I want to become an Anatomical Pathologist: where do I start?

[dexney0]

I'm currently a sophomore in high school and after searching around for health careers that interest me I began considering becoming an anatomical pathologist. I keep seeing different positions like anatomical pathologist technician, anatomical pathologist assistant, and anatomical pathologist and this began to raise some thought provoking questions for me, and these are also the ones that I need advice on and that I would like to be answered:

• Could I begin as an anatomical pathologist technician and work my way up to become an assistant and then eventually a formal pathologist? Is this how most anatomical pathologists start off their careers - beginning as a technician and progressing as they gain more work experience?
• What type of schooling would I need if I were interested in this type of work? What specifically should I major in? What kind of classes should I take in high school? How long does schooling take and after how many years of schooling could I start working and whenever I do enter the workforce would I able to continue my education at the same time?

I just need some clarification on the points of confusion I have because I want to know more about the process of becoming an anatomical pathologist and how to go about it. Any tips and advice would help.

Thank You!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Levo]

Pathology is a specialty of medicine. The way that someone gets to become a pathologist is by completing an undergraduate degree (often in bio or chemistry, but doesn't have to be, there are people who major in English in undergrad and still become doctors) along with required pre-med classes, applying and then completing medical school, which is 4 years long, then completing a 4 year residency training program in pathology. There is no direct connection between the schooling for pathology technicians/pathology assistants and for pathologists.

As far as what to do in high school, there's very little you should do specifically besides trying to get into a decent college for undergrad, like taking honors/AP classes, doing well on your SAT, etc. When choosing a college, a well-regarded public school in your state is generally a better option than the Ivy League because you ideally want to avoid accumulating too much student debt before med school. Unless of course an Ivy League school gives you a great financial aid package, then sure, feel free to go there.

 

[darknecrosforte]

If you ONLY want to do AP and not clinical path (which is okay for some people), the residency is only 3 years.

There are a lot of mixed feelings about pathology due to "job market", technology, "oversaturation", etc. It is also not very competitive if all you want is to specialize in it, but I suspect that the difficulty in getting into strong academic residencies like Mayo Clinic, JHU, etc. are much higher than just matching Path. However, I have heard that any "decent" American med student can get Path if they want it... as for jobs though...

I always thought path was more of a entrepreneuriophilic field though...