Hey! Congrats on being almost done with high school and getting ready for your next steps!
I'm currently a senior in college and planning on applying to med school next year.
Becoming a fully licensed doctor takes 4 years of college, 4 years of med school, and then several years of training in residency where you'll learn about the specialty you pick.
For right now, your main focus should be finding a college that's a good fit for you. As the above poster said, you can start off at a community college and then transfer to a 4-year school to finish up your degree if that's the best option.
You can consider things like location, distance from family or friends, size of the student population, the culture of the school, the community that surrounds it, what kind of opportunities they offer for pre-med students, what student organizations they have, and of course, cost of tuition. Looking up more info on sites like CollegeBoard.org can help you plan what school is best for you.
The College Board - College Admissions - SAT - University & College Search Tool
Finding a school where you can feel a sense of community and feel like its a good fit will help you get good grades, explore your interests, and become a competitive med school candidate.
During college, you'll take required pre-med classes along with whatever major you pick (doesn't have to be a science major!!!!!), volunteer in the community, get some clinical experience, shadow doctors, explore doing some kind of research, and get involved in a cause or organization you're passionate about. At some point, you'll need to take the MCAT which is an entrance exam (like the SAT) for med school.
The best thing to do in your first semester is to focus on getting used to the new environment/lifestyle and nailing down your study habits. Get involved in your school, check out lots of student groups, and go to your advisors often. If your school has a tutoring center, check it out even BEFORE you get a bad grade and ask the tutors/student mentors for advice.
The process is long and can feel overwhelming, but breaking it down into smaller goals and steps makes it much more manageable. Right now planning for getting a bachelor's degree with pre-med in mind is the first step and then you will dig into the details of putting a med school app together.
Here of some other resources you can check out if you're interested in addition to looking through SDN:
Medical School HQ - Another site that offers advice for pre-med students and Dr. Gray's podcast has helped me learn soo much about what applying to med school is like and what roads people take to get there
MedBros - I really like the MedBros youtube channel, they have good advice vids & they're really motivating
I hope this helps & I wish you the best in finishing up the year and planning whats next!
(ps you don't need to use your real name on sdn! its better to go by a username for privacy
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