Medical School, CRNA, or Physical Therapy

[ConfusedSoull]

I’m currently a senior in high school and a sophomore in college. I’m so confused on what I want to do after I graduate. I don’t have the time like an average high school student has to think about this because I’ve already completed my first 2 years of my bachelors. I’m stuck between going to medical school (I want to become a dermatologist but I know it’s really competitive), a CRNA, or a Physical Therapist. I want to do something interesting, a job I won’t be miserable with, and one that pays well (not that important but it would be nice to get paid a good amount for the all the schooling I would be taking). I need help making a decision and I would like some input on how each job is & etc. I’ve been researching these careers for 3 months straight but I rather have someone tell me personal experiences than to read an article like I have these past months. And also is it really that bad as people make it seem to be a doctor?

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[Longshanks]

If you decide you want to pursue medical school, do know that besides derm being extremely competitive of a residency to get into, that >50% of students change their mind or are undecided about what specialty they would like to practice between entering medical school and applying for residency. Enter medical school with an open mind, as it is a general undergraduate medical education.

However, Derm and Anesthesiology are very different fields, with the exception of them being known as "well paid" specialties. With your interests in purely those two fields, and not interested as a physician in one but a backdoor route via CRNA, leads me to believe that you are in it for the money. If your aspirations are purely financial based, you'll be left feeling unfufilled and going through far too much stress, when if you entered banking you can be making $100k+ at age 23, and not have to deal with the extra stress and education of medical school, residency, and fellowship training.

I would suggest volunteering in a healthcare setting first and seeing what you enjoy about the field and what areas interest you the most. What aspects of patient care excite you? Or maybe you may prefer not to work with patients directly. It will be difficult to figure this out without some basic fundamental experiences in health care, unless you know yourself extremely well and what type of person you are. But being that you're young, you'll learn about yourself through experience, so I would recommend volunteering in a health care setting (hospital, clinic, hospice, nursing home, etc) to see if health care if something you really want to do and get an idea for which health care roles intrigue you the most: physician, nursing, allied health, etc.

 

[ConfusedSoull]

No i have never wanted it for the money. I wanted this ever since i was little but i never knew there were so many different jobs in the medical filed. I simply want to do it because Ive had many opportunities and why wouldn't i just go all the way in a field that i love and interests me to want to learn more. Ive been trying to volunteer at hostilities since i was 13 but every time i ask, the age require ALWAYS so happens to be 14, or when im 14 it goes up to 15, but i am still trying. I do love people, Ive have certain instances when I volunteered with people and i had to become hands on with them.

I just want to find a career thats reasonable and what would be the smartest route becuase i wouldnt mind doing either of them becuase they are all in the medical field and truly, that's just where i want to be. But the problem is if im going to do either of thses jobs i need to do either of the 3 SOON A) apply to nursing school B) do pre-reqs for physical therapy school, or C) find a major that would best help me learn more sciencewhich can become beneficial for the MCAT.

 

[fahimaz7]

You don't have to decide anytime soon. Once you get through O-chem and such, spend some time in the clinic's with both professions and figure it out from there.

With that said, what do you want to do? Do you want to invest a few years of training and education to become an nurse, with the possibility that you might get to be a CRNA? Do you want a very limited scope of practice (CRNA?). Do you want to spend 3 years after a BS/BA getting a DPT, many of which are very happy people with an income around $70k/year?

If you answer any of those, then head that route. IMO, doctors are people who tend to gravitate towards responsibility and knowledge, with an unyielding drive to be at the top of the food chain (in terms of training, understanding, and responsibility). If you go the MD route, it doesn't matter what degree you decide to get as an undergraduate student, the only thing you need to do is take the pre-req classes and a Kaplan prep course for the MCAT. However, you won't make any money until you are a resident, and the likelihood of you changing your mind from Derm is highly likely (whether it be b/c of grades, boards, interest, etc). Medicine has a lot of interesting fields for one to pursue, so keep an open mind if you decide to go down that route.

MD's require shadowing
DPT's require 100-1000 hours of shadowing
CRNA requires nursing school, tons of hours working, and then a master's degree after that.

 

[ConfusedSoull]

Thanks fahimaz! The info you provided was very clear. I just mention a degree to help me with the MCAT because i think it would help the most. But IF i decided to choose that route I think it would be smarter to just pick a major not too difficult so I can focus on getting good grades before I would apply to medical school. If I just did that (for example a major in psychology) and take prep courses, do you think that would be reasonable?

 

[lord_jeebus]

If your top interests are derm and nurse anesthesia...you need to take some time to really figure out what you enjoy beyond visions of easy money before you commit to a career.

