Needed..educational consultant..child wants to go to college to become a medical examiner..plse read (high school)

[deeds]

Our HS senior is planning to become a medical examiner......We are so lost as to help them achieve this....People are throwing MCAT terms and other things in which we are clueless....HS school counselor is frankly not a help either......R there educational consultants out there who can guide the parent and child.......Do know that child wants a small school setting for they want to get the best and most education....hild is serious about this.......this is there dream not ours.........The child has been a volunteer is several medical settings, hosp, ems, etc for the last several years........Looking for educaitonal guidance

[NickySantoro]

An interesting question so I took a quick look. It would seem in most areas a medical degree (MD or DO) would be required along with a specialization in pathology.

[HalfFull]

Personally, I'd start with this: https://www.google.com/search?q=how+...sm=93&ie=UTF-8

And after that, I'm sure there would be more questions. But I think this is a better starting point than immediately outsourcing.

[eveless]

That is a really terrific career goal. If he (she?) maintains the goal, it will likely lead to an exciting and sustainable career. If not, the educational path leading to becoming a medical examiner will allow for all sorts of other opportunities related to medicine, public health, or science.

The previous poster is correct, this will require going to medical school. The first important step for a high school senior is to get accepted to a college that is able to offer all of the pre-med requirements (biology, chemistry, advanced math, and others) and, ideally, has a good track record of students subsequently getting accepted to medical schools. I do not recommend that your child major in pre-medical studies. Any major is okay for a pre-med student in order to go to medical school, as long as he does the prereq courses; therefore, other majors, such as biology, chemistry, or engineering, open up a lot more doors for good careers if he ends up changing his mind and not progressing to med school. Majoring in forensics would likely give him a unique perspective once in medical school, and possibly an ‘edge’ as he pursues a career as a medical examiner.

It’s great that your kid already has experience working in a medical setting. He should aim to continue this to some degree in college and/or try to get involved in a research project or summer internship relevant to pathology, medicine, or forensic science.

Plenty of students go straight from undergrad to medical school, and many take one or more years in between to do research, try out various other careers, travel, etc. Both avenues have their pros and cons. Before he starts applying to medical schools he’ll need to take the MCAT and score reasonably well. The med school application process takes about a year from filling out initial applications to actually accepting a position.

In the fourth (final) year of medical school, he’ll need to apply to residency positions in pathology. It’s not considered one of the very competitive medical specialties; however, some of the more well-known programs, especially at big name institutions, are definitely tough to get a spot in. Residency applications work via a ‘match’ process, in which the applicant interviews at any number of programs and then ranks them. The programs also rank the applicants they interview, and a computer algorithm matches applicants to programs. The pathology residency is generally four years, and will expose him to all areas of pathology, such as anatomic, clinical, molecular, and forensic.

The last year of residency, he’ll apply for a fellowship in order to sub-specialize in forensic pathology. That is a 1-2 year program. During the first year, he’d be eligible to take the board certification exam for pathology. Following that, he’d be ready for a job as a medical examiner!

Some medical examiner positions are filled by pathologists that have not done a forensics fellowship. Some even take physicians who are not trained as pathologists. Some might even take non-physicians (but I’m not sure about this). The requirements vary state to state. Despite this, the path I’ve described leads to excellent qualifications for the career.

[Katabatic]

Originally Posted by eveless

I do not recommend that your child major in pre-medical studies. Any major is okay for a pre-med student in order to go to medical school, as long as he does the prereq courses; therefore, other majors, such as biology, chemistry, or engineering, open up a lot more doors for good careers if he ends up changing his mind and not progressing to med school.

This is a great point. Medicine is a very competitive and challenging field. Some people just are not cut out for it (many pre-med majors in the first semester, not so many second semester...). By taking chem/bio, they have some more options if they don't have the 3.8 or whatever GPA is necessary to be competitive for medical school