which university or college in california have good medical program?
by admin on Thursday, March 24th, 2011 | 4 Comments
I’m a returning student in community college to pursue my career goal as a physician. I’m 30 years old, married, have one child. My counsellor told me that I needed to take all the pre-med courses and transfer to University to get a B.S. degree, then apply for medical school. It will take me 5/6 years to get my bachelor degree. Is this the best way for me to pursue my goal to be a doctor? Does anybody know any good medical program in any UC?
UCLA is best.
i go to UCLA and i am currently looking at UCSD and UCSF for med school. they are both top notch. i think i will go insane if i stay in LA any longer.
I applaud your determination, but suggest that you give serious thought to whether your goal is practical.
The first problem is that medical schools strongly prefer that the pre-med classes be taken at a four-year university, not at a community college, so medical school admission will probably be especially difficult for you.
If you enter medical school at age 37 and afterwards take a three-year residency program, which is the shortest available, you will be 44 when you start to practice and will probably have an educational debt of over $150,000 in today’s money. You will also be in one of the lower paying specialities if you take a three-year residency. Do you really want to be starting medical practice when you are less than three decades from the usual retirement age for physicians?
You might want to consider a physician’s assistant program. With two to four years of education after your bachelor’s degree you can easily earn over $100,000 a year in today’s money.
Any UC is fine for pre-med.
All the UC medical schools are also very good. They are at San Francisco, Davis, Los Angeles (UCLA), San Diego and Irvine. The Riverside campus provides the first two years of medical school and students finish at UCLA. By the time you are ready for medical school, Riverside will probably provide all four years.
A physician assistant programs is available at UC Davis. The UCLA physician assistant program is being closed.
Best wishes.
^^ownpool pretty much hit it on the head.
I just have another couple of things to add. You have a child. Medical school and not to mention residency will detract a lot of the time that you could spend with your child (at least 7 years of you not being there all the time). 7 years of a child’s life makes up almost 1/3 of their development. If you didn’t have a child maybe it would be feasible and it is feasible now if you don’t mind missing out on your child’s life.
If you want to pursue medicine, like ownpool recommended, look into PA programs because with those you do no residency and the schooling is much less intrusive as well.