Business or Medicine First?

[daynas]

Hi,

I am currently a high school senior and I was wondering if anyone in this forum could help me with a decision. I have been accepted in both Wharton (for the undergraduate business school) and TCNJ and NJMS's joint 7-year program. I want to go into healthcare administration, or something that connects medicine with business and I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on this decision. Going to Wharton would be a great experience and would provide me with many opportunities, but going to TCNJ's program would allow me guarenteed admissions into Med School. This is such a hard decision!

Thanks so much.

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[Law2Doc]

Hi,

I am currently a high school senior and I was wondering if anyone in this forum could help me with a decision. I have been accepted in both Wharton (for the undergraduate business school) and TCNJ and NJMS's joint 7-year program. I want to go into healthcare administration, or something that connects medicine with business and I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on this decision. Going to Wharton would be a great experience and would provide me with many opportunities, but going to TCNJ's program would allow me guarenteed admissions into Med School. This is such a hard decision!

Thanks so much.

This is so not a decision I would try to make at 17ish. I doubt I even could define the job function of a healthcare administrator at that age. Go to Wharton, take the prereqs, and if you do well there the doors to med school will still be open. While there, explore lots of options. You may find you like the idea of medicine, other things besides medicine, or may decide a combined MD/MBA route is to your liking. That's my two cents. Good luck.

 

[Shredder]

wharton hands down

 

[MD2b06]

wharton hands down

Agreed. The Wharton name will give you unparalleled opportunities in the business field. As a previous poster stated, if you decide later that you definitely want to become a physician, you have the luxury of applying to med schools coming from a top undergrad institution. As long as you don't slack off, do decent on the MCAT (~30) you should still be able to get into a solid med school. But for now, if you're equally torn between the two, I'd pick wharton hands down.

 

[daynas]

thanks so much for the input. i am leaning towards wharton, but the tcnj program is guarenteed medical school. which is nice. and that means that i don't have to work as hard and i don't have to worry as much about extracurricular activities and such. and you always hear stories about how students with top grades and activities don't get accepted into any medical school whatsoever.

and would medical schools really recognize the wharton education and maybe even like me better becuase i didn't take the traditional pre-med/biology route? also how much do medical schools look at extracurriculars? i just got out of the college application process so i don't know much about the medical school app process.

 

[MD2b06]

thanks so much for the input. i am leaning towards wharton, but the tcnj program is guarenteed medical school. which is nice. and that means that i don't have to work as hard and i don't have to worry as much about extracurricular activities and such. and you always hear stories about how students with top grades and activities don't get accepted into any medical school whatsoever.

and would medical schools really recognize the wharton education and maybe even like me better becuase i didn't take the traditional pre-med/biology route? also how much do medical schools look at extracurriculars? i just got out of the college application process so i don't know much about the medical school app process.

Guaranteed acceptances to med school are nice, but at such a young age, you should try to keep all your options open. You're not closing any doors by going to wharton. You most certainly may be closing doors if you go to tcnj and decide this whole medicine thing isn't for you. As for EC's, they're important, and you have to have them in order to get in. However, they're nowhere near as important as grades and mcat scores. All else being equal, the 3.8, 35 mcat with decent ec's will almost always get in over the 3.3, 25 with amazing ec's. Yeah, not having to deal with the med school admissions process is a plus, however that's a small price to pay for the opportunity to go to wharton. some adcoms may be impressed with your background, others may not be. one thing is for sure, you will be different than your average applicant, and that's usually a plus. med schools strive to have a diverse class. i know people that took the guaranteed route as opposed to going to a top business school. 8 years later, they realize they hate medicine, love business, but are too far in debt to change career paths. i'd stick with wharton.

 

[Shredder]

if you got into wharton, youre talented enough to get into med school no problem. its not hard getting in somewhere. its a little hard getting into the top schools, but even that follows a formula. its a matter of how many hoops youre willing to jump through that determines acceptance into top schools, not talent. 3.7 gpa and 32 mcat will for sure get you in somewhere.

 

[jjmack]

if you got into wharton, youre talented enough to get into med school no problem. its not hard getting in somewhere. its a little hard getting into the top schools, but even that follows a formula. its a matter of how many hoops youre willing to jump through that determines acceptance into top schools, not talent. 3.7 gpa and 32 mcat will for sure get you in somewhere.

I don't know if that is totally true. The odds though are very good.

