Med school vs optometry at 33, what do you think?

[angelasmith]

Hi folks, I need your help/advice. I just decided to quit my career as a cpa and potentially apply to optometry school (after I take all missing prereqs and oat test).
After reading a lot of information about optometry, I'm skeptical about the future of this profession. My plan is to open my own practice in the future but who knows what happens in the best 6 years or so.
I like an idea of healthcare (always wanted to be a dr but many years of residency on top of school at my age (33) seems like a lot. I'd like a flexible lifestyle, I don't want to work more than 40 hours and probably I don't want to do surgeries.
Do you think it'd make more sense for me to pursue MD in anesthesia or something else given it has more options for exploration and higher pay? Maybe higher stability? Please let me know if you ever thought about it. I'm a bit confused at the moment.


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[flightnurse2MD]

I'm a third-year and started at 39. I beat up and steal my classmates' lunch money when they call me old...

 

[flightnurse2MD]

Hi folks, I need your help/advice. I just decided to quit my career as a cpa and potentially apply to optometry school (after I take all missing prereqs and oat test).
After reading a lot of information about optometry, I'm skeptical about the future of this profession. My plan is to open my own practice in the future but who knows what happens in the best 6 years or so.
I like an idea of healthcare (always wanted to be a dr but many years of residency on top of school at my age (33) seems like a lot. I'd like a flexible lifestyle, I don't want to work more than 40 hours and probably I don't want to do surgeries.
Do you think it'd make more sense for me to pursue MD in anesthesia or something else given it has more options for exploration and higher pay? Maybe higher stability? Please let me know if you ever thought about it. I'm a bit confused at the moment.


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And I don't know of any healthcare profession other than nursing that works less than 40 hours a week FYI...

 

[Nikj]

Hi folks, I need your help/advice. I just decided to quit my career as a cpa and potentially apply to optometry school (after I take all missing prereqs and oat test).
After reading a lot of information about optometry, I'm skeptical about the future of this profession. My plan is to open my own practice in the future but who knows what happens in the best 6 years or so.
I like an idea of healthcare (always wanted to be a dr but many years of residency on top of school at my age (33) seems like a lot. I'd like a flexible lifestyle, I don't want to work more than 40 hours and probably I don't want to do surgeries.
Do you think it'd make more sense for me to pursue MD in anesthesia or something else given it has more options for exploration and higher pay? Maybe higher stability? Please let me know if you ever thought about it. I'm a bit confused at the moment.


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Becoming a Physician in any specialty is a monstrous task. Before you even start deciding what specialty interests you, you need to get into medical school.

You can't just say I want to be an anesthesiologist who works less than 40 hours a week, there is no such thing.

You can definitely become a Physician but it's a very work intensive path.

Not including prereqs its 4 years of medical school, 3-7 years of residency, and 1-2 years of fellowship if you decide to do one. Thats at least 7 years and can go all the way up to 13 years.

 

[GypsyHummus]

And I don't know of any healthcare profession other than nursing that works less than 40 hours a week FYI...

Dentistry

 

[wholeheartedly]

moving to pre allo

 

[holdthemayo]

I would try to find some optometrists, anesthesiologists, PAs, and whatever else you might potentially be interested in and shadow them. The jobs are pretty different. You aren't too old to start down any of those paths, but I wouldn't begin any of them if you aren't absolutely sure it is what you want.

 

[angelasmith]

Thank you folks. Yeah I definitely need to think what will bring me happiness. Working 24/7 at my old job only made me miserable. But I also want to make sure there's a future in optometry profession.


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[angelasmith]

optometry is also 4 years of school plus prereqs, but residency is not required


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[KHE]

I am an optometrist and I went straight from college to optometry school and I was one of the YOUNGEST people in my class. The oldest person was 43 when he started.

 

[treytrey]

Optometry will take you 4 years.

Medicine will take you 4 years + 1-2 years of paid residency.

Once you become a family physician/general practitioner, you'll make much more money than optometrists despite working only 3 days. You'll get to decide your hours too since unlike optometrists, medical doctors are always needed. If you go into optometry you'll likely riddle yourself with a debt of 150-200k, then graduate and have to work for 80k a year, going up to 100k if you're lucky (often the 100k figure is only achieved with 8-9 hours a day 6 days a week).

Compare and contrast that with a family doc, much easier lifestyle/work environment, much less stress, you can literally work 2 days a week and make almost as much as most optometrists.

 

[angelasmith]

KHE, can you please share your personal perspective on optometry? Why do you like it, does it pay enough for you, what don't you like about it? If you were to do it over, would you still go to optometry? How many hours on avg you work?


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[angelasmith]

Treytrey thank you , do you know if medical schools absolutely require volunteer experience in healthcare setting?


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[treytrey]

Treytrey thank you , do you know if medical schools absolutely require volunteer experience in healthcare setting?

Medical schools like clinical experience yeah. Optometry schools are almost entirely based off GPA + OAT score, a gpa of 3.3 and OAT score of 330/330 to 350/350 will get you in to almost every school, these are very easy scores to achieve.

Applying to medical school, you'd be considered as a non-traditional student so in all honesty who knows. To me it just doesn't make sense to pay more for optometry school (which is often the case) just to end up making less money in a career that is less respected. Medical doctors can literally do everything that optometrists can, anything they can't I can probably teach them within a few weeks.

