How Long is Medical School

How long is medical school? Medical school will be four years (two years of basic science followed by two years of clinical rotations). After this point, you will have received your medical degree. Becoming a doctor will require more than medical school if you want to practice medicine in the United States. Because your training also involves residency and maybe a fellowship. Therefore, how long is medical school has its caveats.

Internship

Generally, the first year after medical school is an internship. Internships consist of two types: internal medicine or surgery. The purpose of the internship is to give the physician full-time exposure to all aspects of medicine i.e. long-term relationships with patients, the working hours, prescribing medications, and being responsible for the overall care of a large number of patients.

Sometimes, medical school graduates will be undecided about a specialty and they will enter into a transitional program instead of an internship. The transitional program is equivalent to the internship, except there is no commitment to continue onward after the year is over.

Residency

Following internship, physicians enter a residency. The residency is where you learn the specifics of your medical specialty. How long is a residency depends on what specialty you enter.

Internal medicine has a residency length of three years, dermatology is three years as well. If you go into general surgery, you start your residency immediately and do not have to do an internship year. If choosing emergency medicine or family medicine you will enter your residency immediately and they are three years each.

Subspecialties can be found after completing your internal medicine residency. For instance, if you want to become a cardiologist you will do three years of internal medicine followed by three years of cardiology. If you enter gastroenterology it will require two additional years after your residency in internal medicine.

Fellowship

A fellowship can be anywhere from 1 to 2 years and gives you added qualifications. For instance after completing a general surgery residency you can do a one or two year fellowship to become a thoracic surgeon. If you are planning on specializing in female pelvic surgery, you will have to complete a three year fellowship after your four year residency in obstetrics and gynecology. If you want to do interventional radiology, this fellowship is one year in length after the completion of the five year radiology residency.

Going back to the idea of how long is medical school is a very loaded question because there are a number of scenarios which can arise. As you can see becoming a physician takes a lot of hard work, time and dedication. I believe if its something which you truly want and enjoy you will be glad to devote yourself to practicing medicine, just be prepared for delayed gratification.