Does anyone have some advice for a girl considering medical school?

I have many academic interests, but what spurs me most is medicine. More specifically, I want to be an obstetrician. I'm aware that women have a tougher time in this profession than men. I also know that the coursework is rigorous. Does anyone who is familiar with medical school have any advice or relevant information about it? What all does it entail? At what point do I declare a major? How difficult is the material? If you can answer any of these I would be grateful. Thanks for your time.Does anyone have some advice for a girl considering medical school?
if you are unsure about becoming an MD you could consider an RN then from there work to be a Midwife, this is a nurse practitioner. the stress of being a girl would be less this way and still a serious course load too, as well as a respected fieldDoes anyone have some advice for a girl considering medical school?
Good for you. Medicine can be very rewarding in many ways. Be careful about deciding on a specialty (like OB) so early. You haven't experienced all the options yet. Many of my classmates thought they wanted to be one thing only to end up as a heme/onc, dermatologist or something they had never heard of before (radiation oncologist). Women don't have a tougher time......everyone has a tough time. I'm not sure what stage of school your in but if it's high school, develope your interest in medicine. Join clubs that would seem appropriate and consider volunteering at a hospital (not nursing homes). If you still like the idea. Enter the best college you can. After the first semester of regular enrollment talk to your academic advisor about becoming a pre-med (you'll still need to pick a major). Ask what is the more common majors. It's usually microbio, chemistry, biology, etc. You can get into medical school as a political science major or even classic civ, etc with a premed added on but the enterance will be harder. There are several good books on strategies but there is no single perfect way to be assured of getting in to medical school. Study hard, get good grades and stay active in societies in college that are appropriate. If you work hard you can get in assuming usual intelligence. You don't have to be smart to be a doctor, you just can't be stupid. The smarter you are, the easier it is to get in. Medical school is tough, exausting, and hard on your life. After medical school (4 years) you apply for an internship and (usually) residency to determine your specialty. Only then do you have to make a decision on what to be. Residency is worse than medical school and at the beginning, tough on your ego (you think you know alot after medical school and in fact you do, it's just not enough). Residency last 2 to 9 years depending on speciality. Then you go out to save lives and stamp out disease (one patient at a time), try not to get sued too often and enjoy. It's a good life. Mostly it's very rewarding, you don't get bored much but is pretty demanding on you from that point onward. You'll be 28 years old if you go striaght through with a common 3 year residency. If you want money it's there but not enough for the effort in my opinion (go into dentistry or with less certainty business etc). My wife's a dentist and they make a lot more than we do right now. If you want to save lives all the time, go into sanitation, your garbage collector saves more lives by preventing disease than I can by trying to treat it in the ER all day (I went into emergency medicine). If you want to become a physician for the feeling that your doing good, have an interest in knowing how it all works, want to earn a stable fairly-good salary somewhere between $100K (Family Practice) to $2.2 milllion (super-specialitized opthalmologic surgeons) then medicine is great. I do not go to sleep at night wondering if my life makes a difference but I do wonder if there was a better and easier way. Best of luck.
I suggest you should declare your major ASAP. Medical school is always tough because of many (hard) classes that you need to take. However, if you already made up your mind about it, then good for you.
It's good that you are thinking about these questions now in undergrad. You don't have to declare a major soon...take your time and find a major that interests you. The timing of declaring your major won't reflect on your medical school admission...but there may be deadlines that your school has that you should meet. Your major could be anything: anthropology, public health, english, women's studies...anything that interests you. In order to get in to medical school you have to take some very specific courses in addition to whatever major you choose to do. Some of these courses may or may not overlap with your major (it all depends on what major you choose). These courses are compulsary for everyone who wants to apply to medical school, and are called 'pre-med' courses. You should look up what these courses are online, or talk to your school counsellor. Usually these courses include: english , calculus, biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, an upper level biology course, and maybe spanish.





One of the reasons you have to take all that course work is so that you can have an adequate background in the sciences to approach the human body in a scientific manner when in the medical school...medicine incorporates those various sciences to study the body. The second reason you have to take all that course work is because in order to apply for medical school you have to do the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT). The MCAT is to medical school what the SAT is to universities. People usually plan their course work so that they can take the MCAT in their junior year and then apply to medical schools in the senior year. The MCAT tests: physics, general chemistry, organic chemistry, biology, verbal reasoning, and writing. There is no math section (although you need to know math, not calculus, to do the physics section).





The coursework you have to do in undergrad is not all easy...like anything in life some of it will be easy for you and some of it difficult. You just have to persevere. And try your best to do good. Most importantly, choose a major that you will enjoy...contrary to common belief, medical schools do not care what major you did in undergrad...they only care about your sciences GPA and your overall GPA. But if you are interested in science then a science major will mean that you have to take less coursework because the premed courses that you have to take will overlap with the some of the courses required to complete your major.





In addition to your coursework, you have to do volunteer activities. Do something that you enjoy and that makes a difference in the community. You should also do some leadership activities. You have 4 years to do this in undergrad...make sure you have a solid resume of leadership and volunteer activities by the time you start to apply. There are times when really amazing leadership activities can overcome a low GPA or MCAT score to make a candidate appealing to a med school.





Additionally, make sure you get clinical experience...shadow a doctor at the local hospital, volunteer at a cancer ward or hospice or in an obstetric ward.





Lastly, make sure you enjoy your time in undergrad...it's a time to gain insights and find yourself and be a better person. This aspect will come out in your application, essay and interview with med schools. But other than than, undergrad is a time to expand your mind and be a better person...don't obsess with trying to get into med school. Rather, chart a plan for getting in to med school (course work, volunteer work, clinical experience, leadership activities, MCAT study) AND then around that organize yourself to do things that you like and will make you a better human being [e.g. take classes that you think are fun (like philosophy, logic, religion) or other activities (I don't mean drinking and getting stoned and wasting your life).





Good luck.
why? its ur own interest, we cant help u build ur own interest...it depends on when u study it, u cant ask oh is it hard to study in medical school, if u love it, even hard work wont bring u down...
I would visit some of your local ob's that are women %26amp; see if they might have some advice for you....Would you be interested in becoming an EMT for your local community ambulance corp....that might give you some experience in some things...