How to Become a Doctor

If
you want to know how to become a doctor, the answer is that you have to
put in over a dozen years of hard work and studies.  Though many people
dream of becoming doctors, especially if you're interested in helping
people, few people are aware of the difficult path you have to tread
before you reach your goal.  If you have patience and persistence and
still want to know how to become a doctor, read on. 

The first thing you need
to know if you're asking how to become a doctor is to have a college
degree.  If you're applying to college, it's a good idea to pick a
university that also has a medical school, and a major that makes sense
for medicine (math or science are your best choices).  Work very hard
in college because you'll need top grades to get into a good medical
school; anything under a 3.5 average may not be good enough. 

If you've already
graduated college and are established in a career, you need to check
with medical schools to see if your area of study was appropriate.  If
your degree is in an entirely unrelated field, like English literature
or international relations, some of your college coursework will count
but you may have to get another bachelor's degree before you're able to
be admitted to medical school. 

After you have your
college degree in an appropriate are, the next step in how to become a
doctor is applying to medical school.  This is an extremely competitive
process so apply to as many schools as possible.  You can strengthen
your chances of getting accepted by applying to schools of osteopathy,
medical schools that use an alternative theory that is somewhat similar
to holistic medicine. Osteopathy degrees (DO) are recognized as equal
to MDs in the US and osteopaths can prescribe medicine, participate in
research and practice in just the same way that "regular" doctors can.   

After you're completed
four years of medical school, you'll have your degree, whether it's an
MD or DO, but there are still more steps in how to become a doctor. 
First you need to do an internship and residency at a hospital.  This
process will take five years total and you'll move around within
various departments at first in order to properly determine the right
medical specialty for you.  Towards the end of your residency you'll
stick to one area to get more experience in it.   

At the end of your
residency, if your aim is to go into a general practice like a family
doctor, you're pretty much done.  If you want to go into a highly
specialized area, like radiology, cardiology, or pathology, you will
need to take part in a fellowship (still more intense on-the-job
training) for three more years.  Finally, at the end of that
fellowship, you can say you're done with how to become a doctor and on
to your actual career!