 

[Shredder]

few things are 100% true, but there are confidence intervals

 

[TheMightyAngus]

This is so not a decision I would try to make at 17ish. I doubt I even could define the job function of a healthcare administrator at that age. Go to Wharton, take the prereqs, and if you do well there the doors to med school will still be open. While there, explore lots of options. You may find you like the idea of medicine, other things besides medicine, or may decide a combined MD/MBA route is to your liking. That's my two cents. Good luck.

I agree. If I were in your position, I would go to Wharton but do a more general concentration like Business/Public Policy or Management. No point to set your sights on healthcare administration when you're still in high school. You can always go into this later on when you're closer to entering the workforce and a degree from Wharton will train you for almost anything business-related.

 

[Law2Doc]

few things are 100% true, but there are confidence intervals

That's a great quote -- did you make it up?

 

[Shredder]

Haha yeah, you like? My dad majored in stat, I think I have some intuitive feel for it. Sometimes I tire of ppl pointing out exceptions all the time. There are always exceptions, that's why you have p values and things like that to quantify them. It's like, "25 MCAT, 3.2 GPA, do I have a chance?" Technically yes, but for practical purposes it looks grim.

So yeah 3.7/32 will put one in a strong position to be accepted somewhere unless other factors make him an outlier

 

[medworm]

If I were you, I'd go to medical school. In B-school, you don't really learn anything that you can't figure out on your own. Whereas, I have yet to meet a physician who didn't learn a thing or two in med school.

If after or even during med school, you want to take a break for a couple of years to complete an MBA, your school is very likely to accommodate it. However, if you choose Wharton there's no guarantee that you'd get into med school again. Also you won't have as much energy to do med school and residency when you get older.

Good luck.

 

[Law2Doc]

If after or even during med school, you want to take a break for a couple of years to complete an MBA, your school is very likely to accommodate it. However, if you choose Wharton there's no guarantee that you'd get into med school again. Also you won't have as much energy to do med school and residency when you get older.

Good luck.

Coming from Wharton with good grades the odds are pretty good of getting into med school, should you even still be interested in that when the time comes. But coming from med school, the odds of getting into an business program the caliber of a Wharton are considerably slimmer. Of course the undergrad business and MBA are not equivalent, but the Wharton pedigree will be helpful in whatever direction you go.

 

[Law2Doc]

I am an MBA/MD and was a prof in an MBA program before I went to med school. If you are certain you want to go to med school, I would advise you to complete med school before going to B school. Business school is much better after you have some experience and perspective. Also, you should go to B school only if you have a clear need to do so and closer to the time when you will actually use the information. Thus, I would go to med school, finish residency and then decide whether an MBA makes sense.

The actual question of the OP was whether to go to Wharton undergrad or to an accellerated MD program at a NJ state school. The MBA mention was raised by a much later poster, so I'm not sure the advice is germane to him/her.

 

[TheFreshPrince]

I seemed they were looking for advice on the best way to obtain a combination of medical and business training. In my opinion, if you want to combine these things you are better off going to med school and getting the bschool training later in an MBA program rather than as an undergraduate.

However, if the OP is thinking of doing only one (business or medicine) but not both -- that is an entirely different kettle of fish. Medicine is a VERY long route to most nonclinical careers. The medical degree is only necessary for a rather small subset of areas such as those where you are directly involved in the supervision and management of clinical work or perhaps as a principal investigator in clinical trials. If you don't want to be involved in clinical work, then the medical degree is a huge price to pay.

I'm sure you already made your decision but go to Wharton. Always listen to Shredder.

 

[Shredder]

Uncle Phil = Shredder
http://uncleshredder.ytmnd.com/

 

[2muchplanning]

I think if you're set on business then its an open and shut case and Wharton is the way to go. That being said, I was in a similar situation to yours 4 years ago and chose to go w/ the BS/MD program.

If I were to do it all over again, I would have made the same decision. I'm not sure the structure of your program but in my case having the assured seat helped me taylor my curriculum and extracarricular activities in a fashion that I wanted, without having to worry about resume padders. Now that I'm in med school I realize how (relatively) easy it is for me to get my MBA along with my MD. The added benefit is this way I have two graduate degrees instead of having a bachelors in business and only an MD. Granted a bachelors from Wharton does carry a lot of clout, but at the end of the day its still just a bachelors.

Just my two cents. Congrats on the acceptances. You're no doubt a bright kid, just listen your heart and you'll make the right decision

 

[beetlerum]

Here's my $0.02: People in high school should not make career decisions. Go to Wharton. If you want to go to med school, you'll get in, and you'll be richer for having had the Wharton experience.