Name: What’s the Fastest Way to Become a Doctor? ⏳
Uploaded: 2025-10-16T18:01:38.000Z
Duration: 10 min 8 s
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What's the absolute fastest way you can become a doctor?

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Jubbal medschoolinsiders.com how long it takes to become a doctor varies considerably based on a number of factors.

In fact, it can take an additional four years longer to become a fully trained physician, depending on just the medical specialty you choose.

Let's break down every step so you can determine if the fastest route is actually the right path for you.

First, if you take the traditional path through high school and do not take any gap years or extra semesters, you'll complete high school in four years, meaning you'll likely be 18 by the time you finish, give or take a few months.

Next, once you're in college, you'll spend four years as a pre med.

The term pre med is used to describe a student who plans to apply to medical school, but

You could technically major in art history if that's another passion you have, but

as long as you fulfill your medical school prerequisites, of course that could extend your time in college if you don't carefully plan your courses.

If you complete college without taking any breaks or gap years, you'll likely be around 22 by the time you finish.

But before you start medical school, you have to be accepted.

Becoming a doctor on the fastest route means applying traditionally at the end of junior year and getting in on your first try.

According to data released by AAMC, 52,500 people applied to medical school in 2023, applying to an average of 18 schools each.

Of the over 52,000 people who applied, only less than 23,000 successfully matriculated.

That means more than half of applicants were not accepted anywhere.

Having to reapply could mean a one to two year setback.

Don't let anything slip through the cracks.

Med School Insiders is here to help you each step of the way with tutoring, advising and editing services for both pre meds and medical students.

We'll help you not only get accepted to med school, but

also accepted with scholarships from your top choice schools.

The next hurdle is medical school without any breaks or research years.

Typically your first two years are your pre clinical years where most of your time is spent in class and in lecture and and the last two years are your clinical years where you will rotate in the hospital and clinic and determine which medical specialty is right for you.

Following the fastest path, you'll likely be 26 by the time you finish medical school.

However, there is an option to decrease this time with an early admissions pathway, you can apply to BSMD programs in high school, which combine Bachelor and MD programs together to streamline the journey from high school to medical school.

With early admissions pathways, also known as direct medical programs, you have the ability to earn either a Bachelor of Science or a Bachelor of Arts combined with a MD or DO through a single acceptance.

You can immediately start working on your MD or DO after you earn a BS or ba, often at the same school, bypassing the expensive, tedious and challenging process of applying to a separate medical school.

Plus, you won't have to work your butt off to crush the mcat.

BSMD programs usually have an MCAT score cutoff that's much lower than those of general matriculants, and

some programs don't require the MCAT at all.

However, it's important to understand that these programs aren't for everyone.

The most noteworthy drawback is that students must commit to a career in medicine before many of them have had adequate exposure to what the job is really like.

Additionally, BSMD programs lock in top performing students to their institution when they may have been able to qualify for more prestigious programs through the traditional route.

That said, for those students who are passionate about becoming a doctor and want to fast track their career, BSMD programs are six to eight years after high school so you could be as young as 24 by the end of med school.

BSMD programs are designed for well performing and high achieving high school students who are already certain they want to become physicians without going to college.

Standards are extremely high and acceptance rates are quite low, which is why it's to your advantage to work with expert consultants and specialists who can help you navigate the ins and outs of the competitive application process, including what to be working on, when and how to stand out as an applicant.

Visit medschoolinsiders.com to learn more about our industry leading satisfaction and success rates.

If you're unsure if BSMD programs are right for you, we'll help you determine your ideal path based on your strengths and preferences and career goals.

The next step is residency, which can last anywhere from three to seven years.

Technically, you are considered a doctor after graduating from medical school, but

you won't be a board certified physician until you complete residency and before you get there you have to match into a residency program which requires another complex, tedious and competitive application process.

Failing to match can also Send you back 1 to 2 years discovery depending on the specialty you're applying to.

However, note that shorter residency programs are generally less competitive overall Learn more from our Least Competitive Specialties Video Linked in the Description that said, no specialty is easy to get into, which is why you want to be thoroughly prepared to craft a residency application that's noticed by your top choice programs.

There are multiple ways to enhance your application, but some are more effective than others.

Research is a way to stand out that many people shy away from because they find it unfamiliar and intimidating.

However, once you overcome the initial learning curve, it becomes exponentially easier to publish multiple papers.

Being prolific as a published author makes you far more compelling to admissions committees for both medical school and residency.

And the sooner you start, the better because your pre med and early medical school research experiences will continue to add up to an impressive list of publications.

For residency applications, you can only list extracurriculars done in medical school, not in college, with the exception of your research and your growing list of presentations, abstracts and publications.

An impressive research list is the most common tactic used by students with suboptimal GPA and MCAT scores to boost their competitiveness, and

it helps them not only get into a better medical school, but

also a better residency down the line for even the least competitive medical specialties, including family medicine, emergency medicine, psychiatry, pediatrics and neurology program, matriculants have an average of 5 to 10 research items.

For more competitive specialties like plastic surgery and neurosurgery, matriculants have an average of over 30 research items.

Keep in mind this is only the average, not what you need to stand out.

Whether you are just starting out in research or looking to master your research skills, you're our ultimate pre med and medical student.

Research course lowers the steep learning curve of research.

It distills how to become a research superstar into a stepwise and repeatable process.

Access 20% off the course using code FASTEST20 for the next 21 days.

Find more info in the video Description Many of the least competitive specialties also happen to be the shortest for residency at three years.

These include family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, preventive medicine, and medical genetics.

By the time you finish Residency, you'll be 29 years old.

If you went the BSMD route, you could be as young as 27.

If you're a child prodigy who graduates high school at 16 or even younger, you could become a doctor that much quicker.

I had classmates in my medical school like this, but

these people are by far the exception, not the norm.

And there are some downsides to rushing into medical school early.

While you may have the intellectual chops, your lack of real world and clinical experience will be a disadvantage.

Medical school is about more than book smarts, and

a lack of maturity could show in your personal statement and during interviews.

No matter how intellectually gifted you are, it's still an incredibly long journey to become a doctor, and

taking the fastest route doesn't mean it will be the best route for you.

While they may sound appealing at first, they BSMD programs are certainly not for everyone.

They require understanding you want to become a doctor at an incredibly young age and committing to a long and tedious process before you've even had much clinical exposure.

Additionally, the shortest route requires taking zero breaks or gap years along the way, which you may find you need for your physical and mental health.

Or you may want to take a gap year to explore other passions or gain extra experience experience to strengthen your medical school or residency application.

In fact, taking one or more gap years has become more of the norm than the exception.

Over two thirds of matriculants report taking at least one gap year before medical school.

Also note that optimizing for the fastest route limits you to only a few very specific medical specialties.

Whether you go BSMD or traditional college medical school won't change this, but

your choice of specialty for residency likely will.

Many students who think they know what specialty they want to pursue change their mind in medical school after learning more about other options and experiencing what different specialties are like firsthand.

The AAMC reports that nearly 75% of students change their specialty preferences during medical school.

If you're unsure what specialty is right for you, check out our so youo Want to Be series, which provides insight into what it's like to pursue different specialties.

If you don't see a specialty you're interested in, subscribe to Vote and Topic Polls and leave a comment below to make a Request and visit medschoolinsiders.com to become a more competitive BSMD applicant, medical school applicant, and

Links and discounts down in the description.