How to Become a Medical Doctor in the United States

 ~by Don Osborne from ~INQUARTA

How do you become a medical doctor in the United States? Although it isn’t for the faint-hearted, with planning and perseverance it can be done! Nevertheless, gone are the days when academic excellence only will guarantee you a place in Medical School. Medical School selection committees are looking at a lot more…

“How Do You Become A Medical Doctor in the United States?”

Ask yourself some questions:

How do you become a medical doctor in the United States? Or – “How you do become a doctor?” Perhaps – “I really want to become a doctor, but what do I need to do to become a doctor?”

…then this report will answer those questions for you.

(At the end of this article I will give you free access to find out how you can go to medical school — for free!)

I will explain what you need to do to become a doctor, including:

• the classes you need to take in high school and college
• the additional education requirements to become a doctor
• how many years it takes to become a doctor
• and all of the other steps to becoming a doctor.

This report will give you guidelines for how to become a medical doctor in the United States, as well as most places in the world that follow an American/ United States approach to education.

Snapshot / Overview

Your timeline will look like this: 4 years of high school, followed by 4 years of college/university in the United States, followed by 4 years of medical school education, followed by 2 to 3 years of medical residency. Now, you’re a doctor.

Fourteen years?!! Well, not exactly. By the third year of medical school, you’ll be working with patients and practicing medicine under careful supervision. And when you start your medical residency, you are actually starting your first full time job in medicine. So your total time will feel more like four years of college, plus two years of medical school.

Let’s break some of these steps down in more detail.

What high school courses do I need to become a medical doctor?

Let’s start with the basics of high school education. There are no specific high school courses that you are required to take to become a doctor in the United States. However, the grades you get in high school will determine where you attend college, and the college that you attend in turn will determine the medical school that you attend.

This is a generality, but a useful one: The reputation of the college you attend will to a small degree impact the medical school you will most likely be accepted to.

What degree do you need to become a doctor?

Most students ask what degree do I need in order to become a doctor. To become a medical doctor in the United States, you are not required to have a specific degree.

Instead, medical schools have a list of prerequisite classes that you must take. Most pre-med students choose to major in Biology and get a Bachelor of Science in Biology,  but they do this because the Biology major contains all of the classes that medical schools require.

You can find the right degree from top schools across the USA using the degree finder at oedb.org

What grades do you need to become a doctor?

To be a competitive applicant for medical school admissions, your grades will need to be at least a 3.5 GPA on the 4.0 scale or higher within your science courses — typically biology, chemistry, physics, math.

How much does it cost to become a doctor?

Let’s look specifically at the cost of medical school. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges,  of 2016, most students will graduate from medical school with a median debt level of $200,00. There are differences in tuition, fees and health insurance between public and private schools. However, looking at your lifetime earnings as a physician relative to the money that you have spent, you will see that your earnings will more than pay for the money that you spend to go to medical school. You can argue that going to medical school does not cost you money, but actually makes you money.

I have a special free report that I created for Dr. Anton’s readers about this topic. You can get this report immediately here —

CLICK HERE

However, I won’t be keeping this report available for very long, so be sure you grab it while it’s still available!

Also have a look at:

Becoming a General Practitioner

Becoming a Doctor in the USA

Becoming a Surgeon

Well best wishes for success towards your dream of becoming a doctor!

Dr Anton Scheepers and Team