What is a professional degree and what is a doctoral degree?
Professional degrees include degrees in medicine, law, optometry, etc. Yes, you need a bachelors degree before you can apply for these programs, with very few exceptions. Get a bachelors degree and take the entrance exams (MCAT, LSAT, etc) to apply. Doctoral degrees are the highest degree in a field, and are research degrees. If you get an MD, you can treat patients. If you get a PhD in medicine, you’re doing research. While professional degrees take 3-4 years depending on the degree, the doctoral takes a different amount of time depending on the person, and is usually 4-8 years after the bachelors degree. Getting both at the same time will likely prove impossible. First, I don’t know of any programs that would allow you to enroll in another at the same time. Second, any one of these programs is more demanding than a full-time job. You wouldn’t have the time to do both.
