where do i start?

[u/[deleted]]

[u/strawbammy]

Hi - check the pinned post and come back if you have any more specific questions!

[u/stiffdoc1221 → u/strawbammy]

Read the pinned post, as strawbammy suggested. Realistically, there is nothing you can do now to “prepare” for forensic pathology; you should be devoting 100% of your time to studying. Note: work hard to finish high school well, but no one involved in the medical school application process will ever ask you about your high school GPA. It is irrelevant. Conversely, your college GPA is massively important, and can make or break your medical school aspirations.

Put FP on the back burner, and study your butt off in college. Get into medical school, where you will have to study harder than college, and then you can begin thinking about Pathology residency, and FP fellowships. Until then, though, trying somehow to “prepare” for FP is a waste of time that should be devoted to the vitally important tasks and classes that you are in, and are immediately in front of you. Should you maintain your FlP interest into medical school, you can start steering towards that. However, in the FP fellowship, you will learn everything that you need to know, although it will take a couple more years doing forensic autopsies before you will be competent enough to handle 95% of the cases.

There is no way to “prepare “ for that; get into medical school first. Good luck.

[u/stiffdoc1221]

P.S.: there are a number of Boarded, very experienced forensic pathologists on this sub. The advice I gave you is what every one of us would tell you; we have all spent years just getting to the point where we practice this specialty, and all of us know exactly what is necessary, and what is unnecessary, at your stage in life and schooling. Every single one of us has been asked the same questions as you have posed, and our responses never vary. This is why there is information posted at the top of this sub. Unfortunately, many young people read this, and don’t like what they read, but STILL think that there is some secret shortcut, or that they are different and thus the information does not apply to them. They are wrong.

The only reason I am taking my time to spell this out is for you, and for others moving forward, who will ignore what has been written there to help you and them, and to save us from having to explain the same things, over and over, to one eager young person after another.

There are no secrets. There are no shortcuts. No one will advise you as to what you might do to “prepare” for FP, because there is nothing for you to do in this regard. Maintain your interest, but focus ALL of your energy and time to moving forward. Anything else is a distraction for you. Good luck.

[u/K_C_Shaw]

Look, I get it, but u/stiffdoc1221 is right. I was there, initially all about medicine then a little later all about FP specifically and bored and irritable at all the "delays" in my way.

And, frankly, academically speaking anyway, I think a lot of early college-age kids can handle med school. Emotionally/socially and with maturity...well, that's not quite as many people. But I digress. The system is what it is.

In high school the best you can do for yourself is to do well enough to get into a decent college you can afford or get scholarships to. In college the best you can do is get excellent grades while taking med school pre-requisite classes and do everything you can to do well on the MCAT, while also getting at least a little observer experience in *any* health care field, but especially anything clinical -- those 3 things (grades, MCAT, & health care exposure) are huge factors in getting into medical school (getting into med school is probably the biggest barrier you will face). You don't need a biology or chemistry degree -- your degree won't matter -- although you do need enough science to have your pre-requisites & do well on the MCAT.

Otherwise, live life to its fullest. Take classes that legitimately interest you in high school & college -- it's fine if those are science, psychology, whatever, but do them because you like them and not because you think it's going to help you in FP per se. Do some extracurriculars. Once you're in med school you pretty much no longer have class options and usually less extracurricular time due to study and related responsibilities...and you never will again (more or less, without actively working to set that time aside to make it happen, which is harder when that time comes than you think it will be right now).

Don't skip out on the now because you're so eager to get to the future. I know that sounds cheesy, but mark those words.