anyone thought of any other professions before deciding medical school?

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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bipolardoc

bipolardoc

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Anyone thought of any other professions before deciding medical school? What careers were you in and what helped you make your decision.
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When I first applied to ugrad, I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian. Then I decided to switch to physician, but along the way thought about being a teacher then pastor.

In terms of vet, I just realized after working a bit with animals I wanted to deal with sick people not sick animals.

In terms of teaching and being a pastor, I tried both of them out a bit and realized there were parts I liked and parts I hated. For both of these the cons outweighed the pros.

I know being a physician has cons too. I've done a few things involved with health care and being a physician and so far the pros for me outweigh the cons. :)
 
Engineer, Vet, Pod, Dentist, Optometrist, Pharmacist. You name it i've thought about it. Still thinking to.
 
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My debate was PhD vs MD. I knew I loved science but didn't know which avenue to go thru. So I did some research and some shadowing. I realized that I could do research as a MD and that I really liked being with patients rather than in a lab all the time. I also realized that PhDs don't get to spend alot of time at the bench which was the part that I liked but instead end up writing grants and paper most of the time. I made sure to explore things I found interesting in undergrad, like philosophy and anthropology, before settling on science too. I encourage everyone to get their feet wet in whatever is interesting them to get a real feel for what it would be like to choose that profession for your life.
 
everything...?
when i was younger - theater:laugh:

law mostly.

then I was accepted for a master's in lib sci... don't know what i was thinking... i have a rocky love affair with books.

i'm now working in HR - it's great pay, benefits and I advanced fairly quickly... but I can only audit so many contracts before I :bang:

medicine has always interested me. Initially, the N.D route really appealed to me (I grew up in a household that believed strongly in herbal remedies) but it's frowned upon. Lack or research. not recognized in all the states.. etc.
 
PhD in virology --> Research scientist at USMHRP. But I decided against that we I found out what their work was like.

After, that Intellectual property law. I actually followed up on that. Was accepted to law school a months ago. But after I was accepted to OSU I realized I didn't want to do law, so here I am.

Kind of sucks, I have to postpone graduation and do an extra year so I can take the MCAT and apply =/. What's also kind of strange, I was a shoo in for a lot of law schools, but I will be lucky to get into medical school with my current grades.

Gotta love the frat boys lowering the bar.

I did think about business. But that was based on how easy the subject was for me. I took 3 business/accounting classes and placed first in all of them, never got lower than a 97 on a test. But I decided against that my sophomore year. Let the frat boys get the easy jobs. When this country fails they will all be out of jobs, but the doctors can go anywhere and find work.
 
chocolaterie said:
Initially, the N.D route really appealed to me (I grew up in a household that believed strongly in herbal remedies) but it's frowned upon. Lack or research. not recognized in all the states.. etc.
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:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup: (There are going to be people who disagree with me, but I think an ND is an incredibly interesting career path).
 
Architect --> College Professor (Chemistry) or MD/PhD ---> MD/PhD or MD ---> MD

Architecture was just an idea I played around with in high school. Near the end, I began to see myself either as a college professor or medical scientist. I TA'ed a tutored enough to know that I didn't want to do that for the rest of my life. I then decided against MD/PhD really because I don't think I wanted it bad enough. It's super competitive and super demanding, and that's just not where I saw my life going.

And then I became pre-med...:)
 
Medicine has less stress and fewer years of training than being a ninja, so the choice was pretty clear.
 
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I'm an anthropology major and I went through a phase when I wanted to be an archaeologist. I also wanted to do forensic anthropology and be like Dr. Henry Lee and solve crimes.
 
I was active army for 3 years as an enlisted soldier. Went to undergrad with the intentions of getting a 'quick' degree and then go back in as an officer. Then, thanks to a Prof. of mine who was a retired NSA/Jason Bourne dude [who pushed me like you wouldn't believe] I seriously contemplated doing that... Until I began dating a med student. I ended up studying her notes far more than any of my own and knew that I wanted to become a doc.
 
