unconfident 1st year pharmD to med??

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threegrntrees

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hello. i am a first year pharm student...repeating my first semester. i came from a community college, did very well, got into pharm school by the skin of my teeth. I made 3C's and 2 D's. it wasn't just the academics i struggled with, but the social aspect, jumping into a highly competitive grad level program... anyways, i am doing better. i have always thought about med school, never thought i could pull it off; have no college graduates in my family; a confidence issue. i am here now and would really like to have more hands on interaction with helping people then i feel like i can get with pharm.. i traveled to s.e. asia solo, went to a small isolated village and saw a little child with a huge deeply infected splinter in his leg....nobody there to do anything. i couldn't help. so my thoughts... p.a. (physician assistant school~2 1/2 year program, more competitive than pharm school) school after my four years of pharm school is over? contemplate med school? med school after pharm? i am 27 1/2years old. should i just stick to where i am in my life, knock out pharm school and utilize my knowledge? I know i am determined enough to not live an unhappy life; my question is about timing...risks and benefits.... taking a chance and know when it is the right time to do it or not...i was extremely intimidated just getting into pharm school. any thoughts would be very helpful. thanks

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hello. i am a first year pharm student...repeating my first semester. i came from a community college, did very well, got into pharm school by the skin of my teeth. I made 3C's and 2 D's. it wasn't just the academics i struggled with, but the social aspect, jumping into a highly competitive grad level program... anyways, i am doing better. i have always thought about med school, never thought i could pull it off; have no college graduates in my family; a confidence issue. i am here now and would really like to have more hands on interaction with helping people then i feel like i can get with pharm.. i traveled to s.e. asia solo, went to a small isolated village and saw a little child with a huge deeply infected splinter in his leg....nobody there to do anything. i couldn't help. so my thoughts... p.a. (physician assistant school~2 1/2 year program, more competitive than pharm school) school after my four years of pharm school is over? contemplate med school? med school after pharm? i am 27 1/2years old. should i just stick to where i am in my life, knock out pharm school and utilize my knowledge? I know i am determined enough to not live an unhappy life; my question is about timing...risks and benefits.... taking a chance and know when it is the right time to do it or not...i was extremely intimidated just getting into pharm school. any thoughts would be very helpful. thanks

Although these forums can't really address issues regarding self-confidence, and the social aspects of school, the only thing that anyone can say is that age, for the most part, is not an issue in terms of going into med school. BUT you have to realize:

(1) Helping people (hands on or not) is relative. You can potentially be more hands on as a dentist too. The helping people reason is great, but many professions help. My friend is a Navy Corpsman, and in terms of "degrees", they are not RNs, MDs, PAs, or PharmDs, but he can still do a lot. So its all relative.

(2) Obviously med school is harder to get into than Pharm school. You also have to realize that its probably more of a crap shoot than most of the other professional schools. You can have the best grades ever and may not get in. However it doesn't work to well if you have bad grades and stats. I don't know what your overall and partitioned undergrad GPA looks like so I cannot make that comment. You will also have to take the MCAT too.

(3) Its your life decision, not our own. If you do it, cool, if you don't, cool. You are the best person to gauge what you can do.

Ultimately this converges back on your personal issues which we cannot help. However clearly you may have to factor in that such issues are not really helpful in pharm school let alone medical school where the stress and rigors may exceed what you encountered as a pharm student. Remember that the social aspect is quite important as an MD, not to mention confidence given what you are doing as a physician.
 
Maybe sit on this idea for a while, shadow some docs and get some clinical experience before diving in. Since you struggled in pharm school, there's no indication you won't do the same in med school as it too is a competitive graduate level program. Med school is not a easy choice. I suggest thinking it over carefully before diving in. Also, a PA would give you the chance to interactive and help people, and it requires less sacrifices than med school. I don't think your age is an issue here, you need to decide if you can stomach the sacrifices that you will have to make to become an MD.
 
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