Placebo’s guide – getting into medical school

There are no grades that I’ll talk about (you can see for yourselves in the JUPAS website I suppose); there are few examples of what would bring a person into medical school (there are enough medical doctors around you and it’s easy to ask); what this piece deals with is how you get there after you have got all the requisites – good academic results, reference letters and the much needed luck. Accept this, and read on.

Medical schools in Hong Kong are basically a place for really bright students[1]. For those who are less able to get good grades at public examinations, alternatives include entrance to medical schools in Taiwan, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Medical school isn’t exactly something one should consider if you are asking for money. Yes – really good surgeons do make a million a week – but how many of those are there? You are much better off doing MT jobs and hope for the best. You will work less hours, have better quality of life earlier and hopefully retire earlier. There are certainly jobs in the medical sectors that would provide you with decent hours, but those would usually require either a period of damnation which may be quite long (some 8 years perhaps for physicians to rise to the level where you need not be on-site during on-call period) or an unreasonable curriculum that you will need to finish (e.g. anatomic and cytopathology).

Who do they want as medical students?

It all stems from one thing – a medical school wants to train safe doctors. The idea is, you could at least expect a safe doctor taking care of you when you’re in the hospital – thus, we need doctors (thus medical students) who understand their limits, work as a team and listen to others.

Accept it – medical school is all about vocational training. There is no ‘university’ part involved unless you are part of the academic staff in the university – and even then, not until you receive your fellowship.

You are going to get interviews, and you are going to be asked on why you want to be a medical doctor (once you’re in you will graduate unless you quit) and why you should be offered a place in the medical school.

So why do you want to be a doctor?

It is very natural to ask this question, am I not correct, monsieur? Let’s look at some sample answers:

1.      My mother told me to do so.

2.      I am living in a public housing estate and all I want to do is to get some decent salary to raise my four younger brothers.

3.      It is my dream to become a doctor.

4.      My father is a doctor, and I am to inherit his practice.

And so on, and so forth. These may as well be the real underlying reasons for many doctors out there, but of course, as a reasonably good student you know that there are many ways of presenting the same idea. I am not trying to give standard answers here, but the idea is that you want to help other people out, and medicine is one direct way of helping these folks.

[1] No, the luminance is not required for passing the examinations after you get into the medical school.