Highschooler needing advice

[God Is Life]

Hello everyone. Hopefully everyone's doing fine this evening. Well, I need some advice. First, let me tell you a bit about myself.

I'm a junior (about to be a senior) in highschool, 16 years old, and have a GPA of 3.15. In ninth grade, I had this strong desire to be a physician, but I lost it due to my negative thoughts. I didn't believe in myself, I didn't think I was the doctor type, even though I did rather well in ninth grade. So eventually, that dream came to an end and a few other career choices popped into my mind in tenth grade.

Eleventh grade comes around (Aug. 2003) and I go through the year, still not knowing for sure what I wanted to do after highschool, although nursing did pop up. I had signed up for Anatomy just for the heck of it, and then, about three weeks ago, we were informed that we would have to do a project entitled "Career Investigations". I had no idea what career I wanted to investigate (within the medical field), and then, the doctor came into mind. I chose that profession and went onto the internet, found a whole bunch of info on the job, and my heart just started beating faster and faster with excitement. It was the job for me. So now, I'm just so excited, thinking, "This is it, this is what I want to do with my life - help people."

However, I'm a bit skeptical about even dreaming about wanting to be a doctor. I know the requirements are tough, and the work is strenuous. What I can conjecture, however, is that as long as one sets their mind to something, they can do it, right? Even become a doctor. The fact that my GPA is not as high as I'd like it to be worries me, though (3.15). Lately, I've just laid all my worries upon God, knowing that he can do anything. And if this is a dream of mine, I can accomplish it.

I guess what I'm looking for is a bit of advice, so if anyone would like to, please feel free to reply.

By the way, I want to be an Emergency Physician.

Nikee

 

[FaithfulServant]

Hello there Nikee. I, like you, decided that I wanted to be a doctor my junior year. Don't be dishearted about your GPA because the good news is that medical schools look at your college GPA. So once you get to college you need to work very very hard!

I started taking the Pre-Med classes once I got to college but soon realized that I needed to put my life goals in place first. I wanted to have a family sometime before I am 30 so I took the nurse route. I will be applying to nursing school after next semester.

My boyfriend's 4 older brothers are either in medical school or have graduated form med school. My roomate last year was also Pre-Med. It is a VERY tough route to take and VERY competitive. You have a better chance of getting in if you're of a minority race, since the people who apply the most are white males and females.

Pray to God about this, and assess your life goals. In order to get into med school you have to go to college and get a degree (4 years) then go to med school (4 years) and the do residency (anywhere from 2-7 years sometimes). If you aren't sure what residency is, PM me and I'll explain. If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me because I am pretty knowledgable about this subject.

God Bless,

Steffani

 

[Rage4Christ]

God is Life

Focus on getting into a Good College. Learn your sciences backwards and forwards.
The trick I saw a few of my friends use is major in a non-biological field, then take the requisite courses for med school on the side.

For example, my friend Jake majored in Spanish, got easy 4.0 because it wasn't as competiative as the pre-med group. He then focused really hard in Biochemistry, organic chemistry and human anatomy. His diverse educational background made it easy to get in a good Medical school.

Good luck.

 

[desi]

Hi Nikee. I just graduated from pharmacy school. I can tell you about half of the people I know who applied to medical school didn't make it. Some of them were smarter than me but for one reason or another they weren't accepted. Another guy who was accepted flunked out, two other guys took a year off after the first year, another guy almost flunked his first year. If you want to be a physician I urge you to go for it, give it your best shot! But if its not meant to be take it all in stride, not all of us are meant to be physicians and the competition is keen. One suggestion is to see your counselor and ask to take an aptitude test to see what careers you may be interested in/good at. Its usually a computer test which takes a half hour or so. This will help you come up with a plan B, or perhaps another plan A. Having gone through all I did I'm not sure I want to be a pharmacist but student loans won't pay themselves... So I trust in the Lord to provide direction and cross another goal off my list. I pray for God to guide you in your search.

 

[JVD]

My BIL is a doctor. He didn't decide he wanted to be a doctor until after he had finished college and had spent 2 years teaching. He also already had 2 children. His grades in college were not good enough to get into med school because he just hadn't worked that hard in college. In fact...to a certain extent he was a jock, on the basketball team.

So he applied to an offshore med school and got accepted. He spent his first 2 years there and then transferred to the states. To make the long story short he did very well in med school and now has a very successful private practice and loves it.

So, it is not a make or break situation at 16. Do the best you can right now. Realize that your dreams may change, but keep pushing forward unless God changes your heart. The more and better you do now will increase your choices later on. So work hard, but don't forget, there are more important things in life than careers.

 

[rogsr]

Hello Nikee,
I think that wanting to become a doctor is a calling, and seeing as how you are a child of God I would say that recieving a calling would not be an absurd notion. Definately pray about it as our friends above have already advised. If you do decide to pursue becoming a healer don't let challenges discourage you, and if they do just remember that even Jesus had His moment of agony in the garden. But Jesus prevailed because God was in Him, and God is in you, and God is in me; and when God is with us nothing can stand against us.

 

[Mr.Cheese]

I'm gonna be 32 next month and I think I figured out what I want to do.

I worked at the academic center while finishing college and so many freshmen and sophomores changed their majors that it made you wonder why on earth they had picked a major.

So don't worry right now. Worrying makes you freak out and then you can't function.
It's all good.

 

[The Whammy]

Amen, Cheese. Amen.

I totally relate. I changed my major like 4 times when I was in college, and if I went back to high school, I wanted to be something different all together.

I think our society places way too much pressure on 18 year olds to figure their lives out at that age. I'm 25 and I'm just beginning to understand adulthood, and really who I am.

--Chris