Premed and Health Care Majors

No one in my family has ever gone to college or a university before so I am very new to this! I want to know if I can major in medicine at Stanford. If so, what are the guidlines to become a doctor? Can you please help me out?

It’s great that you’re the first one in your family to attend college!

You don’t major in “medicine” when you’re an undergraduate, but rather you take a premed program. While you’ll have to take certain science and math courses to apply to medical school, you actually can pick almost any major as long as you get in the courses required by medical schools. While you can certainly major in premed at Stanford, there are a lot of good schools for a premed student and it’s smart to apply to several schools.

Keep in mind that Stanford is one of the most competitive schools in the country, which can’t accept anywhere near the number of qualified students that apply. So, make sure you apply to a number of schools, including some “safety” schools. Also, remember that you don’t have to attend Stanford as an undergraduate to apply and/or be accepted into Stanford Medical School. There are many fine medical schools, and I suggest not worrying about which one you might go to at this point. Instead, look at the best schools for your undergraduate education, remembering to consider not just the academics, such as the quality of the pre-med program, but factors such as size, location, student mix and financial aid availability.

The guidelines to becoming a doctor can vary, but generally students obtain an undergraduate degree and then take a standardized test (MCAT) to get into a four-year medical school. After graduation from medical school, students then enter into a “residency” at a hospital, which usually lasts two or three years. You then would need to pass the licensing exam for the state in which you want to practice.

Good luck!  

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I've read in one of your responses, that for a student looking to go eventually to medical school, they should look for undergraduate pre-med programs that have a high acceptance rate for their students. How do you identify those schools with strong pre-med programs and high medical school acceptance rates?

Typically, schools will make note of their high rate of medical school acceptances somewhere in the literature about their pre-med programs. You can also speak with admissions counselors at the schools which you’re interested in attending to learn about their success at getting students into medical school.

That said, you should be wary of schools that boast of high acceptance rates. Often schools inflate these numbers by telling students who are unlikely to get into medical school to withdraw from the program and find another major. Likewise, these statistics don’t typically account for students who take time off before applying to medical school.

Good luck!

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