves as medical students are subjected to memorizing advanced knowledge and concepts relating to human anatomy, physiology, disease mechanisms, and much more3. These first two years of medical school are also a popular time to conduct scientific research, whether it be in the clinic or the laboratory4. Conducting medical research can provide valuable skills for medical students as they learn the scientific process, contribute to the shared knowledge and understanding of medicine, and even acquire recommendation letters from research mentors and supervisors4.
The latter two years of medical school are known as the clinical years, as medical students finally get to experience life in the hospital and clinic during their clerkships3. As they rotate on various required and elective subspecialties within medicine (e.g. pediatrics, neurology, surgery, etc.), medical students gain hands-on experience as they develop their clinical knowledge as well as their bedside manner3. At this point, medical students will have already taken the dreaded USMLE Step 1, testing their foundational medical knowledge, and are in the process of studying for USMLE Step 24. Medical students will finally spend the latter half of their third year and the beginning of their fourth year preparing their applications to a residency program, in which they will further subspecialize and train to become the specific type of doctor they wish to be4.
Residency
Regardless of one’s specialty of choice, medical residency is an arduous marathon compared to multiple bursts of short sprints in medical school. After overcoming the hurdles of alarmingly low medical school acceptance rates and the even more difficult process of matching into a specialty and corresponding residency program, one can now call themselves a doctor as they enter their first year of residency and last step before officially becoming an independent physician. A residency allows physicians to tailor their skills toward one particular area of medicine, ranging from the clinical practice of family medicine to the grueling operations of neurological surgery3. Although different specialties and programs may vary in structure and duration, residency typically begins with an intern year as fresh medical school graduates rotate on various specialties not unlike the clerkships in their third and fourth year of medical school. Residents will then fully dedicate their remaining years of residency toward their medical specialty of choice and, with the guidance of attending physicians, will hone their skills in order to graduate as confident doctors prepared to practice on their own3. While residencies can range from three years to seven years depending on the specialty, all residents may opt to undergo additional training in a fellowship as they train to become even more specialized in a very niche field within their specialty (e.g., neurosurgery → cerebrovascular neurosurgery or internal medicine → cardiology)3.
Life as an Attending
After graduating residency and/or fellowship, physicians can now call themselves fully-fledged doctors. Despite the 11-15+ years of education and training after high school, one can finally take pride in achieving the ultimate goal of becoming a physician3. There will inevitably be setbacks along the way, with many taking gap years to reapply to medical school or residency or even drop out, but with enough grit and motivation, any individual has the potential to grace the halls of the clinic or wield the tools within the OR one day.
References
- AAFP. (n.d.). How to Get into Medical School. Www.aafp.org. https://www.aafp.org/students-residents/medical-students/considering-medical-school/getting-into-medical-school.html
- Med School Insiders. (2023, May 3). Medical School Acceptance Rates: How Many Applicants Get In. Med School Insiders. https://medschoolinsiders.com/pre-med/medical-school-acceptance-rates/
- Simmons, L. (2023, October 19). How To Become A Doctor – Forbes Advisor. Www.forbes.com. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/education/healthcare/become-a-doctor/
- AAMC. (n.d.). The Road to Becoming a Doctor. https://www.aamc.org/media/36776/download
