Current med students, help me out plz

[Weezy32]

---

Members do not see this ad.

First i am not a med student yet but i feel i need to ask this question to current med students because i am sure you went through this dilemma before. I have asked the question in pre med section but i dont think i will get good responses because most of the people there are not so sure about my question themselves.

I have been doing research on IF I WANT TO BE A DOCTOR FOR THE PAST YEAR and i still cant say 100% sure I AM GONNA GO FOR IT. However i have to make decision NOW ... I KNOW THE GPA/ MCAT / SHADOWING etc needed for the schools i am interested in so i know what i need to do to get in.

I am a business major and if i decide not to take pre med classes i will graduate in the Fall of this year.. and if i decide to take pre med classes i will graduate next summer. I also have to start taking pre med classes and am currently signed up to take intro to chem 2 and physics 1 this summer along w my business classes.

These are the positives i have come up with so far.


-I really WANT TO BE A DOCTOR because i feel like i will get satisfaction from the career and i will ENJOY going to work every day.

- Money is definitely one of the factors but not the major one. I want to be financially stable and have the money to buy cars, travel, take vacations etc... Being a pharmacist, accountant, finance advisor might yield me just as much money but i would literally shoot my self if my job was to sort pills every day in the back of the pharmacy or look over some companies numbers for the rest of my life.

- I enjoy going to school... meeting new people and learning something new everyday is actually fun for me. I ABSOLUTELY have no problem going to school for another 4 years..I plan on getting a MBA anyway if i decide not to do med school.

- I dont plan on getting married/having children until i am 35-40 so that is not going to be a problem.

- I learn the material easy... I have never had to study much. I am they type of the person that will go to class, listen to the professor , take notes and pretty much be able to get atleast a b on the test without even looking at the notes again because i will remember most of the stuff that the professor has said a week ago. I am not trying to brag, i am not saying i am a genius or anything like that. I just feel like i can remember stuff pretty easy. Now i am sure ill have to study for my science classes and med school classes. Main thing i want you to get out of this is that if i get into med school there is a good chance that i would be succesfull.

-Finally , i am very focused. Once i make up my mind that i will achieve something THAT IS IT... i will do everything in my power to achieve that. I will not slack off and i will literally become obsessed with achieving that goal. That is why it is important that i actually decide I AM GOING TO BE A DOCTOR because i know if i do that i will actually do it.

THINGS HOLDING ME BACK FROM PULLING THE TRIGGER

- MAIN THING .... LONG HOURS that doctors have to work. Everything i read says most doctors spend 60+ hrs working a week. Eventually i want to have a family, spend time with the wife, go to my sons baseball/football/soccer games, take vacations, travel the world, have hobbies, etc etc. If i am working 70-80 hours a week my time to do that would be very limited. I want to have a life outside of work.

- Honestly i am not sure how i will handle studying everyday for like 8 hrs. I see your guys schedule on here and its a bit scary. Again , i have never studied that much and i am just not sure how i will take it. I am used to having atleast a little bit of fun... watch a few movies, play some games, misc, play basketball, lift. It seems like most med school students only study, go to class, sleep, eat... I even read that some of you dont have time to exercise or lift weights (my hobby).

-How will i afford med school.. my parents are immigrants, dont have good credit history and dont own a house. Will i be able to get a loan..? my credit is also not good as i have a 40k medical bill i have not payed.


Thats all i can think of so far.. I know this is a long read and if you read everything thank you. I would like to get an opinion from each of you on if i should pull the trigger or just forget about med school and try to get some managment job that pays 60k a year and be stuck in a 9-5 rut that most people are in.

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

So first think I will say is that anyone can afford to go to medical school thanks to loans. The one thing is you have to be a permanent resident or citizen of the U.S to get into medical schools in the U.S. and to get loans from the federal government. I think there is also an exception for Canadian citizens.

I don't think you study your entire life in medical school. If you treat it like a full time job that is how it will be. You can come in at 8 and be done 5 if you know how to focus you will have time to yourself. The first two years are like that and the second two you work at the hospital so the schedule varies. Residency you will work close to 80 hours a week depending on what field and where you go.

Not all docs work 70 to 80 hours a week. I have a bad feeling you might be getting advice from people who have watched T.V. shows about being a doctor or had an uncle who had a daughter who knew somebody that went to a doctor and this is what they were told. Depending on what specialty you go into to you could work as little as 30 to as much as 100 hours, it's all up to you.

Lastly, I just want to say is don't over think this too much. Most people go into careers without ever having a true idea of what they are really like. Shadowing a doctor gives you as much of an idea of being a doctor as being Bill Clinton's intern gives you an idea about being the president. At the end of the day you just gotta make the decision and see if you will be happy with it. Look at what you will be doing and how long you will be in school and decide if you could see yourself doing that for the rest of your life.

