There’s the white coat dream, and then there’s the white-knuckle reality. Maybe you’re in high school dreaming about a career path where you have prestige, purpose, and identity. Becoming a doctor seems like the right choice to achieve all of those, so you decide that when you go to college, you’ll be a pre-med.
But here’s the brutal truth: only 16.5% of students who start pre-med actually finish with the requirements to apply to med school. And it’s not necessarily about whether these students couldn’t make it further, but that they realized that this wasn’t the right path for them.
So how do you know if pre-med is right for you?
In this article, we’ll help you ask yourself the honest questions that will make choosing this path clearer. Plus, we’ll cover what real-world tests you can do before you actually commit.
What Pre-Med Actually Means
Before you decide if pre-med is right for you, it’s important to make sure you have the right understanding of what being a pre-med means.
Pre-med isn’t a major. It’s not something you can declare as you head off to college like you can with Biology or English. Instead, it’s a track and something you’ll need to manage on your own. That means there are specific requirements you’ll need to complete in your undergrad years to be eligible to apply for med school.
One of those things is required coursework:
Biology
- General Biology I & II (with lab)
- Cell Biology
- Genetics
- Microbiology (some schools)
Chemistry
- General Chemistry I & II (with lab)
- Organic Chemistry I & II (with lab)
- Biochemistry
Physics
- General Physics I & II (with lab)
Math
- Calculus I (some schools require Calculus II)
- Statistics/Biostatistics
English/Writing
- English Composition or Writing-intensive courses (usually 2 semesters)
- Some schools require Literature or Humanities
Psychology & Sociology
- Introductory Psychology
- Introductory Sociology (Both are heavily tested on the MCAT)
Behavioral/Social Sciences (varies by school)
- Ethics or Medical Ethics
- Public Health (some programs)
You’ll also need to gain clinical experiences during your time as a pre-med. This means things like volunteering at hospitals, shadowing, joining research projects, etc. It all needs to be in service of you pursuing your interests and building a cohesive narrative that later proves to AdComs that you’re ready for medical school.
Another part of deciding to be pre-med is the MCAT, a standardized exam required for any and all medical schools. But taking it isn’t just a checkbox. Your score will either open or close doors to different med schools based on their requirements. Generally, competitive applicants typically score 511+.
Bottom line: view pre-med as the runway to applying to medical school. It’s the years you take the classes, get the experience, and prove you’re ready for the next step in becoming a doctor.
The 7 Questions You Need to Answer to Know if Pre-Med is Right for You
Now you have the right view of what being pre-med means, but before you commit the next four years to this path, ask yourself these seven questions to make sure it’s the right fit.
1. Have You Actually Explored Other Options Or Just Defaulted to Medicine?
It’s typical for high achievers in school to default to competitive fields like medicine, engineering, or law without actually determining if that’s what they’re passionate about. But here’s the thing: there’s no prize for declaring your future early and never wavering.
Exploration isn’t weakness. It’s how you confirm medicine is a choice, not a default. That means look into other career paths. That could look like going to career fairs or even shadowing outside of medicine. The goal isn’t necessarily to search until you find something you enjoy better than medicine, but simply to confirm medicine is in fact what you enjoy the most.
2: Do You Know the Full Ecosystem of Healthcare?
Maybe you know for certain medicine is the right route, but you aren’t familiar with any other options other than a doctor or nurse. The truth is, there are so many other options that could better suit you than those two.
Here’s a list of only a few other options you can explore within medicine:
- Physician’s Assistant
- Nurse Practitioner
- Physical Therapist
- Genetic Counselor
- Pharmacist
- Speech Pathologist
- Epidemiologist
- Healthcare Lobbyist
- Clinical Scientist
Each one has different timelines, different autonomy, and different lifestyles but all serve in the field of medicine. Be sure to explore these just like you would other career paths to make sure doctor is indeed the right path for you and not just another default.
3: What’s Your “Why” And Is It Specific Enough?
So you’ve explored other careers and other roles in medicine, and you’re still sure you want to be a doctor. The next question to ask yourself is simply, why?
If your answer is that you want to help people, then you need to take a step back. That won’t get you through the difficult pre-med years or convince AdComs to give you a seat at their medical school. You need something more specific that’s personal, specific to being a doctor, and proven through lived experience.
Some examples of good “whys” include:
- Health equity
- Surgical innovation
- Underserved communities
- A personal experience with illness (although this tends to be overused)
If your why is underserved communities, for example, then you need to back that up with experiences like working in free clinics, street medicine programs, or health advocacy. You can’t just say your “why” is health equity without proving it. AdComs won’t take it seriously if there’s no proof.
