I have some questions about Medical school?

Question

Does it take longer to become a doctor if you become a Registered Nurse, a BA nurse and then go into med. School? If so, how much longer?

Can you become a pharmacist then continue 2 more years to become a doctor?

If your poor and can't get a scholarship, how can you become a Doctor and also try to support your mom and dad?

Answer 1

Sweetie,

     I'm not an expert on this, but I can tell you how one person did it, and am writing in case there's not any better answers (looks like some good ones, but there weren't when I started typing), and you need one badly.

    My brother just got done with his residency.  He started at age 36.  He was a state health department manager, and had virtually no savings due to a divorce.    (side story: His now ex wife told him he didn't have what it took to go to med school, and she said she'd leave him if he tried. She was wrong. Never underestimate the power of a driven person with a dream).  

    Anyway, first thing he did was study like crazy to do well on the MCAT entrance exam.  He did ok but didn't set any records.  He determined that it was slightly less difficult to get into a D.O. school than an MD school, but they have 100% of the same practice rights - they can do surgery, prescribe, and the salaries have become almost equal.  The training is very, very similar, and once you start clinical rotations in year 3, it's the very same because you are working someplace like an apprenticeship.   As a resident, it's also the same.  The schools are somewhat cheaper as well.  That's the important thing.

   So - study the MCAT and do as well as possible.  Look hard and you'll find that you can get all kinds of student loans.  He's a quarter of a mil in debt, but you know what?  Quite a few of the work contracts you'll sign when you are done will make your loan payments as a perk.   Sometimes they pay you tens of thousands in bonus money to sign up a couple of years in advance to come work for them.   He also used credit cards.  I don't recommend this.  The payments aren't deferred, and they creep up until they are huge balances.  At that point, the credit card companies raise the interest way up - as in 25% even.  It's legal, shouldn't be, and if you have a balance of 20k and are in school, interest like that will eat you alive.  

    Anyway - start lining up your student loans, get your questions answered,  find out the due dates so that you don't apply too late, and find out when the schools need their money as well.  Nothing would suck like getting in, then not having the money.  

   At the same time as you are finding the money,  figure out some places you could go.  Remember the bit about D.O. school.  If your MCAT score is good, and if you do a budget based on the loans available, and you can get into MD school - great.  IF not, consider the options.  Apply to 3 schools or so.  You'll need some (I think 3) letters of reference.   They might even need to be from licensed working drs, so find out what you need.  If you do need this, do charity work or get a job in a hospital so that you'll know some doctors when you need to.   There's nothing wrong with this  

   Also - med school is med school.  It's 2 years class work, 2 years of clinical rotations, and 3 years of residency, unless you are going into psychiatry, then it's 4 in residency.  Doing any of those other things may give you some fundamentals, but they will slow you down.  You'll need to learn the same stuff in med school, only alot more, so you may as well only go through it once when it counts.  

   Keep in mind that med school is still a physically grueling endurance test.  It should not be that way, but they make it tough as h**l on purpose.  You can do it, but it will require all of your energy, all of your time, plus some you didn't know you had, which may come out of sleep, and you may still wonder if you are going to make it.   I say this because it is very unlikely that you would be able to actually work a job while going to med school - nursing, pharmacy, or otherwise.  

   I also know a pharmacist.  It used to be a 3 year degree in Texas.  Now it's a very tough 5 year full time degree.  Doctor's get pharmacology in school, but only a few weeks worth.  It would be a specialization that you don't need unless you have 5 years to spare - and it's not something that would be easy to work through either.  

  If you absolutely have to support your parents, then they must be eligible for welfare, medicare, or medicaid, or other sources of money.  If this is the case - you could live with them, but don't claim them as dependents.  If anything, let them claim you.  Manage the money, live super cheap, but don't risk the entire plan by paying for a semester or two, getting deeply in debt,  then try to work and s***w up your grades so that it's impossible to continue on.   That would be a disaster.  

  

   Live as cheaply as necessary, and that goes for them as well if you are supporting them, but don't think you can do this and work too.  You are only human, and they will test you to your human limits.  

   I don't want to discourage you.  I know from watching it happen that someone with NO money, can do this while not working a job, can finish, and be a very good doctor when the dust settles.  

-Kevin

Answer 2

Either way you still have to attend medical school regardless if you have experience as a RN. Trust me, I have asked.. It depends on which type of medical field  you seek to study. I plan on becoming a neurosurgeon, So I am looking at a good 10 years in Med school.

About low income question, have you applied for grants, internships that pay, FAFSA? I highly suggest you apply for FAFSA.