If you’ve ever contemplated becoming a physician, two write ups warrant reading: “How Becoming a Doctor Works,” http://www.howstuffworks.com/becoming-a-doctor.htm and the “Process of Medical Education,” Chapter 2 of the AAMC’s Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR). The MSAR is a thick reference book containing over 400 pages that detail the medical admissions process and profile the universe of 130 US and Canadian medical schools. The guide is available at the AAMC website (https://www.aamc.org), which includes access to its online version.
The Dental Picture: the ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools 2011
If you’ve ever contemplated a career in dentistry, two sites might warrant review: “Becoming a Dentist,” at http://becomeadentist.org/why-to-choose-dentistry, and the “Meet a Dentist” site at http://explorehealthcareers.org/en/Career/1/Dentist. The second site comes to you under the auspices of the ADEA, which also publishes a guide that profiles dental schools and explains the pathway to becoming a DDS, The ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools ($35 at the ADEA website, www.adea.org). Considering the average 2010 graduate from USC’s dental school was encumbered with $283,000 in debt, it is a publication well worth the price.
Communications Major Considered
What is a ‘communications’ major, and what do you do with it? A good starting point is the College Board’s Majors and Career Central http://www.collegeboard.com/csearch/majors_careers/profile. There you will discover that Communications encompasses a range of subjects: advertising, digital media (anything from website design, ecommerce, to writing for web-based media), journalism (copyediting, magazine writing, broadcast news...), public relations, and radio and television.
Joining a Combined Baccalaureate Medical Program
Competition to become a doctor has always been fierce. In 2008, 42,231 medical school applicants submitted 558,000 applications for 18,000 spots in the 128 accredited US medical schools. If this were a game of musical chairs, 24,231 would be left standing. That’s a lot of disappointed people. Should you be graduating from high school next year, and you have a passion to become a doctor, you might try to sidestep the graduate Medical School admission process altogether by applying to a combined Baccalaureate Medical program.