There are plenty of good medical schools in Texas (but I might be biased :P), and yes, in-state tuition is cheaper. If you are able to buy property and you are interested in an out of state school, you could always end up buying property in that state, and I think that works for qualifying for in-state tuition for most schools.
It's helpful if you know now what you want to specialise in, but you don't have to be set now. Pathology is part of the basic science curriculum, so you'll most likely get courses in pathology. As you're interested in pathology, you'll probably want to do a clinical elective in pathology when you get into clinics.
I imagine such electives would usually put you in the pathology department of the affiliated hospital where you could see what they do. On my pathology elective, for example, I spent most of my mornings with the residents going over slides--the residents gave me an interesting case and let me try to figure out the diagnosis--and popping over to observe an autopsy or frozen lab (for legal reasons, med students can't do autopsies!), and I went through sign out with the residents and the attendings in the afternoons. Plenty of teaching/pimping during all that.
I don't think it looks strange that you have an AA in psychology and a BS in biology, and I don't see why it would.
I would advise you to shadow doctors not because it looks good on application but because it would give you an idea of what the day-to-day life of a doctor is like. So I advise you to shadow at least a whole day (if possible, as opposed to a couple of hours. It's not about staying through and watching the physician do paperwork, but maybe going through a whole clinic day as opposed to watching one or two encounters, for example.). You do not need to have graduated from uni first. I've shadowed doctors in college, and I've seen high school students shadowing physicians on my rotations as well. It's just a matter of finding a physician who will allow a student to shadow her or him. One of the more frequent questions I got asked on my interview was along the lines of "do you know what you're getting yourself into?" (worded much nicer, of course!), and I think it's easier to answer that question if you have actually seen what a doctor does.
I'd bet there are plenty of other posts that address that question.
I love reading about and studying diseases, especially things like Ebola, Marburg, and things like that. I'd love to do something like that, like for the CDC or WHO (and live in Switzerland, ugh it's my dream)
Oh yeah, have you thought about infectious diseases? Unless I'm remembering incorrectly, UTMB has a great tropical medicine division, and its director of ID is the neurocysticercosis guy or something to that extent. [/random facts]
It's helpful if you know now what you want to specialise in, but you don't have to be set now. Pathology is part of the basic science curriculum, so you'll most likely get courses in pathology. As you're interested in pathology, you'll probably want to do a clinical elective in pathology when you get into clinics.
I imagine such electives would usually put you in the pathology department of the affiliated hospital where you could see what they do. On my pathology elective, for example, I spent most of my mornings with the residents going over slides--the residents gave me an interesting case and let me try to figure out the diagnosis--and popping over to observe an autopsy or frozen lab (for legal reasons, med students can't do autopsies!), and I went through sign out with the residents and the attendings in the afternoons. Plenty of teaching/pimping during all that.
I don't think it looks strange that you have an AA in psychology and a BS in biology, and I don't see why it would.
I would advise you to shadow doctors not because it looks good on application but because it would give you an idea of what the day-to-day life of a doctor is like. So I advise you to shadow at least a whole day (if possible, as opposed to a couple of hours. It's not about staying through and watching the physician do paperwork, but maybe going through a whole clinic day as opposed to watching one or two encounters, for example.). You do not need to have graduated from uni first. I've shadowed doctors in college, and I've seen high school students shadowing physicians on my rotations as well. It's just a matter of finding a physician who will allow a student to shadow her or him. One of the more frequent questions I got asked on my interview was along the lines of "do you know what you're getting yourself into?" (worded much nicer, of course!), and I think it's easier to answer that question if you have actually seen what a doctor does.
I'd bet there are plenty of other posts that address that question.
Best of luck! :)
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Oh yeah, have you thought about infectious diseases? Unless I'm remembering incorrectly, UTMB has a great tropical medicine division, and its director of ID is the neurocysticercosis guy or something to that extent. [/random facts]
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