Anyone accepted or in med school and thinking of not going?

[wildman]

Because of either the time committment or the money or the workload or any of the above?

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[shahalam]

i think most of the people on sdn range from mildly dedicated to OBSESSED with medicine. it'll be hard to find someone like that on here.

 

[btowngirl]

i think most of the people on sdn range from mildly dedicated to OBSESSED with medicine. it'll be hard to find someone like that on here.

 

[ZappBrannigan]

Funny you should post that question. Now that I've been accepted somewhere I've been freaking out over the cost and the time and most of all, moving across the country. It's all so scary. For some reason last night it really hit me and the whole day I've been consumed with whether or not it's right for me despite spending all of my college career preparing for it.

 

[Without Wax]

Funny you should post that question. Now that I've been accepted somewhere I've been freaking out over the cost and the time and most of all, moving across the country. It's all so scary. For some reason last night it really hit me and the whole day I've been consumed with whether or not it's right for me despite spending all of my college career preparing for it.

Zapp, you will eventually earn enough to pay it all back.

 

[centig]

I guess I've thought about it. I'm getting married before med-school starts and I'm a little worried about the financial stability throughout school. I'm graduating as an electrical engineer and I'm guaranteed a job after I graduate. It's a tough decision because of the time commitment and the stress. I'm pretty sure I'll end up going to med-school but the thought of not going has crossed my mind.

 

[Shaz]

Funny you should post that question. Now that I've been accepted somewhere I've been freaking out over the cost and the time and most of all, moving across the country. It's all so scary. For some reason last night it really hit me and the whole day I've been consumed with whether or not it's right for me despite spending all of my college career preparing for it.

Yeah, same here. I guess you get over one hump and then realize you still have a mountain to climb.

But then I step back and think to myself, do I want to be a sleezbag lawyer? a monotonous engineer? a heartless businessman? a penilless artist? an unappreciated teacher?

nope. i think i'll be happy at what i will potentailly be doing.

 

[internet]

I think I will love med school, but I'm not so sure how much I will like medicine as a career. I am one of 'those' lifetime students. it's all I know how to do, it's all I'm good at.

 

[Scubadoc]

i sometimes read my scuba magazines and imagine going back to living on a little island and working as a scuba instructor. then i remember the things that drew me to medicine and i know i'm making the right choice.

 

[j48seconds]

I'm scared to, but I think its because med school is more of a reality now. At the beginning of college, med school was so far away now it's actually a reality and all the changes that come with it seems overwhelming. I want to go to med school but I do worry that I am making a mistake. I also know that you have to be sure because once you take out 40k in loans you are pretty much set and if you change your mind you will have to get a job that will let you pay off those loans as quickly and efficiently as possible. So I think that it's a good thing that you are questioning yourself because if you still chose to go to med school, you will be more confident that you are making a good decision.

 

[ZappBrannigan]

I guess I've thought about it. I'm getting married before med-school starts and I'm a little worried about the financial stability throughout school. I'm graduating as an electrical engineer and I'm guaranteed a job after I graduate. It's a tough decision because of the time commitment and the stress. I'm pretty sure I'll end up going to med-school but the thought of not going has crossed my mind.

I understand how that goes. I got engaged, rejected from my state school, and my fiance get a huge promotion and raise at work. We also own a house. All these forces are making it harder to think about leaving for med school. It would be so much easier if I could stay. I don't know if I could have him leave his job and lose that income so I can start blowing money on an education. I realize it's very short-sited and I would be kicking myself after four years thinking about what I would have accomplished.

 

[uclabruin725]

Funny I should come across this post at this precise moment!
I was accepted in the 2004 applicant pool, but after a few months at school, I was completely miserable, and some "domestic" issues led me to take a leave of absence and head back home... I left knowing that there actually would be a slim chance of my return; things had transpired in such a fashion that I had lost much of the passion for what I was doing, and I physically needed to be back home for some time - perhaps even for a time longer than my leave would allow for.
Now that I've been back for a little bit, I recently started up a new job so I can pay off my student loans that start going back into repayment mode in a few months... The problem is that I have to tell my school whether or not I'm coming back, and quite frankly - while I've grown to regain a bit of that passion I had lost, and my presence is not needed any longer at home, I have doubts as to my ability to succeed in medical school at this given moment, especially after all that's happened... But in speaking with the administration, it's apparent that it would be impossible to get my leave extended to another year, and it also would be next to impossible for me to get back into medical school, even several years down the line, if I were to withdraw from school completely at this time (which is what I would be doing if I were to decline to return in 2005). Sooo, it amounts to a big now or never for me, and I'm not sure exactly what to do...
Compounding the issue is that my current job is technically a "career appointment" (taken with a grain of salt), so I could definitely stay and slowly work my way up the ol' pecking order here... Plus, an old buddy has approached me wth a desire to go into a business partnership together - something that would prove to be interesting... If I were to leave for school again, I would be putting my coworkers, who were expecting me to stay for at least for a couple years, in quite the bind....
Soooo... i'm actually at lost as to what to do... Going back to school might end up a costly experiment, with tuition and a cross-country move... This is pretty much the first time I've ever really said that I couldn't do something - and I don't know what the best way to approach this... Anyone have any ideas?

I apologize if my reasons for taking my leave are vague - I'm not a big fan of discussing that in particular...

 

[wildman]

Funny you should post that question. Now that I've been accepted somewhere I've been freaking out over the cost and the time and most of all, moving across the country. It's all so scary. For some reason last night it really hit me and the whole day I've been consumed with whether or not it's right for me despite spending all of my college career preparing for it.