Law vs. health care for a while, and then dentistry vs. medicine. Hard-fought battles, and MD somehow came out on top! :laugh:
 
A writer
A professor of religious studies
Then,
A physician

Obviously, I'm a starry-eyed kid.
 
I told myself that if I did really poorly on the MCAT, then I would not retake it again, and instead, I would change my major to Art History, and become an Art History PhD... :D Luckily I did well enough on the MCAT, because I am not as prolific as a writer as I think I am:smuggrin:
 
Until I graduated I thought of every profession besides medicine
 
Everyone at my undergrad seemed to be going into I-banking. I gave it some thought, but found that medicine is my calling. Especially, with the economy...I am glad I chose medicine. But I am sure that in a few years that the economy will be back and booming.
 
Business, Finance, Management, Engineering , Medicine..ya
 
Thinking about taking a semester off and doing some kind of business co-op.
 
Well, I went from PhD, to medicine, to law enforcement (local and then either detective or federal) back to medicine, the to both medicine and a PhD, and now I've almost for sure settled on PhD only.
 
I originally wanted to be a rock star, but when I realized that my art would be commercialized and misused, I changed my mind to medicine
 
I was originally a forensics major and wanted to go into crime scene investigation (not because of the show CSI or anything like that) but I didn't want to be a cop for a few years (I'm 5'2 and small, i'd be easily over powered) so I weighed my options and look into medicine
 
- I thought about PA (bcz I was scared of making a commitment to med school. freaked out one semester a few yrs ago) for a couple months, but raelized I wouldnt be satisfied intellectually

- considered PhD, but realized after alot of lab experience that a PhD a) isnt doing most of the research anyway, there is so much politics, speaking, grantwriting etc, and more importantly b) I would be unhappy not having that patient contact-not feeling like I made a difference TODAY or at least tried, even if what Im doing in the long run might change the world. I felt I would end up being frustrated most of the time.

- still considering law school, bc after two cycles of applying, I am getting pretty discouraged and youre only young once. Gosh, if Im not good enough to be a doctor, fine, I get the message!!!
 
Engineer, Programming/Information Technology, Law/Law Enforcement.

Now I want to be a doctor...with graduate school in either chemistry or physics as my backup plan! :laugh:
 
Astronaut (I'm being absolutely serious), though medicine is still one path to NASA, so that idea is still going.
 
professional cycling, wedding cakes, consulting, finance

Medicine is more interesting and fulfilling (for me) than consulting/finance, and it gives me the chance to work with my hands.

I don't have the legs for pro cycling.

Wedding cakes = horrible hours, horrible wage, less fulfilling, less intellectually challenging.
 
mmmcdowe said:
Teaching and Vet.

Found out I was allergic to animals at age 7, so that dream died. I haven't given up on teaching, I want to be involved in academics after I'm a physician.
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So interesting, you guys make me feel a little more normal. I thought I was the only indecessive person that wanted to do anything and everything out of the moon and still indecessive as heck.

Majorly considered law, dentistry, MBA (consulting or IB),then I wanted to be a business owner and just do my own thing.
 
I was a History/English major as an undergrad on a trajectory towards law school. Fortunately, I was given the opportunity to intern in both the private and public sector, and I ultimately determined that a career in the law was just not for me. My girlfriend convinced me to volunteer with her at a local hospital, and I was hooked. I graduated in 06' with absolutely no science background whatsoever, and now after two years of intense post-bac work and MCAT prep, I have the great fortune to say that I am going to be an MD. :thumbup:

Better late than never.
 
Ecologist chasing Bowhead whales across the Arctic, but in the end an easy choice.
 
Fly fishing guide in Oregon or Montana. I still may do this some day.
 
After 5 bands and 2 years of trying to find the right group of musicians, I've called it quits on singing :X
 
"inventor" - engineer - materials science researcher - zoologist - MD/PHD - MD
 
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