How Long is This Going to Take??

The idea for this topic is from one of my close friends in medical school who is a fantastic pediatrician in Texas these days. We realize that sometimes people set out to do something that sounds great in their mind, but they may not have an actual idea of how long that will take. For a lot of pre-med students, becoming a physician is one of those things. And because you may be unsure of the length of time to complete medical training on the front end, once you get into it, that may become a reason to back out of the process. That’s not what I want for you! No changing your mind because it’s taking longer than you thought you signed up for! It’s a good idea to know what type of time commitment you’re facing on your quest to becoming a physician. 

Of course, none of this is set in stone, as you go through the process, you may choose paths that lengthen or shorten your experience.

Undergraduate

Generally, an undergraduate degree takes 4 years. There are ways to shorten this, like taking college courses as a high school student (which is becoming really popular—I was too busy trying to be a social butterfly in high school to get any college credit, but power to high school students these days!), taking summer college classes, loading your schedule during the semesters, etc. There are also several ways to lengthen these 4 years, like changing your major several times, not knowing early on that you want to be pre-med and not having the requirements, by doing poorly in BCPM classes and having to retake them, etc. While shortening the time you spend in college is probably mostly favorable (especially in that it will save you some money) please don’t load your schedule with BCPM classes all in the same semester to get done a few months earlier. The goal is to do well in those classes, not just to get through them quickly to cross them off the list. Trust me from experience, you don’t want to have to take organic chemistry more than once…

Gap Year(s)

After graduation from college you may take some time before starting medical school. Maybe a year… maybe 5 years. You may take extra courses, do a post-bac program, get a degree, or get a job. The length of time varies and depends mostly on your individual situation. 

Medical School

Aside from a few programs in the country, medical school is four years. The first two years are generally “lecture years” –where you sit through classes/lectures, take exams, have labs, get introduced to clinical medicine, etc; and the last two are “clinical years”—where you rotate through different specialties seeing actual patients and getting clinical experience. These final two years are what really help you to decide what you want to spend your career doing.

*Special Combined Programs

There are a few exceptions to the routes above. One in particular is this amazing new partnership with Tennessee State University and Meharry Medical College that will welcome its first cohort this year. Basically, it’s an accelerated program where you do 3 years at TSU before going on to medical or dental school at Meharry. I’m so hopeful that it will be successful at turning out more Black physicians, as that is its goal. If you’re reading this and still in high school or have siblings, consider this! There may be other, similar, programs across the country, but this one got a lot of buzz last year.

Residency 

No one expects you to know right now what specialty you want to go into. But by 4^th year of medical school, you’ll have to know. Towards the end of medical school, you’ll enter “the match” and be placed into a residency program of your desired field. The length of residency varies depending on what specialty you choose. For example, pediatric residencies are 3 years, psychiatry is 4 years, ENT is 5 years, neurosurgery is 7 years. It all just depends on what specialty you decide on. 

After residency, you can also choose to do a fellowship which can be another 1 to 5 or more years. For example, to be a cardiologist, you would do a 3 year internal medicine residency, then a 3 year cardiology fellowship, plus additional years if you want to specialize within cardiology. 

The beauty of residency is that you’re officially a doctor (but still with supervision). You also get a longer white coat so you can feel yourself a little bit and start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. You also get a real paycheck as a resident, though it’s much less than what you’ll make as an attending. I read somewhere that when you calculate it out, based on the hours, it’s also less than what you’d make as a greeter at Wal-Mart if you worked the same hours…but who’s counting? The other bright side is that as a resident, in most places, you can moonlight—which means work a side job to make some extra money (like in an ER or urgent care). 

After residency, you become an attending. That’s when you’re a full physician with capability of teaching trainees and no less oversight. [I crossed out “no” because insurance companies, hospitals, employers, etc will always be watching and sometimes telling you how to do your job!] But that’s when your white coat is the longest and you start making (and spending too much of) that high salary you’ve heard about…

Paying for it

Sure, you will make plenty of money when you’re an attending physician. But if you have to use it all to pay back loans, are you really making money??? You’ll be in school for some time and, spoiler, school has to be paid for—though it’s happening now, don’t count on loans being forgiven or payment delayed forever. Bottom line: in college and medical school, be mindful of costs. 

I literally just made my last payment for private undergrad loans last week. Yes, last week…and I’ve been a whole doctor for a minute now. At this point, for most of you, where you’ll go to college is decided, but you can still be smart about financial choices you make. If you have opportunities for scholarships in undergrad, please apply for them! Don’t take out any more loans than you need to! Ball on a budget! And when choosing a medical school, be sensible and go where you can afford/where you’re offered the most aid. At the end, your white coat will be just as crisp as everyone else’s and your patients will likely never ask where you went to medical school…so don’t set out to go to the most expensive one!

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So, in summary, after high school graduation, at a minimum, you’re looking at 11 years of training to become a doctor; more depending on if you take some extra time, specialize, etc. This is important to know going into it. Not to discourage you, just to make sure that you have a realistic picture of what you’re signing up for. 

Becoming a physician is absolutely possible. And the field of medicine needs you.

Will it take some time? Yep. 

Is it worth it? Double Yep.