Zapp, heres how I see it. There is NO way to know if you'll like/love med as a career until you get there. That said, its an awful lot of work IF you find out once you're there, that you DONT like it. So, I dont think anyone here that is not YET a doc can speak from experience. Its only when you have BECOME a doc, can you assuredly say if you like it or not.
I'm amazed at how many think they will like it, only to get into the day to day aspects and huge debt load of medicine, then realize it wasnt for them. Now what do they do?
Become some of the worst docs ever known I guess.
This is what intimadtes me most of all. Uncertainty no matere HOW convinced you are know. You cant judge a man nor a career til you've walked a mile in the shoes.

 

[Tinker Creek]

Funny I should come across this post at this precise moment!
I was accepted in the 2004 applicant pool, but after a few months at school, I was completely miserable, and some "domestic" issues led me to take a leave of absence and head back home... I left knowing that there actually would be a slim chance of my return; things had transpired in such a fashion that I had lost much of the passion for what I was doing, and I physically needed to be back home for some time - perhaps even for a time longer than my leave would allow for.
Now that I've been back for a little bit, I recently started up a new job so I can pay off my student loans that start going back into repayment mode in a few months... The problem is that I have to tell my school whether or not I'm coming back, and quite frankly - while I've grown to regain a bit of that passion I had lost, and my presence is not needed any longer at home, I have doubts as to my ability to succeed in medical school at this given moment, especially after all that's happened... But in speaking with the administration, it's apparent that it would be impossible to get my leave extended to another year, and it also would be next to impossible for me to get back into medical school, even several years down the line, if I were to withdraw from school completely at this time (which is what I would be doing if I were to decline to return in 2005). Sooo, it amounts to a big now or never for me, and I'm not sure exactly what to do...
Compounding the issue is that my current job is technically a "career appointment" (taken with a grain of salt), so I could definitely stay and slowly work my way up the ol' pecking order here... Plus, an old buddy has approached me wth a desire to go into a business partnership together - something that would prove to be interesting... If I were to leave for school again, I would be putting my coworkers, who were expecting me to stay for at least for a couple years, in quite the bind....
Soooo... i'm actually at lost as to what to do... Going back to school might end up a costly experiment, with tuition and a cross-country move... This is pretty much the first time I've ever really said that I couldn't do something - and I don't know what the best way to approach this... Anyone have any ideas?

I apologize if my reasons for taking my leave are vague - I'm not a big fan of discussing that in particular...

Jesus. I hope things work out for you.

 

[funshine]

I think I will love med school, but I'm not so sure how much I will like medicine as a career. I am one of 'those' lifetime students. it's all I know how to do, it's all I'm good at.

ME TOO

I don't think you need to worry too much about that though. There are lots of "lifetime students" who end up excelling in their careers.

I'm just sad that soon, I'll no longer have the time or energy to become absorbed in long Russian novels like I do now. Instead, all my spare time will be spent puzzling over medical journals

 

[powermd]

I think I will love med school, but I'm not so sure how much I will like medicine as a career. I am one of 'those' lifetime students. it's all I know how to do, it's all I'm good at.

Just cruisin' this forum and thought I'd weigh in on your decision. As a PGY-1 in medicine (destined for anesthesiology in July), I've gone through a lot of changes getting to this point. One thing I quickly learned as I began med school was that college students really can't begin to imagine what it's like to be a med student. Life in med school is very different- much more like high school. Socially the cliques are much tighter than in college, and academically you spend the vast majority of your study time memorizing, and very little time really thinking about what you're studying. Forget about reading medical journals, very few med students do that. If you're that dedicated, you'll be spending that time studying even more for your classes! You really need to do that in order to score highly on USMLE step 1, which is critical to interview selection at top residency programs.

Starting internship, I can now see that med students have no idea what it's like to be an intern. I'm beginning to realize I probably won't fully appreciate the responsibility of being an attending until I actually get there. I've learned that being a doctor is so much more than being a student. You have to be a good student in order to get there, but once you're there, it's almost irrelevant! You need the confidence and psychomotor skills to accomplish a terrific amount of work each day, while paying attention to the smallest details. You need good interpersonal skills to get people in other medical jobs to do work for your patients, and of course to elicit accurate and relevant information from patients so you can treat them successfully.

Something that won't hit you until intern year is how repetitive medicine is. As a student you are used to being challenged with something new every single day. In medicine you will learn pattern recognition, and once you start to recognize the common patterns, it gets very tedious. A perma-student will not like working in this atmosphere, and woud probably end up seeking an academic career just to keep things interesting (good luck paying your loans and living well!).

One of the PGY-3 medicine residents (cardiology bound) in my program says if he could go back to med school he'd go into anesthesiology, if he could go back to college he'd pick a different career entirely.

Medical school changes you considerably, and you can never go back to who you were. You will also have invested so much it will be hard to turn away once you realize medicine might not be for you. Medicine is very different from what I envisioned as a college student. I am still glad I became a doctor, but much more now for the practical reasons - job security, good pay, promise of a controllable lifestyle - than the reasons I had for becomming a doctor (the idealistic ones). I miss very much the opportunity to do anything truly creative with my time.

If you dare, read "House of God" BEFORE you start medical school. You won't really understand it well, but that book is 26 years old now, and still accurately reflects life in medicine from a resident's point of view.

 

[!dr_nick!]

I think about not going every morning at 6:30 as my alarm clock is going off.