Dermatology is a career of pattern recognition and in-depth knowledge of cellular level pathology in a low-acuity setting, independently diagnosing and treating disease with a medical foundation.

Nurse anesthesia is a career of applying broad physiological and pharmacological principles in a high-acuity setting, within a nursing model that approaches disease in a fundamentally different way, generally under supervision.

I don't understand how someone with a reasonable understanding of either field could have such a dilemma.

 

[fahimaz7]

Thanks fahimaz! The info you provided was very clear. I just mention a degree to help me with the MCAT because i think it would help the most. But IF i decided to choose that route I think it would be smarter to just pick a major not too difficult so I can focus on getting good grades before I would apply to medical school. If I just did that (for example a major in psychology) and take prep courses, do you think that would be reasonable?

Admission's committee's can see right through a weak class schedule, so try not to take anything that you're not interested in/and or inflate your grades too much. The best advice one can give you is to pursue a field that you are interested in (business, language, art, science, history, political science, etc), since all of those fields will lead you to medical school, if you choose to go that route.

My wife is a DPT right now, so I can also relate to her experience. She has a foreign language degree, did a 3 year post-bacc to get her premed pre-reqs, only to decide that she would rather be a DPT. She doesn't regret her decision thus far, so I'm very proud of her for finding a field that she likes.

Medicine isn't easy and the route is very long. Use college to major in something that gets you excited in the morning, and see where your life leads you (in terms of post-graduate work).

I majored in Cell biology and I have a MS in Molecular biology. I don't feel like either of them really made a bit of difference for me when it came to the MCAT.

 

[ConfusedSoull]

Yea i said psychology but i guess thats a no-no. But its also a interest of mines. That was my major when i first got into college then I changed it to biochemistry because I thought it wasn't going to help me into the medical field.

& Lord_ . Im 17. No i dont know EVERYTHING that goes into being a derm and anesthesiologist. Thats why im asking for personal experiences and opinions. No matter how much I research I will never know until I ask and really experience it for myself. I dont know which one to do because they BOTH interest me way before i even knew how much money they each made. I live in a house where money is scarce so its not like Im used to some lavish lifestyle I just wanted to get paid enough to live comfortably, which should be understandable because there's a big difference between working at a desk at a doctors office and actually being the doctor. I work hard and I just want to be paid reasonably. Im not asking for 400K, i just dont wanna get paid what any person without a college degree can be paid. I mean im not dumb I have a 3.8 GPA, about to receive my diploma and my AA and school is always a priority to me. So even if the fields are hard I still believe that If i chose to do either of them, I will have enough will power to try as hard as i can.

 

[ConfusedSoull]

&also fahimaz . I just thought since ,for instance, a Biology major would could help because some of the classes that need to be taken for this major are included on the MCAT.

 

[eforest]

I didn't know what I wanted to do for a long time and went to med school late. You don't have to make these decisions now. When I went to college, I fulfilled all the premed requirements, thinking that maybe, if I decided to apply down the road, I'd be all set. I majored in chem- that way I was able to knock out all the requirements (sure I had to take some extra classes); this also left me open to go to chem or biology grad schools (other choices).

So, as you proceed through school- just fulfill the premed requirements. And, when it comes to picking colleges- another nugget of information- when a college says they get ALL students who apply to medical school into medical shool- these schools often don't allow non competitive applicants to apply. At my school, they have a high admissions rate to medical school, but if you had a 3.1 GPA or under a 30 MCAT then you were strongly discouraged from applying

 

[hmockingbird]

The desire to make enough money to be "comfortable" and have a stable income is understandable but that is not restricted to the ROAD specialties. Any doctor will make enough money to be comfortable.

Science major: HUGE scheduling advantage vs. trying to do labs with a humanities major, plus pre-reqs are pre-reqs for your major. Not a lot of help on the MCAT because it honestly only covers the pre-req classes. That's it. I ended up taking physiology because my bio class skipped that (the professor did evolutionary research so that was half the term) but basic physiology that you need to know for the MCAT *should* be covered in the bio intro courses.
Humanities major: I am a humanities major, and really enjoy it. I guess it's a bit of extra work, definitely with scheduling, but it's worth it to me because I have a very balanced schedule. I never get overwhelmed with too much of one subject. If I'm bored with physics homework, I can do English, and vice versa. Plus, it's a subject I'm really interested in. I don't really like basic science.

