Cardiology / Cardiologist?

Question

I will be a junior in high school and am currently considering cardiologist as my future profession. So if you are a cardiologist or if you know anyone who is a cardiologist then could you please answer my questions:

1. What did you major in college (i heard pre-med is not something you major in)?

2. What courses did you take in college?

3. Did you research about medical schools that you want to attend when researching about colleges?

4. Are there any other special info that i should be alerted about either college or medical school?

5. What did you do after medical school (i am confused about the whole residency and internship thing, so could you thoroughly explain them)?

6. As a cardiologist, what is the level of commitment to the job (for example how many hours do you work/day, how frequent are "emergency times", do you take any vacation)?

7. Finally, how did you get the financial aid for both college and medical school (scholarships or any other aid)?

Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

1. I majored in neuroscience because that is what I was interested in at the time, but major in whatever interests you, med schools do not care what you majored in, they only care about your grades and your sincerity towards learning.

2. Several psychology and neuroscience courses along with the premed requirement (biology, chemistry, physics, organic chemistry, and calculus) but also several art, film, literature, and business classes.

3. I was not entirely sure that I wanted to go to med school when applying to college, I just tried to go to the best place I could. Coincidently many of the top schools also have top medical schools. Med schools do factor in where you did your undergrad even if they do not explicitly say so.

4. Expect to study harder than your non pre-med friends.

5. After med school there are several options, either you can go straight to a cardiology residency or you can do an intern year followed by a residency, or you can do an internal medicine residency and then follow up with cardiology training. Many also choose to do a fellowship after residency in order to focus on a particular set of diseases. Finally to be a cardiologist you have to have a certain number of residency hours and pass a state board exam.

6. Work life varies from person to person, but I think an average lies somewhere between 60-80 hrs a week for most of your career. Some work more, others work less it all depends. "On call" times also vary, they tend to be worse for residents (expect 80hrs a week for sure as a resident) and depend on work environment for older physicians.

7. Financial aid can be gotten through your school, through scholarships, and federal loans. Expect to leave med school with considerable debt which you will not be able to pay off until a few years into practice (contrary to popular belief, this is not the career to choose if you are just in it for the money, there are better ways to make money.) However if you are interested in research and academic medicine MD/PhD programs are paid for by the government. The drawbacks are that these are VERY competive and will delay your entry into medicine by another 3-5 years.

Hope it helps, feel free to pm me if you have any other questions.

Answer 2

1. General Biology with a minor in Chemistry

2. Lots of courses: all premeds need to take: Bio, chem, Organic Chem, Physics, English, some Math

3. No, i really looked into med schools when thinking about applying to med school

4. To get into med school, you have to take the MCAT.  Med school look at a person's overall GPA, science GPA, MCAT score, extracurriculars, research, and letters of recommendation

5.  Am currently in med school.  Am not too sure.

6. Most docs work a lot.  60 hrs is not considered a lot.  I went to one seminar during med school where female physicians that had cut back were working 50-60 hrs a week.

7.  college (try and get your parents to pay or get scholarships).  med school, almost everyone is on financial aid and in med school financial aid is extremely easy to get.  I'm could easily get 60k in loans (thank goodness i dont need that much).