The Medical Profession
Like other professionals, doctors are required to complete years of intense training resulting in formal certification of their particular qualifications. Following college graduation, the entire process of becoming a doctor typically is a seven-year undertaking. Consequently, pursuit of a career as a doctor requires enough interest in medicine, financial resources, and sufficient concern for sick patients to maintain motivation throughout multiyear medical training.
Becoming a licensed physician begins with successful completion of a college degree. Next, admission to nearly all U.S. medical schools typically requires satisfactory performance on the Medical College Admission Test®. The MCAT is a standardized test that is prepared and administered by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and that examines the skills and knowledge considered to be important prerequisites for success in medical school and medical practice. Some schools utilize strict MCAT cut-off scores to identify applicants who will receive further consideration for admission.
The costs associated with taking the MCAT are problematic for many Hispanic students wanting to attend medical school. The initial registration fee for the MCAT exam is $330, which includes the cost of the exam as well as distribution of scores. Applicants typically prepare a single set of application materials that is sent to the one or more medical schools of interest. The 2024 application fee is $175 for the first school and $45 for each additional school.
Students planning to take the MCAT must thoroughly prep for the exam. Basic MCAT prep materials are free and available online from AAMC. However, most applicants invest in paid prep resources. For example, a one-year subscription to the AAMC MCAT Official Prep Complete Bundle (Online + Print Book) costs $294.
Based on an AAMC survey, the average tuition and student fees for first-year medical students for the 2023-2024 academic year is $40,493. (One must download an Excel spreadsheet to obtain this information from an AAMC report.) Medical school graduates must repay the sum of both medical school debt and premedical/college debt. The AAMC Debt, Costs, and Loan Repayment Fact Card for the Class of 2023 indicates that 84 percent of graduates owed at least $100,000, and 54 percent owed $200,000 or more.
The next phase of medical training generally is a residency in a desired specialty such as surgery or cardiology. Residencies take place in both hospitals or clinics, and are under the supervision of fully credentialed attending physicians. The term “intern” is applied to physicians in their first-year of residency after graduation from medical school.
All physicians must be licensed before they can practice medicine. Licensing is a process that involves proof of education, training, and licensure exam completion. Each state has its own licensing board, and doctors must obtain a license from every state in which they practice medicine. All states have the requirement that applicants within a span of seven to ten years must pass all three parts of the United States Medical Licensing Examination sponsored by the Federation of State Medical Boards and the National Board of Medical Examiners.
Although board certification is a voluntary process, most practicing physicians in the U.S. are board-certified. Board certifications are specific to medical specialties and subspecialties, each with its own set of requirements. Board certification signals a physician’s “exceptional expertise in a particular specialty and/or subspecialty of medical practice,” according to the American Board of Medical Specialties.