Addressing drawbacks to a medical career in the personal statement?

[sovereign0]

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Is it a bad idea to address some of the negative aspects of going into a career in medicine?

It's fairly well known that the path entails lots of schooling and debt, just to go into a profession with high stress levels, job dissatisfaction, declining reimbursements, long hours, etc. I was thinking that it could be good to show that you are aware of these drawbacks, but are still interested in going into the career.

But, I don't know that weights against speaking in a negative light about the career you want to get into.

Thoughts?

 

[NonTrad16]

I'm curious about this. It almost seems like we're supposed to buy into a fanaticism about it all. That seems a bit naive. That said, I don't think I'll bring it up. It's like a small problem on your application: do you highlight it and try to explain it away, or ignore it? (Wisdom around here is to ignore it. Talk about something positive.)

 

[gannicus89]

High stress levels, long hours... that seems okay to mention.
Not getting paid enough? Yeah....no. I wouldn't talk about that.

To be honest, I wouldn't mention any of this in a PS. You should be answering "Why medicine?"... not stating how medicine sucks BUT you still want to do it anyways.

 

[DJ2MD]

I'm also an applicant so I might be completely wrong, but I would think it might be better to focus more on why you want to go into medicine rather than explaining the drawbacks. I would assume adcoms are aware of drawbacks, and even if they are not, explaining them doesn't really fit "why medicine." It might be something you could talk about in a secondary if a prompt asks you to discuss what you see as the biggest challenge in your career in medicine. Just my $0.02.

 

[Oranges2]

Yeah, your PS isn't the place to discuss the drawbacks of medicine. This doesn't answer the prompt question. If you want, you can try to discuss it in a secondary prompt if it's relevant.

 

[nwts]

I wouldn't really say that they're expecting us to buy into a fanaticism. If you went to an interview for a non-medical job, you wouldn't mention the drawbacks of working for that company, would you? While any person deciding whether someone gets into professional school, gets offered a job, etc. probably knows that the applicant is aware that drawbacks exist, it's probably not best to bring up what you think those drawbacks will be while you're trying to convince someone to give you a spot.

 

[LilEngineThatCould]

The only way I can think of you mentioning these is if you can tie them into your own personality and work habits, eg you work well in high stress environments. But I wouldn't mention it because the drawbacks don't have to do with why you want to be a doctor.

 

[HarryH00d]

Save these conversations for your interviews...I'm sure it will come up then

 

[NeuResurgens]

Depends on how you go about it.. the most I would say is that I'm "prepared to handle the challenges medicine presents." I wouldn't say more than that in a PS. If you show how you understand what you're getting into, your understanding of the negative sides is implied.

 

[sovereign0]

Thanks for the responses everyone. Consensus seems to be a definite no. I could see this coming up in interviews, here's to hoping we all get our chance.