I came out of Human medicine. If you are thinking of human medicine for the money RUN!!!!!!! I left medical school in my third year. I HATED CLINICALS. putting my finger up some fat dudes ass, looking at gross cracked nasty feet with nails that look like talons, nasty boils, infections between layers of overweight peoples skin. I've been vomited on, coughed on in my face with spit DAILY... and diarrhea, yes I've had it all over me. Humans are gross.... and non compliance. omg, non compliance and needy, chronically ill patients made me want to literally SCREAM. medicine is a calling and the type of medicine you get to practice depends on that calling. I transferred to animal medicine and I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! sticking my finger up some dogs butt doesn't bother me a bit. getting bit doesn't even bother me. because I LOVE what I do. stop surrounding yourself with nay sayers. I surrounded myself with veterinarians that had practices that made well over 7 figures. I know farm vets that make 100k plus.. be innovative, don't work for someone else. those people will not make great money. Don't build someone else's dream. build your own. There comes a time to **** or get off the pot. Either do it or do something else. bottom line is you HAVE to do something else. Vet techs don't make a living wage. It is unfortunate as they are highly trained. at least the ones I work with are. I think sometimes we get stuck in a rut and are so afraid to make a bad decision we don't make a decision at all. WHICH IS MAKING A DECISION. Human medicine is hard, messy and the politics will EAT YOU ALIVE if you are not a strong person. I am a very strong person and I was MISERABLE. And they are in debt too. make no mistake they are easily 400k in debt. Surround yourself with successful people. not those that are miserable. ANY profession is what you make of it. as far as human medicine. Unless you work AT LEAST two years as a medical assistant forget PA school. Most applicants have been in human medicine 3-5 years. PAID positions. and if you are considering human medical school, start studying for the MCAT. it takes a good 9 months. If and I say IF you can kick ass on the MCAT then move forward. the MCAT is a hard ass test my friend. Start there. then keep in mind you have the USME 1, 2 and 3 and you can get kicked out if you fail any one of those tests. And they don't tell you about those that fail out. people fail out all the time. yes, If you fail, you can take the usmle step again, but I don't know anyone who Ever failed any of the USME that didn't get stuck in some crappy ass residency program and I know of some who didn't even place at all!. scores make or break you in human medicine. and the MCAT is like a kindergarten test compared to those USMLE tests. so, if you really think you want to do human medicine, start there. I studied for 9 months 8 hours a day 5 days a week, and my science gpa going in was a 3.89. And that test was hard. If you can get a good competitive score on the MCAT, and you are not burnt out, then move forward with medical school. bottom line is people can say all they want to. It doesn't matter what we think. YOU have to get up every morning and go to work. Make it worthwhile. and do it for the right reasons. I went into medicine instead of animal medicine because the debt vs wage worried me as well. and speaking for myself it was a terrible reason to go into human medicine and it cost me more in the long run. Now I have an additional 2.5 years of medical school loans on top of any veterinary school loans. and to me, it was still worth leaving. just my two cents.
1. If you think you will cease seeing gross things on humans as a vet, you are wrong. I have had clients lift shirts, almost drop pants, etc to "show me" this "rash/scar/surgical incision/etc" and do I think it looks ok. Yeah, many of us agree with you wholeheartedly humans are GROSS and they will still show you that ****. Clearly you won't see it as much, but be ready to still get it occasionally.
2. Getting bit should worry you. Veterinarians have lost fingers, arms, legs, etc from animal bites. A severe bite can mean the difference between still working and not still working. Get worried about them. Quickly. They need to be taken seriously.
3. Oh FFS, medicine isn't a "calling" and neither is veterinary medicine... they are jobs. You need to enjoy science and enjoy medicine and enjoying putting together clinical puzzles, but so sick of this "calling" bull**** people spew. Those who think these professions are a "calling" also think you should eat, breathe and bathe in everything involved in them and quite literally... I think it is responsible for why so many medical professionals are depressed. We are conditioned that we should LOVE the field with ever fiber of our being and the truth is... you can hate it sometimes.
4. Non compliance is rampant in veterinary medicine. Most people blame you for their non-compliance except in veterinary medicine their non-compliance hurts their innocent pet, at least in human medicine (for the majority of cases), non-compliance only hurts the patient. They don't want to get better, meh, that is on them. But someone not helping their pet who has no say in the situation is infuriating.
5. Just because a veterinary practice makes a 7K figure doesn't mean the owner of said practice is skipping home with a 7K salary.... he/she isn't. Actually he/she is probably lucky to go home with 1/5th to 1/6th of that after rent on the property, electricity, gas, water bill, equipment upkeep, practice license fees, state veterinary license fees (for the owner and all associates), DEA fees, malpractice fees, paying staff, paying for any health insurances, 401K, other benefits for staff, getting any upgrades needed, maintenance of the building, any fees associated with sending people to collections if they didn't pay, paying for the medications, vaccinations, the food that is stocked in the clinic, etc. Yeah you don't get a 7 figure salary at the end of the day. Many veterinary clinic owners make LESS than their associates.
6. Hahah... you don't know a farm vet that has a take home salary of over $100k, they might pull in $100k but guarantee some of that is bleeding out in equipment fees, truck expenses or something else and their actual real take home is akin to $50-60k
7. Oh, yes, the good ol' buy a clinic advice.... that is much easier said than done if you have $400k in student loan debt. And see above about how not all practice owners are rolling in the dough. The ones that are doing well, I guarantee graduated over 10 years ago or don't have large student debt loads. You aren't opening a clinic if you have over $200k in debt.
It was worth leaving because you weren't happy with human medicine. You aren't a veterinarian currently so you can't state if it was worth leaving AND jumping ship to veterinary medicine.
Oh and in some post you mentioned that doctors can have $400k in debt.... guess what so do vets!!! Except we make at most 1/2 of what a Dr does (in general practice) and do 3x the work easily (don't know many human GP's that see emergencies, do full dental work, do full surgeries, anesthetize patients, provide preventive care, manage chronic conditions, diagnose chronic conditions, remove potentially cancer masses, etc).
Overall we work longer hours, open on weekends, have similar (or more) debt as a human GP and do much more work than they do for a fraction of the pay.
Every field has its pros/cons, but don't anticipate starting up a practice and skipping home with a 7 figure salary in your pocket.... it won't happen.
