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Advice about Medicine in USA

I am 16 years old and I live in the UK. I have just started Yr 12 and I am studying the IB (International Baccalaureate). I am studying: Maths HL AA, Biology HL, Chemistry HL, English Literature SL, Psychology SL, French Ab Initio. In the future, I plan to go to the US to play football (soccer) and study pre med. My question is why do students, in the US, have to study pre med for 4 years and the go to medical school to study medicine for another 4 years? But in the UK you can study medicine staright after sixth form. Also, what actually is pre med and how is it different to medicine?

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

It's because in the US medicine is a postgraduate degree. This is not an uncommon model for many countries.

You need to do an undergraduate degree first, during which you will complete the premedical curriculum. Premed isn't a degree/major, it's just a set of courses you take while completing your first degree. You can major in whatever you like - many premed students pick a science major since they have to take a number of science classes as part of the premed curriculum anyway.

The premed classes are standardly 2 semesters of biology, 2 semesters of physics, 2 semesters general chemistry, 2 semesters organic chemistry (or 1 semester organic chemistry plus 1 semester biochemistry), 2 semesters of calculus (or 1 semesters calculus plus 1 semesters of statistics), usually completing whatever your colleges writing requirements are, and sometimes it's recommended to do 1 semester of psychology. If biochemistry isn't completed as part of the above usually students take 1 semester of that in addition to it anyway. So it's just "basic" science classes for the most part, it's not clinical content or (applied) medical sciences which is the material covered in the medical degree.

You also need to do the usual work experience, shadowing, preparing for the MCAT, and decorating your CV otherwise as well as doing well in your academics

Reply 2

damian_matemba

Original post by artful_lounger

It's because in the US medicine is a postgraduate degree. This is not an uncommon model for many countries.
You need to do an undergraduate degree first, during which you will complete the premedical curriculum. Premed isn't a degree/major, it's just a set of courses you take while completing your first degree. You can major in whatever you like - many premed students pick a science major since they have to take a number of science classes as part of the premed curriculum anyway.
The premed classes are standardly 2 semesters of biology, 2 semesters of physics, 2 semesters general chemistry, 2 semesters organic chemistry (or 1 semester organic chemistry plus 1 semester biochemistry), 2 semesters of calculus (or 1 semesters calculus plus 1 semesters of statistics), usually completing whatever your colleges writing requirements are, and sometimes it's recommended to do 1 semester of psychology. If biochemistry isn't completed as part of the above usually students take 1 semester of that in addition to it anyway. So it's just "basic" science classes for the most part, it's not clinical content or (applied) medical sciences which is the material covered in the medical degree.
You also need to do the usual work experience, shadowing, preparing for the MCAT, and decorating your CV otherwise as well as doing well in your academics

Can I do a undergraduate degree in the US and then do a postgraduate degree in the UK?

Reply 3

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by damian_matemba

Can I do a undergraduate degree in the US and then do a postgraduate degree in the UK?

In the UK medicine is an undergraduate degree anyway so there'd be no reason or point in doing that. It would literally take longer and cost you a lot more unless you would be paying international student fees in the UK, relative to just going directly into a medical degree here after doing the IB.

Especially if your goal is to practice medicine in the UK there's really not much point in looking to do a medical degree outside of the UK if you can help it...