I would really recommend shadowing some doctors in fields you are interested in. I think that's the only way you are going to get some understanding if derm and anesthesia are specialties you want to pursue. You don't have to do that now, but plan on shadowing in those specialties when it comes time to do so. Yes, you don't *really* have to decide until 4th year med school, but if you have your heart set on a ROAD it's a good idea to know that and get involved with journal clubs, going to grand rounds, research, etc. when you start med school or at least in 3rd year (advice from the derm residents I worked with).

 

[fahimaz7]

Yes, you don't *really* have to decide until 4th year med school, but if you have your heart set on a ROAD it's a good idea to know that and get involved with journal clubs, going to grand rounds, research, etc. when you start med school or at least in 3rd year (advice from the derm residents I worked with).

Nothing you do prior to medical school will really matter at all. Once you get into medical school, you have plenty of time to explore different fields, get involved in research/case studies, etc to set you up for these specific specialties.

Interestingly, the most important thing is a great board score and good clerkship scores, neither of which is research or journal clubs.

 

[docB]

I would echo the others who said that CRNA is probably not a good route to pick when you're starting out. CRNA is really more of an option offered to people who went into nursing and then decided they wanted to get additional training to do something more advanced but who don't want to take the time to go back to med school and do a residency.

If you're looking at it from high school or pre med and you really want to do anesthesia then do anesthesia via the college, med school and residency route.

 

[IMDoc607]

If you decide you want to pursue medical school, do know that besides derm being extremely competitive of a residency to get into, that >50% of students change their mind or are undecided about what specialty they would like to practice between entering medical school and applying for residency. Enter medical school with an open mind, as it is a general undergraduate medical education.

However, Derm and Anesthesiology are very different fields, with the exception of them being known as "well paid" specialties. With your interests in purely those two fields, and not interested as a physician in one but a backdoor route via CRNA, leads me to believe that you are in it for the money. If your aspirations are purely financial based, you'll be left feeling unfufilled and going through far too much stress, when if you entered banking you can be making $100k+ at age 23, and not have to deal with the extra stress and education of medical school, residency, and fellowship training.

I would suggest volunteering in a healthcare setting first and seeing what you enjoy about the field and what areas interest you the most. What aspects of patient care excite you? Or maybe you may prefer not to work with patients directly. It will be difficult to figure this out without some basic fundamental experiences in health care, unless you know yourself extremely well and what type of person you are. But being that you're young, you'll learn about yourself through experience, so I would recommend volunteering in a health care setting (hospital, clinic, hospice, nursing home, etc) to see if health care if something you really want to do and get an idea for which health care roles intrigue you the most: physician, nursing, allied health, etc.

I don't see how you can make such a call on someone you don't know. Their questions were legitimate and in no way comes off as being for a financial reason. In addition, it is ok to consider the business part of medicine. One must take into account, cost of attending medical school and resident salary while trying to pay back their loans.

 

[ConfusedSoull]

Thanks alot for all the oppions. Ive decided to pursue my dream in going to medical school. Im going to most likely major in biology and minor in Psychology, Spanish, or something else. My next problem now is finding what school im goinh to go to lol.

 

[fahimaz7]

Thanks alot for all the oppions. Ive decided to pursue my dream in going to medical school. Im going to most likely major in biology and minor in Psychology, Spanish, or something else. My next problem now is finding what school im goinh to go to lol.

You don't have to declare anything anytime soon. Just go to college, and enroll in the science classes to that you will ultimately need for nursing, PT, OT, ST, MD, DMD, etc.

You're going to grow up a lot in the next few years, which will give you plenty of time to explore career options and figure out what you want to do with your life.

Best advise out there is to get good grades (especially while you're taking easy classes (<300/3000 level classes), which will allow you to keep doors open on a lot of careers that may be closed if you do poorly. Aim for a GPA around a 3.75 and you'll be set for anything that you want to do.

 

[DrReo]

I’m currently a senior in high school and a sophomore in college. I’m so confused on what I want to do after I graduate. I don’t have the time like an average high school student has to think about this because I’ve already completed my first 2 years of my bachelors. I’m stuck between going to medical school (I want to become a dermatologist but I know it’s really competitive), a CRNA, or a Physical Therapist. I want to do something interesting, a job I won’t be miserable with, and one that pays well (not that important but it would be nice to get paid a good amount for the all the schooling I would be taking). I need help making a decision and I would like some input on how each job is & etc. I’ve been researching these careers for 3 months straight but I rather have someone tell me personal experiences than to read an article like I have these past months. And also is it really that bad as people make it seem to be a doctor?

No one knows until we undergo Obamacare!

I agree with others, you need to shadow the respective professions. I thought PT would be an interesting career choice. No way, that definitely isn't for me. Different strokes for different folks.