I'm wayyyyy too young to be talking about this.

[Krebs Psychle]

Agreed. As a hSDNer myself, I don't see how undergrads or even MS1/2 can decide their specialty so early on, let alone a high schooler.

Personally, I think it depends. I'll be a rising HS senior soon and I've been fortunate to have a plethora of experiences including a neuroscience and biology competition and volunteering, as well as my personal experience (a close relative of mine has epilepsy). Over the summer, I will be attending a medical program and conducting research with a neuroscience professor and next year, I've been accepted to complete an externship with a neurosurgeon at my local hospital. Despite these opportunities (which I'm grateful for) I still think that there are ways in which I could reach my potential!

Some people decide early on and know what they want to do, others say they "want to be a neurosurgeon" for ulterior motives (money, prestige, etc.). I'm more dubious about people who say they want to be a __________ when they know nothing about it and/or they don't have any experiences to back up their ambitions.

But yeah, I don't think people can completely DECIDE until they have throughly shadowed a physcian in that specialty or they are in med school and have done rotations.

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[mmmcdowe]

Personally, I think it depends. I'll be a rising HS senior soon and I've been fortunate to have a plethora of experiences including a neuroscience and biology competition and volunteering, as well as my personal experience (a close relative of mine has epilepsy). Over the summer, I will be attending a medical program and conducting research with a neuroscience professor and next year, I've been accepted to complete an externship with a neurosurgeon at my local hospital. Despite these opportunities (which I'm grateful for) I still think that there are ways in which I could reach my potential!

Some people decide early on and know what they want to do, others say they "want to be a neurosurgeon" for ulterior motives (money, prestige, etc.). I'm more dubious about people who say they want to be a __________ when they know nothing about it and/or they don't have any experiences to back up their ambitions.

But yeah, I don't think people can completely DECIDE until they have thoroughly shadowed a physician in that specialty or they are in med school and have done rotations.

For every one person who goes into medical school knowing what they want to do and does it, 99 will know what they want to do and then change their mind. In my experience at least the specialty that seems to have the highest rate of early interest to completion is psychiatry. Shadowing a physician in a given specialty is probably the activity that has the highest rate of making a preliminary choice as to what one wants to do, but has the lowest predictive value. Shadowing an established private practice neurosurgeons does not give you a good sense of what your life will be like for a minimum of 7 years and most likely more since you have to build up a practice. Lot's of students roll into medical school excited to be a neurosurgeon and then immediately abandon ship the first time they see an unshaven, unwashed junior resident passed out at a computer terminal.

The issue, as well as being unrepresentative of your early career, is that pre-medical experiences tend to be highly limited in their breadth. A lot of people see some ED work and maybe a surgeon or two, but the vast majority of specialties are untapped by most pre-meds. This is exactly why fields like urology, ENT, ophtho, etc tend to have a high rather of people choosing them later in medical school, because it isn't until then that you are exposed.

 

[Doctorman45342]

You haven't handled all of puberty yet...one battly at a time

Just enjoy your teenage years, get good grades and don't get arrested. Relax

You can get arrested but just dont kill anybody.

 

[bashwell]

In the UK and Commonwealth, and maybe elsewhere (I think I heard there are one or two places in the U.S. too?), there are many who start med school at age 17 to 18. The ones I've met seem not only intelligent and academically accomplished already, which probably goes without saying, but surprisingly mature for their age. It's at least possible for some teenagers to consider med school without being too young or immature or needing to wait longer and do othe things if that's what they truly know they really want to do. Then again I'm sure there are far more who are immature etc. But I'm just saying it's not entirely out of the question for many teenagers to seriously consider and become physicians. I've also met many who are older now but who have told me they started in their teens, and seem to be perfectly happy in their chosen specialty now. Although deciding on a specialty like NS is probably too early!

 

[mmmcdowe]

In the UK and Commonwealth, and maybe elsewhere (I think I heard there are one or two places in the U.S. too?), there are many who start med school at age 17 to 18. The ones I've met seem not only intelligent and academically accomplished already, which probably goes without saying, but surprisingly mature for their age. It's at least possible for some teenagers to consider med school without being too young or immature or needing to wait longer and do othe things if that's what they truly know they really want to do. Then again I'm sure there are far more who are immature etc. But I'm just saying it's not entirely out of the question for many teenagers to seriously consider and become physicians. I've also met many who are older now but who have told me they started in their teens, and seem to be perfectly happy in their chosen specialty now. Although deciding on a specialty like NS is probably too early!

Unquestionably yes, but there is also a lower graduation rate in many of those institutions than in the US MD programs. Because of the insane cost of training doctors in the US, they create a lot more hoops to ensure that essentially everyone who matriculates graduates.

 

[bashwell]

Thanks, mmmcdowe, I agree it's a lower graduation rate. That said, my understanding is it's still the majority who do graduate. (I'm in Australia and of the ones I'm familiar with I'd guess around 80% or so. But it'd be best to see the stats of course.)

 

[ComputerGuy365]

In the UK and Commonwealth, and maybe elsewhere (I think I heard there are one or two places in the U.S. too?), there are many who start med school at age 17 to 18. The ones I've met seem not only intelligent and academically accomplished already, which probably goes without saying, but surprisingly mature for their age. It's at least possible for some teenagers to consider med school without being too young or immature or needing to wait longer and do othe things if that's what they truly know they really want to do. Then again I'm sure there are far more who are immature etc. But I'm just saying it's not entirely out of the question for many teenagers to seriously consider and become physicians. I've also met many who are older now but who have told me they started in their teens, and seem to be perfectly happy in their chosen specialty now. Although deciding on a specialty like NS is probably too early!

It's pretty much impossible at this point, especially when there's practically dozens of different specialties.
Plus, how do you know your board scores will be high enough to get into that specialty?