 

[ProtossCarrier]

- I enjoy going to school... meeting new people and learning something new everyday is actually fun for me. I ABSOLUTELY have no problem going to school for another 4 years..I plan on getting a MBA anyway if i decide not to do med school.
- I learn the material easy... I have never had to study much. I am they type of the person that will go to class, listen to the professor , take notes and pretty much be able to get atleast a b on the test without even looking at the notes again because i will remember most of the stuff that the professor has said a week ago. I am not trying to brag, i am not saying i am a genius or anything like that. I just feel like i can remember stuff pretty easy. Now i am sure ill have to study for my science classes and med school classes. Main thing i want you to get out of this is that if i get into med school there is a good chance that i would be succesfull.

You will definitely meet far less new people in your early 20s comparing to say, NOT going to med school.

Med school is high school on repeat, and comes with all the ******ed high school dramas.

Point 2: I consider myself to be pretty smart, I even have photographic memory for very specific things. With that being said, I work about 10 hours a day. In my understanding that's much less than some of my classmates have to put up with.

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

Do you go to class/watch lectures or no class?

 

[armybound]

This shouldn't be in allo...

There are a lot of good reasons not to go into medicine. Not wanting the lifestyle or financial/time commitment are very good ones.

There are other disciplines within medicine that are still intellectually stimulating and require less time and investment. Think about pharmacy school.

 

[mvenus929]

- I learn the material easy... I have never had to study much. I am they type of the person that will go to class, listen to the professor , take notes and pretty much be able to get atleast a b on the test without even looking at the notes again because i will remember most of the stuff that the professor has said a week ago. I am not trying to brag, i am not saying i am a genius or anything like that. I just feel like i can remember stuff pretty easy. Now i am sure ill have to study for my science classes and med school classes. Main thing i want you to get out of this is that if i get into med school there is a good chance that i would be succesfull.

That's how most of us were in high school and college. The first two years of medical school are essentially a masters in human biology. You learn a lot about the body in a very short amount of time. Many of your professors will suck, and you will have to spend a fair amount of time learning things on your own, without listening to a professor. You will have to study in medical school. Personally, I study about 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, and most of it isn't pure studying (I can usually only do an hour straight of studying, if I'm motivated).

- MAIN THING .... LONG HOURS that doctors have to work. Everything i read says most doctors spend 60+ hrs working a week. Eventually i want to have a family, spend time with the wife, go to my sons baseball/football/soccer games, take vacations, travel the world, have hobbies, etc etc. If i am working 70-80 hours a week my time to do that would be very limited. I want to have a life outside of work.

Once you are out of residency, your schedule is your own. You can choose to work as many or as few hours as you want... just recognize that reimbursement will follow. It depends largely on specialty too... it's a lot easier to work 1 day a week as a PCP than as a surgeon.

- Honestly i am not sure how i will handle studying everyday for like 8 hrs. I see your guys schedule on here and its a bit scary. Again , i have never studied that much and i am just not sure how i will take it. I am used to having atleast a little bit of fun... watch a few movies, play some games, misc, play basketball, lift. It seems like most med school students only study, go to class, sleep, eat... I even read that some of you dont have time to exercise or lift weights (my hobby).

If you want to do something outside of school, you will make it happen. You will have to make some sacrifices. For instance, if you want to be at the top of your class (depending on the school), you may spend most of your day studying. If you're content with just passing, you'll have plenty of free time to do what you want. Most of the people in my school have lives outside of school. They have families, they do intramural sports, they watch movies, they go party at bars, etc. This weekend, most of my classmates won't be out, because we have an exam, but next weekend, most of them will go out because we don't have to worry about classes.

-How will i afford med school.. my parents are immigrants, dont have good credit history and dont own a house. Will i be able to get a loan..? my credit is also not good as i have a 40k medical bill i have not payed.

Assuming you're a citizen (since you said your parents are immigrants, not yourself), you can get federal loans. That's how most people afford med school. There's always the military or public service as well 🙂

Bottom line: Go shadow a physician or two and see if you would enjoy their lifestyle. Talk to them about their lives, how much they work, if they enjoy their work, etc.

 

[lrkoehle]

I even read that some of you dont have time to exercise or lift weights (my hobby).

If you're motivated to workout, you absolutely can. People who don't just aren't prioritizing it. I normally workout 4 times a week, and I could do an extra 1-2 days if I really wanted to (obviously exam weeks are a little different). The most important thing is making it part of your routine. For instance, I go to bed early, so I can get up and go workout before class. That way my workout is done and out of the way, and I can focus the rest of the day on studying. Then at night I usually hang out with my wife for a few hours when she gets home from work.

Basically, if you prioritize things like going to the gym or going out on Friday nights and plan your schedule accordingly, you'll have plenty of time do enjoy yourself in med school. Will it be as much as undergrad? No, but that's part of growing up.

 

[Jolie South]

Closing. Cross-posted. Please see this user's thread in Pre-Allo to post further comments.