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Hey all - I’m a SDN premed veteran, recently elected (by some miracle) chief resident and just matched my fellowship. I had some thoughts, that are a bit sober, I wanted to share with everyone giving it their all this cycle.
In medicine there is a day that most people don’t even recognize the significance of. No, not the day you get accepted. No, not match day. It is the day you sign your first student loan check and pay that first payment to the med school of your choosing. This should be a day of immense pride. You ran the gauntlet and fought for a spot in the most competitive graduate school market in existence. Congratulations, that achievement is remarkably impressive.
But be wary. From that momentous day forward, for the next 10-20 years, the system owns you. You are entering into a level of (non-bankruptcy-dischargable) debt so high that it will be next to impossible to ever repay it without finishing med school, completing a residency +/- fellowship, and working like a dog for several years as an attending just to break even. Not be rich, just back to the $0 net worth college kid you were at 18. But now you’re 35. You never saved for retirement or funded a college fund for your kid. You never got a house.
You can not leave, you can not quit, you can not turn back when the crap hits the proverbial fan. From that first day, the only way out is through. Until your debt is paid, the system dictates the terms of your existence.
BUT! It is great, you have one of the coolest jobs on the planet.
Personally I bring people back from the dead for a living. I F’ing love going to work (usually). It’s pretty damn cool, I have good stories to tell at parties, and my wife’s parents think I’m the bees knees. The other day Delta upgraded me to first class on a flight, because they don’t know “Dr Knife,” who graduated college nearly a decade ago, is still punch ass broke.
I don’t mean any of this to say don’t do medicine or do do medicine - but I do mean to make any readers here stop for a moment. Realize that moment which may come 6-12 months from today for you all is a big F’ing deal and not to be taken lightly. Congratulations in advance, and may the odds be ever in your favor.
- Knife
In medicine there is a day that most people don’t even recognize the significance of. No, not the day you get accepted. No, not match day. It is the day you sign your first student loan check and pay that first payment to the med school of your choosing. This should be a day of immense pride. You ran the gauntlet and fought for a spot in the most competitive graduate school market in existence. Congratulations, that achievement is remarkably impressive.
But be wary. From that momentous day forward, for the next 10-20 years, the system owns you. You are entering into a level of (non-bankruptcy-dischargable) debt so high that it will be next to impossible to ever repay it without finishing med school, completing a residency +/- fellowship, and working like a dog for several years as an attending just to break even. Not be rich, just back to the $0 net worth college kid you were at 18. But now you’re 35. You never saved for retirement or funded a college fund for your kid. You never got a house.
You can not leave, you can not quit, you can not turn back when the crap hits the proverbial fan. From that first day, the only way out is through. Until your debt is paid, the system dictates the terms of your existence.
BUT! It is great, you have one of the coolest jobs on the planet.
Personally I bring people back from the dead for a living. I F’ing love going to work (usually). It’s pretty damn cool, I have good stories to tell at parties, and my wife’s parents think I’m the bees knees. The other day Delta upgraded me to first class on a flight, because they don’t know “Dr Knife,” who graduated college nearly a decade ago, is still punch ass broke.
I don’t mean any of this to say don’t do medicine or do do medicine - but I do mean to make any readers here stop for a moment. Realize that moment which may come 6-12 months from today for you all is a big F’ing deal and not to be taken lightly. Congratulations in advance, and may the odds be ever in your favor.
- Knife