Biophysics and the medical field

[claytonh4]

Hi everyone,
I'm a junior in high school right now and trying to decide my career path at this point... I'm going to go to Texas A&M University and want to be a surgeon obviously after college and med-school. But I've began to take a VERY serious interest in physics and spend all my time watching lectures online and reading up on theoretical physics. I have a 100 semester avg. in AP Physics right now so I definitely understand all the lower level aspects of it but I've come to a point where I can't decide whether to pursue medicine or physics. I got a biophysics book recently and it seems right up my alley as far as interests are concerned, but can someone who knows more than me tell me what possibilities there are to combine these fields?

 

[Choppy]

The good news is that you don't really have to decide on either path too quickly. You could pursue an undergraduate degree in physics and then so long as you get all the necessary prerequisite courses, you can apply to medical school.

There is a lot of overlap between the two. Fields you may want to look into:
From a physics background...
- medical physics
- biophysics
- biomedical engineering
- neuroscience

From a medicine background...
- radiation oncology
- radiology
- nuclear medicine
- aerospace medicine

 

[SheldorMD]

Hi everyone,
I'm a junior in high school right now and trying to decide my career path at this point... I'm going to go to Texas A&M University and want to be a surgeon obviously after college and med-school. But I've began to take a VERY serious interest in physics and spend all my time watching lectures online and reading up on theoretical physics. I have a 100 semester avg. in AP Physics right now so I definitely understand all the lower level aspects of it but I've come to a point where I can't decide whether to pursue medicine or physics. I got a biophysics book recently and it seems right up my alley as far as interests are concerned, but can someone who knows more than me tell me what possibilities there are to combine these fields?

Choppy's advice above is great, so I will second all of that. Specifically, if you love physics, DEFINITELY major in it in undergrad. The most important criteria for med school acceptance is your GPA. If you are doing something that you love and excel at you are more likely to get that great GPA. Like Choppy said, there are relatively few pre-reqs you need to do so that wouldn't be a problem.

As to which to pursue I was in a similar situation when I was back in high school. I couldn't decide which field to pursue, but unfortunately back then there was no internet :-)

My advice, if you want to be more physics oriented but still want a little medicine, I'd advise getting your PhD in medical physics and working alongside Radiation Oncologists. If you find you'd prefer to make clinical decisions and see patients, then I'd recommend medical school and then going into Radiation Oncology.

Best of luck!

 

[claytonh4]

Thanks a lot for all the info! Sounds like some cool fields to look into!

 

[claytonh4]

Thanks! I'm just really glad I can get a little of both either way