Coming from a 15 year healthcare background, and experience in clinical patient care throughout the US, I would encourage you to shadow several physicians before deciding to pursue a medical career.

I’m in agreement with @ comment. The advice I’ve often heard for someone considering MD is, if you can see yourself doing anything other than medicine, you should do that instead. Also, while your academics are certainly impressive, unfortunately that aptitude doesn’t always translate into great patient care (sometimes it’s fine, sometimes it not) - in those cases, people often aim for less direct pt care positions (ie pathology, radiology, public health, etc)

Going along with @ , residencies can go upwards of 7 years (neurosurgery) AFTER med school and excluding fellowships. Also, in northern CA, a registered nurse can make approximately the same $ as a a pediatrician/family MD for way less schooling. It just depends on what you want. If you wanted to test the waters of getting into med school, you could always start preparing for the MCAT and then see how you feel.

LSAC just announced that August will be Flex

I’m interested, too, moving forward, but unfortunately have a conflict on the 14th.