4. Do You Actually Love Science Or Just the Idea of It?
If you’re going to survive being a pre-med and later medical school and professional practice, you need to really love the science behind being a doctor.
Here’s a good self-audit: How do you feel about AP Bio right now? AP Chem?
Don’t answer based on how you perform in it. Answer based on how you feel in it. There’s a difference.
If you find yourself going down rabbit holes after class, you’re still thinking about what you learned at dinner, or you voluntarily look deeper into things when you don’t have to, then it’s safe to say you have fun with science.
If you show up, you grind, and you get the grade, then you’re probably just tolerating the science. If that’s the case, it’s not the end of the world, but you’re walking a thin line of later regretting your career path because you don’t truly enjoy the basics of what it requires.
If you dread the classes, every assignment feels like a battle, and the subject feels foreign no matter how much time you put in, then you’re just surviving. If this is you, it’s time to consider a different path. Pre-med is likely not for you.
5: Can You Stomach the Parts Nobody Puts on the Brochure?
It’s easy to fall in love with the flashy parts of being a doctor, like the clinical care or lab work, depending on what you enjoy. But what’s not on the brochure is:
- Health policy
- Paperwork
- Insurance battles
- Administrative grind
If you would dread dealing with these, then you need to decide if the fun parts outweigh the not-so-fun parts. If they do, then pre-med is probably still right for you. Everyone has things they don’t like about their job. It comes down to whether it ruins your overall experience or not.
6. What Are You Not Willing to Give Up And What Does That Tell You?
A good way to determine if pre-med is right for you or not is to make a list of your non-negotiables, things you refuse to give up even to become a doctor. These could be things like:
- Travel
- Sleep
- Family time
- Creative pursuits
- Financial stability in your 20s
The honest truth is that you’ll likely need to sacrifice some or all of the above to some degree at some time as a pre-med, medical student, and doctor. You won’t be able to travel as much because you’ve got class or work commitments. You’ll lose sleep studying or working shifts. You’ll be grinding in your 20s when everyone else is starting their first job and scaling the income ladder.
If you can’t see yourself compromising on any of these to any degree, then another profession will likely serve you better. If you understand the tradeoffs and know it’s just part of the process, then pre-med is still on the table.
7: Are You Built for the Human Side of Medicine?
Medicine isn’t a solo endeavor. You’ll work on a team with other doctors and nurses. Not to mention seeing patients on maybe the worst day of their life when they’re scared, vulnerable, and hard to work with.
It’s not uncommon to experience burnout, moral injury, or compassion fatigue as a doctor. Bottom line: being a doctor is very human, and if you try to hide behind the science you’ll have a hard time staying in this field.
Be sure you know if you have the capacity to handle the human side as well as the science side. No reason to start down this path as a pre-med if you would prefer just staying in a lab.
The Real-World Tests to Confirm
The questions above are a great start to know whether pre-med is right for you, but there are real-world tests you can do to be even more sure. These help you go from theorizing to actually doing.
Here’s what you should do before officially committing to the pre-med track:
- Shadow a Doctor: The best way to know if being a doctor is right for you is seeing it up close, first-hand. Bored all day? May not be for you. Wish you didn’t have to leave? Now we’re talking.
- Volunteer in a Clinical Setting: Even as a high school student, you can volunteer at the hospital, a nursing home, or hospice care. See whether you enjoy the human side of the career.
- Participate in Research: Here’s where you can see whether you enjoy just being in the lab or if you want more patient interaction. There’s a difference between loving medicine and loving biomedical research.
- Join a Pre-Med Club: This gives you the opportunity to talk to students a few grades above you who are living out the path you want to explore. Ask questions about their experience to see if it really interests you.
So… Is Pre-Med Right For You? (The Honest Answer)
There’s no universal answer to this question, but the questions and real-world tests above can give clear signals if it’s right for you.
If you have a clear “why,” a genuine love for science, already have real clinical exposure, and aren’t afraid of the harder parts of the journey, then pre-med is likely right for you.
If medicine is a default choice that you haven’t really explored or you dread the science or human interaction of clinical care, and have strict non-negotiables, then pre-med is likely not right for you.
Feel like you’re somewhere in the middle? Keep exploring the path. Look into other ones too. If you’re in high school, then you’re still very early in the journey and have more time before you need to make that decision.
