4 responses so far ↓

• 1 Librarian P.Johnson

  The sites below may help.

• 2 Jarod

  First of all, it is not easy. Not at all. I work at a hospital with doctors and I am a future nurse so I know all about this.

  Initially you will need to get a bachelors degree, and have a soaring GPA at that. You also need to have taken the pre-medicine courses at a university, in addition to your finished degree. This will take anywhere from 4-7 years depending how efficient and smart you work.

  Next, you will need to get into medical school which is extremely competitive. You will need to take the MCAT, Medical College Admissions Test. This test is extremely difficult and you will spend long long long hours preparing for this test.

  Once you are accepted, you will spend four years as a medical student, assuming you pass all of your classes. You are a medical student 24/7 and you never stop studying. I have interviewed many medical students. You study during the school years, have a class during the summer also, and are participating in what is called clerkship where you just observe and work with doctors and patients in hospitals and offices. This is volunteering, you are not paid for your services.

  In your years as a medical student you will take national exams called the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). You will take the first in your second year. You will take the last part of this exam in your final year as a medical student. Not only must you graduate in your class, you must pass these exams or you will not be licensed to practice medicine in the United States.

  Next you will have to go through what is called residency. This is a period of focusing on the specific type of medicine you want to practice. In your case, Plastic Surgery. You will need to get accepted into what is called “General Surgery” residency program. General Surgery residency last at least 5 years. Acceptance into these programs are even more further competitive, just for entrance into the program. Also, you have to “graduate” or be recommended to proceed by the physician or group of physicians you are working under. If you drop out of residency, its nearly impossible to be re-admitted to the same program or even another one.

  Then you will have to sub-specialize in plastic surgery. This is an additional 3 to six years just depending on the program.

  During residency and your time study your sub-specialty you will work on average 60-80 hours a week however you are paid around 35k-60k for your services. Vacations during this time are rare.

  After this, you will now be a plastic surgeon and making lots of money. You can work in cosmetics, or actually put what you have learned to use for the better of the world and practice plastic surgery on severely burned victims and car crash, assault or trauma patients.

  You will be highly respected.

  When you are not with your patients, you will have time just like anybody else in the world, except with lots of money.

  Good luck and I hope you become a plastic surgeon. Don’t let all these obstacles scare you away from pursuing your dream. You take them all one day at a time.

• 3 LadyRoo

  I agree with most of what the above poster said (although to be fair, I’m in med school, and here I am mucking about on Yahoo instead of studying…and most people just study 2-3 months for the MCAT). To break down the timeline:

  4 years of college
  4 years of medical school
  3-5 years of surgery residency (general, ortho, etc.)
  2 years of plastic surgery residency
  optional additional years of subspecialty training (fellowships)

• 4 Sneaky kitty

  All the Answers are great but to clear things up for your undergrad will not take “4-7″ years but 3-4 years

  Other answers say what to do to get to med-school,in general a GPA of 3.55 or better and a good MCAT score,there is no certain major Req. No such thing a Pre-med Classes there are Req. Course such as Chem,Bio,Physics,Orgo,Biochem,Calc.

  Once in medical school (4) the fist 2 years is Called Pre-Clinical years,You learn Anatomy,Physio,Bio chem,Pharmacology ETC.
  While usually once a week , one afternoon you do a preceptor-ship with a Physicians where you learn the physical exam,ethics,Heart-Lung Exam basics,how to interact
  (No Summer Courses)

  During the last two years, is clinical medicine where you rotate through the big specialties to get the basics of medicine (IM,Surgery,Family Med.,OB-GYN,Pends. You are not “Volunteering, you are treating patients Supervised,you are the lowest of them all, the Janitors are 10x better than you .

  During your 4th year you get to chose must of your clerk-ships.
  Basically customize your curriculum .

  After-wards if you are still interested in plastics than you apply for an integrated platics program (5-7 years) or Gen. Surgery (5 Yr.) than a 2 year fellowship in plastics after-wards you can specialize into anything in plastics or keep it general (Oral-facial.Peds,Reconstructive.)

  Sorry for the quick post .