How does one become a doctor in the USA?

Question

I’m from Chile and I can’t understand when people here talk about PreMed, M1, M2, R1, and stuff like that. Since leaving Highschool what are the steps you have to take to become a doctor in USA? And how long is that?

In: Biology

Answer 1

To become a doctor, you first get a bachelors degree at a college/university. There is no official “pre-med” major, but instead one typically chooses a medical related major like biology and also takes the other required courses for med school application. When a senior in college, one would take the MCAT standardized testing and apply to medical school. That’s then a 4 year program (I guess M1, M2 designate how far along?). Following medical school, there is a residency that’s 3-5 years depending on specialty where one works as a doctor-in-training (again, I guess R1, R2 would be years into residency program?).