Worth it for me to go to medical school (currently lawyer)?

[bc65]

: You wanna talk TV? OK here we go.

See the book "playing doctor" by Turow. I read the older edition. It's a somewhat academic book that discusses "all" the doctor TV shows. There are many that I never heard of before.

And I think that the pilots (and only the pilots) of Scrubs and Grey's Anatomy were very accurate. They went downhill from there.

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[TrebleBassFace]

In any case, med school will take up all of your time for at least 4 years plus residency for another 3 to 7 years. You will probably spend more time with those than you're spending now at work, at the end of which you'll probably want to go back to law.

Also, serious advice here: if you and your spouse want to have children, I would recommend that you address that first before considering a career change. Believe me, about half of the women physicians that I know ended up utilizing fertility treatments, and of course, that's not something that everyone discusses openly. So if children are on the agenda, I would start working on that by 30 if possible. Fertility rates start to plummet after 35. Most of the celebrities having twins after age 40 probably utilized donor eggs. You can consider a career change after both you and your spouse have gone back to work.

That's legit advice. Having kids is one concern of ours. We're getting to the point where we're figuring out where to settle down permanently, etc. It's almost that time. Plus, as I mentioned earlier, there's a lot of stuff I want to do besides standard work. One being, my spouse and I are thinking of opening a side business (both my spouse's and my parents are entrepreneurs and made millions doing it, so entrepreneurship seems like the only real way to make anything of yourself these days). Not sure I'm ready to commit to a career that won't let me work until I'm 40 when there's so much other stuff I want to do.

 

[TrebleBassFace]

Your ignorance of this field is so appalling that I don't even know where to begin, or even if I have the time. Let's just go with the easiest.
The lowest ranked MD schools can be harder to get into than Harvard (looking at #apps to interviews to matriculants). Even at my DO school, we have > 5000 apps, for ~100 seats...which is equivalent to HMS or Yale.

Acceptance rate doesn't really say anything on its own though. Maybe a lot of people just self-select out of applying to Harvard or Yale and the quality of applicants vary. If it really meant that much, then U Chicago undergrad was a complete ****hole with its 50% acceptance rate 10 years ago (and it wasn't). While I'm not completely discounting acceptance rates, what matters more are median MCAT scores/GPAs of accepted applicants and matriculants.

 

[Goro]

OK, you've convinced me that you're a troll.

Nobody could be this ignorant.

Acceptance rate doesn't really say anything on its own though. Maybe a lot of people just self-select out of applying to Harvard or Yale and the quality of applicants vary. If it really meant that much, then U Chicago undergrad was a complete ****hole with its 50% acceptance rate 10 years ago (and it wasn't). While I'm not completely discounting acceptance rates, what matters more are median MCAT scores/GPAs of accepted applicants and matriculants.

 

[TrebleBassFace]

OK, you've convinced me that you're a troll.

Nobody could be this ignorant.

You've never heard of self-selection and quality of applicants? If I had a 26 MCAT score, I wouldn't bother to apply to Harvard. I'd apply to the lowest ranked MD programs and DO programs. I don't see why that's hard to comprehend.

 

[Goro]

Look up the acceptance and matriculation rates for G-town, Drexel, Albany and GWU, genius.

You've never heard of self-selection and quality of applicants? If I had a 26 MCAT score, I wouldn't bother to apply to Harvard. I'd apply to the lowest ranked MD programs and DO programs. I don't see why that's hard to comprehend.

 

[nontradjd]

See the book "playing doctor" by Turow. I read the older edition. It's a somewhat academic book that discusses "all" the doctor TV shows. There are many that I never heard of before.

And I think that the pilots (and only the pilots) of Scrubs and Grey's Anatomy were very accurate. They went downhill from there.

So, wait, are you telling me that not everyone falls in love with an attending while an intern, gets married, has kids, and then watches the attending die as Chasing Cars plays in the background?

More importantly, are you trying to say surgeons never break out into musicals?

My life is ruined.

 

[nontradjd]

Look up the acceptance and matriculation rates for G-town, Drexel, Albany and GWU, genius.

I hint sarcasm...do you not find it cute when someone who has not made a single substantial move towards med school acts like they know more about admissions stats than someone who sits on an adcom?

 

[The Real SVB]

I hint sarcasm...do you not find it cute when someone who has not made a single substantial move towards med school acts like they know more about admissions stats than someone who sits on an adcom?

She's a V15 associate (her ranking from me gets downgraded with every dumb post). She knows everything

 

[bc65]

So, wait, are you telling me that not everyone falls in love with an attending while an intern, gets married, has kids, and then watches the attending die as Chasing Cars plays in the background? More importantly, are you trying to say surgeons never break out into musicals?