 

[KHE]

KHE, can you please share your personal perspective on optometry? Why do you like it, does it pay enough for you, what don't you like about it? If you were to do it over, would you still go to optometry? How many hours on avg you work?


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I decided to pursue this when I was 15 years old so I have been fortunate enough to realize all of my personal and professional goals.

I like it because I get paid well to help people see better. There's very little blood and guts, very little death and when there IS blood, guts and death, it's almost never because of something that I did or didn't do. I almost never get call when on call and when I do, it's almost always something I can "phone in for some drops and I'll see you tomorrow." If I've gone into the office more than twice after hours in the past year, I'd be shocked.

It pays more than enough for me. I make a multi six figure income though it took being a practice owner to get there. You won't get there as an employee.

Yes, I would absolutely do it over again. I work on average 30-35 hours seeing patients and a few more doing practice admin stuff.

 

[angelasmith]

Thank you for sharing your perspectives guys. It's very helpful for me.


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[Meowgical]

Don't go to medical school if you don't want to take care of patients. If your goal is to work few hours and make a lot of money, there are much easier ways to do that.

 

[angelasmith]

Meowgical, I think I'll enjoy taking care of patients, but I know that I don't enjoy many hours of work.


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[libertyyne]

Have you thought about CRNA, PA? It is not too old to be starting medical school as some people have already mentioned in the thread, The problem is you only want to work 40 hours a week. You may be able to do that in 7 years after starting medical school as a pcp with limited hours. But then the question is why put your self through 60 hour weeks of studying for 2 years, coupled with potentially 80 hour weeks for 2 years during clinicals and then 80 hour weeks during residency for 3-7 years.

 

[angelasmith]

Yes that's why I'm thinking about options. CRNA and PA require 2000+ hours of patient experience that I don't have and won't have because I'm focusing on prereqs. CRNA also requires you to become RN first with which i would still end up with a lot of years.


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[libertyyne]

Yes that's why I'm thinking about options. CRNA and PA require 2000+ hours of patient experience that I don't have and won't have because I'm focusing on prereqs. CRNA also requires you to become RN first with which i would still end up with a lot of years.


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There is no easy path to becoming a physician either.

 

[angelasmith]

I guess I'll focus on optometry , at least I can open my own practice, plus I'm very good with a business aspect already.


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[hello07]

Hi folks, I need your help/advice. I just decided to quit my career as a cpa and potentially apply to optometry school (after I take all missing prereqs and oat test).
After reading a lot of information about optometry, I'm skeptical about the future of this profession. My plan is to open my own practice in the future but who knows what happens in the best 6 years or so.
I like an idea of healthcare (always wanted to be a dr but many years of residency on top of school at my age (33) seems like a lot. I'd like a flexible lifestyle, I don't want to work more than 40 hours and probably I don't want to do surgeries.
Do you think it'd make more sense for me to pursue MD in anesthesia or something else given it has more options for exploration and higher pay? Maybe higher stability? Please let me know if you ever thought about it. I'm a bit confused at the moment.


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All depends on you on what will make you happy. Physicians MD's are more marketable than OD's optometrist will ever be. Depends on you

Best wishes on your endeavors.

 

[angelasmith]

Thank you hello07, all of these are good points. We already have passive income from a few properties and I'm hoping to graduate without taking on debt. I just want to have a comfortable lifestyle doing medicine to the best of my ability, whether MD or OD. We are also planning on having a kid soon , so I'd like to be able to spend time with the kid.
In terms of shadowing, I've done it for OD, would be hard to shadow for MD due to Hippa nowadays. In any case prereqs are the same, maybe I'll just study for both MCAT and OAT and then further decide what to pursue.


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[MareNostrummm]

Go DO physician and OD optometry, then you can be the DOOD.

 

[cactusman]

Thank you hello07, all of these are good points. We already have passive income from a few properties and I'm hoping to graduate without taking on debt. I just want to have a comfortable lifestyle doing medicine to the best of my ability, whether MD or OD. We are also planning on having a kid soon , so I'd like to be able to spend time with the kid.
In terms of shadowing, I've done it for OD, would be hard to shadow for MD due to Hippa nowadays. In any case prereqs are the same, maybe I'll just study for both MCAT and OAT and then further decide what to pursue.


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It is definitely possible to do physician shadowing with HIPAA. Almost all premeds do and you should since you don't know enough about the profession to make a decision.

 

[_Optics_]

Thank you hello07, all of these are good points. We already have passive income from a few properties and I'm hoping to graduate without taking on debt. I just want to have a comfortable lifestyle doing medicine to the best of my ability, whether MD or OD. We are also planning on having a kid soon , so I'd like to be able to spend time with the kid.
In terms of shadowing, I've done it for OD, would be hard to shadow for MD due to Hippa nowadays. In any case prereqs are the same, maybe I'll just study for both MCAT and OAT and then further decide what to pursue.


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Shadowing for OD or MD is not difficult. From my experience (I've shadowed both in multiple specialties before deciding on OD), most patients do not mind if you shadow and a lot are actually very happy to let you watch. Of course, I'm sure it depends on certain problems/specialties.