Becoming a Doctor: Part 1

The process of becoming a doctor is quite complicated. Unless you yourself or someone very close to you has been through it chances are you don't know too much about it. I can honestly say that even our family (although they care deeply and try to understand) don't really understand the process. There were/ are several things that we didn't understand. The purpose of this post is to layout the process, in a nutshell. Keep in mind that not all Medical Schools are set up the same and that we took the military approach so our journey may be slightly different that some one else's although they are probably pretty similar.(Disclaimer: I am not in any way trying to say that any other profession doesn't have a complicated process of completion, I am just stating our process for this journey.)
Pre-Med School
To start with there are several types of undergraduate courses that need to be taken so that a future doctor can be appropriately prepared to take the MCAT. These may include but are not limited to; chemistry, physics, organic chemistry, physiology, & anatomy.  The MCAT is a standarized test like an ACT or SAT that ranks you so you can apply to Medical Schools. Now the fun part comes. Applying to Med Schools. There is an application that must be filled out along with a fee paid. This fee can range typically from $100-250 just for the school to look at your application. If they like what they see than they will set up an interview with you. At that point you must fly to that location for the interview. After all the interviews have been completed you have to wait for a couple months to see if you got accepted anywhere. Once you get accepted then plans can be made to relocate for Med School!
Med School
*Med School consists of a four year program. Typically the two years are classroom/ lecture style years with exams. In our case the years were broke up into 'blocks'. The students would attend classes and work together in their PCL groups for eight weeks, then during week 9 they would test M-W. They would get their test results back on F. If they passed all their exams they would get week 10 off, if not they would have to retake them. The first year had four blocks so roughly 40 weeks. The second year is basically the same.
*Also because T is in the military he had to go to a 45 day program (BOLC) between year 1 & 2 in SA, TX.
*Between your 2nd  & 3rd year of Med School another test is required. Step 1. This is another national test that can be taken at a local testing center.
*The next two years consist of 'rotations'. These years (3 & 4) are spent in clinics and hospitals working with patients under an attending physicians. These rotations require you to work a little bit in every field to get a 'taste' of the different types of medicine. They typically are 8 weeks long in length. During these 8 weeks the student is required to work all the hours that their attending physician is working. Including but not limited to: mornings, days, nights, holidays, weekends, overnights, call, etc. Some of the rotations that are completed include: family practice, obgyn, pediatrics, surgery, neurology, psychiatry, & internal med. During the Family Med rotation T was required to do 4 weeks of rural medicine in which he had to stay in a small town for those 4 weeks. Now he got lucky in that his doctor let him go home Friday evenings and start at 9 Monday mornings so he could spend time with us on the weekends during those 4 weeks. His location was 2.5 hours from our home so it was quite the drive for him. Year 3 had 6 rotations back to back starting July 1st. Year 4 was set up a little different. You are required to do 4 weeks in surgery and 4 weeks in internal medicine. Beyond that you are allowed to choose up to 6 other fields for 4 weeks each. You are allowed 12 weeks off during this year but during that time you must travel for residency interviews. During this time also T had to do two 4 week away rotations for the military. He was in WA state for 4 weeks then was in HI for 4 weeks. This made a long 8 weeks for me at home!! 
*Now sometime during the end of 3rd year/ early 4th year it is time to take the Step 2 exam. This exam ironically has two parts. The CS is a physical exam that is taken at a particular test location. There are only 5 locations in the US so T ended up going to Chicago for his since it was the closest. Then the CK part is written and that was taken locally.
*Another part of Med School requires that you do a research project that has to be completed sometime during the first half of 4th year.
*Now it is time to wrap up Med School with a week of lectures back on the main campus and GRADUATION!!!

WooHoo!! We made it! Now if that wasn't crazy enough, we had the great idea to add 3 boys to our family during that time. Never a dull moment.