What type of education should I pursue to get into the medical research field?

I am currenty in high school, and plan on entering the medical field. Although I have considered becoming a doctor, surgeon, etc., these choices seem too "boring". I would rather be working to find new cures for cancer, AIDS, or other types of medical disorders and working to advance medical science.





I'm not sure what type of degree I should pursue in college, and what path of study I should pursue in medical school. Any suggestions would be great.

What type of education should I pursue to get into the medical research field?
You could follow the requirements for pre-med, but they are rather loose -- most Med Schools only require one year each of calculus, chemistry, organic chemistry, biology and physics. That is enough to start the study of medicine, but it is not enough to get a good job in research. After you get out of med school if you want to do mostly research there are lots of hospitals and research institutions that you could work at.


If you don't want to do Med School then you need to major in physics, chemistry or biology. And then you need to start right in on your MS degree, because if you only have a BS you will be the lab flunkey, not a real researcher. If you get a MS then you will be half a flunkey and half a researcher, at least for a few years until you get some experience. Then if you are really good, you will maybe be considered a legitimate researcher. If you want to be in charge of the research and make a good living and manage the lab, then you need a PhD.


So plan on a long, long time in school, lots of debts when you get out. Hopefully you will get a job in research.





One area you may not have considered is pharmacy. It used to be easy to get into pharmacy school but not any more. Now, because there are so many interesting research jobs, getting into pharmacy school is as hard as getting into med school. In general, you need to take about the same courses that you need for med school, only in med school they expect you to spend four years as an undergrad before you start, but in pharmacy school you usually spend only two years as an undergrad... so you have to take the chem, organic chem and physics right away starting in your freshman year.
Reply:Iff you enroll as a pre-med student, you willl take all of the appropriate prerequisite courses, and as you proceed and join clubs of interest and take more specific classes you will detelrmine the direction in which you woud like to go.ake sure the University offers a good pre-med, with many options, and if you transfer credits from one major to another withoug losing credits.





My dughtr has the same dilemma. She wanted to be a vet,but isafrai since UF is extremely difiicult to get into vet school, and even though she holds a 4.0, that she may not gget in. The classes getmore difficult with each semester. however, she is going to continue on the track of pre-med because in the end there are so many directions to go toward. Al of the fields in medicine are goingt o require numerous science classes, so you can't go wrong.