24-year-old Ontario doctor goes viral on TikTok after sharing her path to residency

A 24-year-old doctor in Ontario has gone viral on TikTok after posting a video explaining how she became a physician at an exceptionally young age. Noam Raiter is a resident physician who graduated medical school at McMaster University when she was 23. In mid-January, she posted a TikTok about her path to becoming a doctor, which as so far amassed over a million views. While Raiter was able to complete medical school at a young age, typically, it can take at least 10 years to become a doctor in Canada, according to Ace Qbank, a service that helps medical students prepare for the Medical Council of Canada’s qualifying exam. In the video, Raiter explained how she got into medical school at the age of 21, following her third year of undergraduate studies. “In Canada, there are certain schools where you don’t have to have a completed undergrad degree in order to apply and start medical school,” she said in the video. “So you just have to have whatever prerequisites that school sets out, like certain courses, MCAT, other standardized testing, etc.” She took an accelerated three-year Doctor of Medicine program in which students were required to study through the summer. She graduated when she was 23 and now, at 24, she is in her first year of residency in family medicine, which she it set to finish by the time she is 26. “Of course, none of this is to brag. I am so grateful to be here,” Raiter said in the video. “It is purely to share information and help other people. Because having no family members in medicine, I had no idea how any of this worked.” Raiter told the online publication Narcity that she “definitely was not expecting such an enormous response” to the video. She said that while most of the comments have been “really positive and heart-warming,” she has received comments from people accusing her of lying about her credentials. “It made me wonder: how did my age and my gender play into people’s snap judgments? If I was a man and perhaps dressed in more traditionally ‘professional’ clothing, would they have been so quick to dismiss my accomplishments?” She added that she wants to continue making similar videos in order to demystify not only the admission process for medical school but also the real-life experience of being a resident physician. “I believe the ability to let younger students who show their dedication to their studies and their passion to become a physician progress through the admissions process with a bit more ease (and less student loans) is a great initiative and I am so grateful for this opportunity,” she said.

24-year-old Ontario doctor goes viral on TikTok after sharing her path to residency

Register for free access or login.

Related Topics