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Daily Digest Archive for December 30, 2002
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Q: (Initially posted on December 27, 2002) FROM MENTEE ANTAWANNA
W. IN AR
I am interested in a career in sports medicine. Do you all
have any advice on
what I should study in college before going to medical school?
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December 30, 2002
A: FROM MENTOR SUSAN MODESITT
IN KY
Antawanna,
There are several different avenues to take if you are interested
in sports
medicine. If you are interested in medical school, the traditional
disciplines of Orthopedic surgery, physical medicine and rehabilitation
and
family practice can all work with sports related diseases/injuries.
If you
are interested in operating on people with sports related injuries,
the only
route is really Orthopedics, but the others will work on diagnosis
and
treatment issues. There are also other ways to treat people
with these
disorders, including physical therapy school, a different and
easier route.
In terms of what you should do in college to prepare, I wouldn't
advocate
anything specific. You should take the fairly standard premed
fare (every
college has a pre-med advisory group and the requirements for
entry into
medical school are well established) and then I would focus
on what you
like. Believe me, if you go to medical school, you will get
more than
enough of the sciences and you should take the opportunity in
college to be
exposed to a wide range of topics. If you aren't sure about
medical school,
or sports medicine, you should volunteer or pursue research
in that area.
This will serve 2 goals. First, it will solidify (or perhaps
extinguish!)
your desire to go to medical school (4 years of med school followed
by a
minimum of a 3 year residency although Orthopedic surgery is
5 years) and
second, to demonstrate qualities outside of class work that
would make you
an attractive candidate for medical school admission. Having
been involved
in the admission process, good college grades and test scores
are mandatory
but successful applicants usually have other qualities like
excellent
extracurricular activities, research, sports, leadership roles,
volunteer
activities etc, something that sets them apart from the other
applicants.
Good luck, medicine is a challenging field but extremely rewarding.
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