Well, I've seen lots of residents have affairs with attendings. I saw a resident-turned attending get pregnant and have the much older attending's child.
I've seen marriages, affairs, divorces and re-marriages. I never quite broke out into a musical, but does it count that I sang a song with a patient in the OR ?

 

[TrebleBassFace]

She's a V15 associate (her ranking from me gets downgraded with every dumb post). She knows everything

Hail to the Lion, Loyal and True.

Hail Alma Mater, with your White and Blue.

Penn State forever, Molder of men,

Fight for her honor, Fight, and Victory again.

Fight on, State!

 

[trev5150]

There's a joke in here somwhere about feeding the trolls, but I don't have a strong legal team.

 

[nontradjd]

Well, I've seen lots of residents have affairs with attendings. I saw a resident-turned attending get pregnant and have the much older attending's child.
I've seen marriages, affairs, divorces and re-marriages. I never quite broke out into a musical, but does it count that I sang a song with a patient in the OR ?

So, there's hope! Also, do tragic events happen on a fairly annual basis that either takes the life of someone on the surgical team, threatens their life, or causes them to run away never to be seen again?

 

[bc65]

do tragic events happen on a fairly annual basis that either takes the life of someone on the surgical team, threatens their life, or causes them to run away never to be seen again

Well, a corrections officer opened fire on an unarmed prisoner who mouthed off to him. He was shot 4 times in the chest and abdomen, went straight to the OR and lived. The bullets narrowly missed several interns standing nearby. An attending had an MI and cardiac arrest in the OR and was taken to the OR and saved. An attending saw someone get shot in front of the hospital and picked him up and carried him into the OR. A patient who was shot drove himself into the hospital. Literally. He drove the car into the lobby, through the glass front doors. But no one ran away or disappeared, nor died on a regular basis, although I fervently prayed daily for those things to happen to many of the attendings.

 

[nontradjd]

Well, a corrections officer opened fire on an unarmed prisoner who mouthed off to him. He was shot 4 times in the chest and abdomen, went straight to the OR and lived. The bullets narrowly missed several interns standing nearby. An attending had an MI and cardiac arrest in the OR and was taken to the OR and saved. An attending saw someone get shot in front of the hospital and picked him up and carried him into the OR. A patient who was shot drove himself into the hospital. Literally. He drove the car into the lobby, through the glass front doors. But no one ran away or disappeared, nor died on a regular basis, although I fervently prayed daily for those things to happen to many of the attendings.

That's a lot of crazy stuff. And I keep hearing that medical practice is nothing like Grey's Anatomy. Methinks I'm being lied to.

 

[bc65]

That's a lot of crazy stuff. And I keep hearing that medical practice is nothing like Grey's Anatomy. Methinks I'm being lied to

It took 5 years to get those stories. They would barely fill one episode of Grey's Anatomy. I might be able to fill 3 or 4 episodes tops.
Look at the show "ER": Work in the ER, get one exciting case a month, mostly it's chest pain, back aches, broken fingers, sprains. But the TV show distills a whole career of interesting cases into one episode.

The main difference though is that on TV, everyone is good looking, including the doctors, nurses, and most importantly, the patients. The women all wear makeup, even the ICU patients who have been in a coma for 2 years. In real life everyone is ugly, and the patients smell bad. And so do a lot of the doctors.

 

[Meeah]

As for those talking about "handling" pre med classes - are you guys serious? Pre med isn't like studying Physics/Chemical Engineering, etc. I minored in math and have always been better at math/science than verbal (got 800 math sat scores). I have As in every math/science class I took in college (to be honest, didn't take many science classes, but obviously had to take math classes for the minor). If you took AP classes in high school, you're pretty much set for a lot of the science on the MCAT, and Physics at the very least. It doesn't take a lot of brainpower, in my opinion, to do medicine. (And to be fair, it doesn't either for law or investment banking). Anyone who works to some degree could do any of those three (albeit not at the top of the field). I think it actually takes a lot more brain power to study a hard science (like Physics/Real Math (not just Applied)) or engineering because it involves a lot more critical analysis/thinking and not just rote memorization.

Anyway, thanks to those who gave real advice in this thread.

This is true.
The thing is, how it will help you.
Again, volunteer, and then you will see with your own eyes if a change is worth it or not.
Medicine can be done, no question, but its important for you, you won´t be at the same point in ten years as you are right now.

 

[nontradjd]

It took 5 years to get those stories. They would barely fill one episode of Grey's Anatomy. I might be able to fill 3 or 4 episodes tops.
Look at the show "ER": Work in the ER, get one exciting case a month, mostly it's chest pain, back aches, broken fingers, sprains. But the TV show distills a whole career of interesting cases into one episode.

The main difference though is that on TV, everyone is good looking, including the doctors, nurses, and most importantly, the patients. The women all wear makeup, even the ICU patients who have been in a coma for 2 years. In real life everyone is ugly, and the patients smell bad. And so do a lot of the doctors.

