Advice for 50-Year Old Considering Med School

[deleted804295]

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Do you think age concern extends into residency matches as well for competitive programs? If all goes well, I'll be matriculating at 29, which means I'll be graduating at 33. Would my older age be an obstacle in competitive residencies that take a long time, like neurosurgery/other specialized surgeries?

33 is so young for a medical school graduate.

 

[EMS0821]

It IS ageism if AGE alone is the greatest factor for determining acceptance, period, end of story. Of course individuals and groups often conveniently find pretexts under which they reject a candidate.

That said, at any point in one's life it's a huge choice to make, b/c it requires so much all along from start to finish. Medicine does not seem particularly good at developing into the profession work/life balance. It seems that is an issue at any age, b/c at age stage, life is always filled with many demands--more for some individuals than others.

Weigh all in the balance, regardless of age.

Regardless of the semantics involved, age is an important part of the equation. Medical school exists to create the future physicians of our country. It makes more sense to invest the available seats for people who are likely to be practicing medicine for at least a couple decades. It isn't anything personal against older applicants, but that it was likely one of the big reasons that they have historically had a more difficult time gaining acceptance. A 35 year old starting medical school I can see, but if you aren't going to be graduating residency until your mid to late fifties, one has to question how good of an investment that is of the school's and the individual's time and money.

 

[jl lin]

Regardless of the semantics involved, age is an important part of the equation. Medical school exists to create the future physicians of our country. It makes more sense to invest the available seats for people who are likely to be practicing medicine for at least a couple decades. It isn't anything personal against older applicants, but that it was likely one of the big reasons that they have historically had a more difficult time gaining acceptance. A 35 year old starting medical school I can see, but if you aren't going to be graduating residency until your mid to late fifties, one has to question how good of an investment that is of the school's and the individual's time and money.

That's all been said, over and over. Each person must make his/her own choices. Life is overlapping periods of things. Make a decision based on all the relevant factors to the individual--not on the year they were born. Good Lord.

If there is an attempt to justify ageism, it's just wrong. Just as you wouldn't reject based on ANY OTHER protected status or ism, so it must go here. People that are on adcoms that say online that they just dismiss out of hand d/t age are wrong and are breaking law, only not getting caught or being sued--at least not yet.

A protected status is a protected status. No one knows how long they will be practicing. I know many who have left medicine, or are not truly dedicated to medicine and treating patients, but are simply plowing through to acquire some wealth, and a number of people that have actually practiced a short time, went for PhD for high admin jobs. One got a free ride to an ivy med school, used it to do rads, worked only a few years after residency, and moved into admin.

This yammering about available seats, yada yada. is nonsense. Apparently Make a Wish is for those that are young enough to play things right and climb the ladder and aren't down with actually working with patients for very long. Interestingly that full ride scholarship didn't go to someone committed to working in the trenches of medicine, so to speak, for decades. Please. What that individual chooses to do is one thing; but let's not make this about boots on the ground in medicine for decades. When and where there is a need for boots-on-the-ground physicians, they will be received happily, so long as someone on an adcom without respect for people and laws doesn't stop them.