Thanks a lot guys for the comments and Id like to hear more responses.
Theres more than that in becoming and practicing as a doctor and I am incredibly unsure if id be able to handle such a massively long and stressful road. Being trapped by debt, working long hours, dealing with people's lives etc. Right now in college, I am not what I would say depressed, but im not really happy. Med school would definitely not help me in that area.
For that guy who said forensics: Forensics is cool but forensic scientists hardly make half of what id like to make. (Though, Id trade my life in for the life of Dexter any day, without the killing of course)
I don't want to sound selfish ( ask anyone who knows me I am the complete opposite). I do like to help people, but in the long run, I come first. My issue is finding out what Id like to do and make decent money.
It sounds like you've got some qualifications for your ideal job. I'll list them here for clarification:
1) Something you like
2) Something that pays well (Seems like $100K after 5-10 years is your
minimum.)
3) No additional student loan debt after education
4) Don't need to work tons of hours
5) Low to medium stress (You mention not dealing with others' lives which is stressful for you.)
The thing is, there are very, very few jobs that match even 3 or 4 of your criteria. Here's my list of jobs that I can think of off the top of my head. As with all of life, you'll have to comprise depending on which of these are most important to you. These are in no particular order:
1) Lawyer dealing with pharma issues, medical malpratice, or maybe legality of other cutting edge medical stuff. (Breaks: #3 & 4, maybe 5, depending on what you consider stressful.)
2) MBA in a medium-size biotech or pharma firm. (Breaks: #3 (most MBAs are expensive), probably #4, and possibly #5)
3) Dentist. (I know you shot this down at the get-go, so it probably breaks #1. It also breaks #3.)
4) Forensic scientist (You feel this breaks #2, but I don't necessarily think so. If you become a medical director of an organization, or maybe get good contacts with lawyers (and do lots of trial testimony).) Otherwise, it seems like the best fit.
5) CRNA or AA. Both make very good money for the educational commitments. You'll probably break #3, and the job is certainly stressful sometimes, but overall, it's a pretty good way to as you've always got anesthesiologists backing you up in times of trouble.
6) Go to grad school in some science-related area, and put off the whole decision for 2-6 more years. Funding (i.e. RA or TA positions) in the hard sciences is pretty easy to come by (at least by comparison to areas like history and english), so you could actually get paid to continue your education. Granted, it's a pittance, but I never felt like I was going hungry or anything.
7) (6) leads to: A professor (This probably breaks #2 (though you'd be close at a research institution if you pull in multiple grants), and may break #4 & 5 as you fight for tenure, but after that you're looking at a solid job with major job security. This one might break #1 if you don't like research though.)
Well, that's my list. I'm totally out of ideas. There are scientists of many varieties, but if you don't want to do research and want to earn big bucks, you'll be hard pressed to find something you like there. You probably need to realize that you're very, very unlikely to find all of your qualifications, especially considering your high earning requirement. Not to be patronizing, but doctor-money is really, really high, and you're not likely to find that level of money in any other career without even longer hours and more sacrifice than what doctor goes through. The average lawyer and the average MBA/businessperson make nothing close to $200K/yr., so to put that up a figure like that as a pre-req pretty much
eliminates 98% of the jobs in the US, if not more.
