Oberlin College & Conservatory

Deciding to go to Medical School

Going to medical school is not a decision to be made lightly. For one thing, it involves a substantial time commitment: four years of medical school, plus additional years of graduate study (residency). Second, medical school may be very expensive. Tuition can amount to more than $40,000 per year, depending on the school and your residency status. You can easily spend over $1,000 simply applying to medical school. Moreover, competition for places in medical schools has never been greater. No matter what your grades are, there is no guarantee of acceptance.

So, make sure you know what you're getting into. Spend time with doctors outside of your yearly checkup or when you're having a broken arm set. Talk to physicians about their jobs, their lifestyle, and what it takes to become a doctor. Work in a health care environment to find out what it's like to be with sick people every day. Visit the Office of Career Services to obtain information about careers, especially medical and health care careers, and how to decide if medicine is for you. Talk to a Health Careers Advisor (see contact list) or contact Oberlin alumni who are in, or have gone through, medical school recently to get the straight story on the whole experience. The Health Careers Advisor in Career Services has a list of Oberlin alumni in a variety of medical specialties willing to discuss their career choices with you; some have offered current Oberlin students the opportunity to shadow or do winter term internships with them. You can also do your own research through Oberlin's ObieWEB.

Beyond that, you'll have to do a lot of soul searching on your own. Advisors, friends, parents and books are great, but they are not you. You are the only one who knows what you want out of life. And if you don't know, take a year or more after graduation (and before medical school) to figure it out. Know why you're going before you apply.

To learn as much as you can about your chosen profession and the lives of the professionals in it, do some work or observation in a hospital, clinic, private office, or nursing home. While being a doctor can be exciting, challenging and fulfilling, it can also be very tedious. Medicine makes enormous demands on your time, energy, and patience. Find out as much about the profession as possible, so that you go into it with your eyes open. Contact Career Services for help in finding paid and volunteer opportunities in health care and biomedical research settings.

Begin to develop a vision of the kind of doctor you want to become. This will help you to develop a supporting rationale in your applications and to select appropriate courses and premedical internships. Note that most M.D.s, including primary care physicians, get specialized training immediately after earning the M.D. In other words, three to seven years of training are usually required after earning an M. D.

In the second year of college, students should consider finding a health care practitioner who will serve as a mentor, preferably a physician who is teaching and practicing medicine. You should also consider taking the Health Career Exploration class offered by the Biology department. Also, check with the Career Services Office to find out if there is an alum in your area who would be willing to serve as a mentor for you, if you do not already have contact with someone who can fulfill that role.