#truth. Seriously, if we believed shows like Grey's or even reality shows like the ones on DFH, statistically, we'd all have something severely wrong with us. Perhaps I should go get a full workup. I probably have a tumor somewhere...

 

[trev5150]

Bob Kelso can get you a full body scan at Sacred Heart.

 

[Law2Doc]

...
And I think that the pilots (and only the pilots) of Scrubs and Grey's Anatomy were very accurate. They went downhill from there.

The first 30 seconds of Greys Anatomy where Meredith's alarm clock goes off at 4 am is accurate. The show ceased to be accurate after that. Scrubs had periodic moments of inner monologue that jibe with what a resident experiences, but it is packaged in a show which is 99.9% inaccurate (The Todd bears some similarity to a guy I went to college with, who did, actually go on to become a doctor). St Elsewhere and the first year of ER are probably as good as you are going to find.

 

[Law2Doc]

Hail to the Lion, Loyal and True.

Hail Alma Mater, with your White and Blue.

Penn State forever, Molder of men,

Fight for her honor, Fight, and Victory again.

Fight on, State!

Penn and Penn State aren't the same, except during NCAA coverage. Then again you've gotten everything else wrong on this thread thus far...

 

[The Real SVB]

Penn and Penn State aren't the same, except during NCAA coverage. Then again you've gotten everything else wrong on this thread thus far...

It's obvious trolling at this point. No way does someone mistake Penn for Penn State of they recognize the shields.

 

[nontradjd]

It's obvious trolling at this point. No way does someone mistake Penn for Penn State of they recognize the shields.

Hail Pennsylvania, noble and strong
To thee with loyal hearts we raise our song
Swelling to heaven loud our praises ring
Hail Pennsylvania, of thee we sing.

 

[The Real SVB]

Hail Pennsylvania, noble and strong
To thee with loyal hearts we raise our song
Swelling to heaven loud our praises ring
Hail Pennsylvania, of thee we sing.

As a former marching band member, I've always preferred:

Hail Alma Mater!
Thy sons cheer thee now.
To thee, Pennsylvania,
All rivals must bow,
Glorious forever,
Thy colors dear will be
Forever, forever
They'll wave in Victory.

 

[TheWorldWarrior]

Posting it here since there's more traffic rather than in the non-trad sub-thread:

I'm in my late 20s and currently working at a "big law" firm on Wall Street. I am considering other professions because I am bored with mine/working in an office/long hours doing paperwork.

I also like school and enjoyed school (even law school). Is medical school/medicine worth it? I know part of the reason why I am even considering it is because at least four years of it is an "escape" from reality - the working world. Also am sort of interested in psychiatry (although I realize that's on the low totem pole for most med students).

I'm married to another lawyer (who works in government/public interest) (so, my spouse does not make good money). I have a good undergrad GPA in something math/finance related from a top 15 undergrad and graduated with honors from a "top 14" ranked law school.

The only way I'd consider med school though is if I got cheap in state tuition or a scholarship somewhere. I took out a ton of loans for law school, and it has taken awhile to pay them back, so I would never do that again.

What do you guys think? Are my reasons for going not good enough? (Escaping reality - the working world, like school, don't want an office job, interest in psychiatry, etc.) Worth my time/money or not considering my age?

This is a bad idea. If you're not motivated to be a physician you will not find happiness in what you do. If you have an interest in psych, then go for it. You need to show that you have an interest though; talking isn't good enough. Because you have been out of school so long + MCAT + need to do a lot of clinical stuff e.g. shadow/volunteer before applying otherwise they will see through your BS. Late 20s is fine; had plenty of people older than you in my med school.

 

[jl lin]

It's obvious trolling at this point. No way does someone mistake Penn for Penn State of they recognize the shields.

Yes. I have been annoyed when I have heard patients and even some LPNs refer to Penn State as Penn or U of P? LOL.

 

[The Real SVB]

Because you have been out of school so long + MCAT + need to do a lot of clinical stuff e.g. shadow/volunteer before applying otherwise they will see through your BS.

No they won't. She's a corporate associate at a V20 firm (again, the perceived prestigiousness of her actual firm decreases dramatically with time). That's unstoppable.

 

[remzremz]

As a lawyer who is looking to change careers into medicine for genuine reasons, this thread saddens me. You need to have a sincere reason for wanting to be a doctor -- not wanting to be a lawyer is not good enough.

 

[trev5150]

As a lawyer who is looking to change careers into medicine for genuine reasons, this thread saddens me. You need to have a sincere reason for wanting to be a doctor -- not wanting to be a lawyer is not good enough.

This was clearly a troll thread.

 

[nontradjd]

No they won't. She's a corporate associate at a V20 firm (again, the perceived prestigiousness of her actual firm decreases dramatically with time). That's unstoppable.

I think you meant to say V50.