Current MS3, not going to do residency. Any point finishing out med school?

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Rothbard

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Rothbard said:
As far as future job prospects go, is there any point sticking it out? From what I understand, it doesn't seem like an MD without a residency will do much for you, and if anything will 'overqualify' you. Thoughts?
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What are your plans? If you are going into something related to medicine then get the MD. If you want to become a cop, pilot, or something like that not sure if the MD will help much.
 
Rothbard said:
As far as future job prospects go, is there any point sticking it out? From what I understand, it doesn't seem like an MD without a residency will do much for you, and if anything will 'overqualify' you. Thoughts?
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The old standard advice is that if you are going to leave, you should at least finish intern year because then you can get a license and at least leave the door open to come back to medicine in some capacity if you change your mind. And you should at a minimum get your degree because there's nothing worse on a resume than not finishing something you started, and honestly 4th year is the easiest one and so it would be silly to quit now.
 
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Overall, if you are looking to get a job in a business (etc) its probably better to finish out imho.....

If I were the HR rep/Recruiter looking at your resume I would much rather see that you decided to not pursue medicine but still stuck it out and got your MD than you decided to quit in the middle of school - just purely from the point of view that you might do the same thing to my company

On the other side of that, it leaves your options open too, especially if you're going through a rough patch and might change your mind and regret it later.....
 
It probably makes sense to finish just to keep your options open.
As for helping your career outside of medicine, depends on what you are going to do.

If it's anything related to medicine, pharma research, healthcare IT, whatever else, having the degree is better than not having it. That being said, most of those jobs are looking for residency trained physicians with specific clinical experience. Just having the degree won't get you a high level job. It might help you get a job you couldn't otherwise.

Now if your plan is to pursue something totally unrelated, the degree won't really help at all, but I'd still finish.
 
gman33 said:
It probably makes sense to finish just to keep your options open.
As for helping your career outside of medicine, depends on what you are going to do.

If it's anything related to medicine, pharma research, healthcare IT, whatever else, having the degree is better than not having it. That being said, most of those jobs are looking for residency trained physicians with specific clinical experience. Just having the degree won't get you a high level job. It might help you get a job you couldn't otherwise.

Now if your plan is to pursue something totally unrelated, the degree won't really help at all, but I'd still finish.
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Yes it will. It shows commitment, as others have already stated.
 
Rothbard said:
As far as future job prospects go, is there any point sticking it out? From what I understand, it doesn't seem like an MD without a residency will do much for you, and if anything will 'overqualify' you. Thoughts?
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Get the MD.
 
Not to mention that you or your parents or whoever has already invested thousands upon thousands of dollars into your education. You might as well get what you paid for and finish.
 
If you want to move decisively away from medicine and everything medically related, there may be no point in sticking around. Having the MD could help you land gigs in the medical world, though, perhaps working for a consulting firm that works with hospitals, working for a pharma company, or something else in that vein.

If you're actually looking for good advice, you should talk to someone with experience and who you trust. Make sure to give them enough information about where you are, what you're looking for, and what your concerns with medicine are.

You really aren't going to get good advice from a bunch of random people on the internet who don't know anything about you, especially if you don't then tell them anything about yourself.
 
Absolutely get your MD. It's more debt, but 4th year could be absurdly easy if you wanted it to be. At UAMS, you could realistically have almost the entire year off. Between joke rotations, longitudinal blow-off courses, and taking time off for "interviews," it's very possible. You could use that time to get started wherever you're wanting to work. Alternatively, assuming you're required to do a sub-I, you could do medicine, work really hard, and then take a month or two to study for Step 3 so you can get your license without having to suffer through intern year. Personally, I think that's what I'd do. Get Step 2 out of the way during the first month, do your sub-I the next month, take 2 rotations you don't need to show up for after that so you can study for Step 3 then. After that, just clean up your requirements and take the easiest stuff you can. It'd be a rough 3-4 months, but it's worth it, in my opinion. Either way, definitely finish out school. Employers be damned, you don't want to have gone through all this crap for nothing, right?
 
A serious word of warning. NEVER tell the administration at your school that you don't plan on pursuing clinical medicine. People in administration get to their relative positions of power by toeing the company line. They in general don't think creatively, and will have difficulty understanding why they wasted a spot in the class on you. I know of a fourth year who had an honest discussion with one of our highest power associate deans about 'alternate career options,' now they are making him delay graduation for a year because they believe his lack of desire for clinical practice makes his whole motivation to become a physician questionable.

Bottom line - trust no one in official power with your plans until you have your MD in hand.


P.S. get your MD silly. So many ways out there to use it.
 
OP, even I think you're being silly.

A lot of docs regret going into medicine. No one regrets finishing med school.
 
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If you go to a top 10-15 med school, you should finish. If you don't, I don't think it will be much use to you to finish. However, unless you are independently wealthy, you will need to find a way to support your day to day life. Figure out a way to do that before you leave.

The business world cares about prestige. If you went to a "brand name" med school, you might be able to get a good paying consulting job without doing a residency.
 
If you go to a top 10-15 med school, you should finish. If you don't, I don't think it will be much use to you to finish.
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Having "MD" after your name is going to be useful in the private sector regardless of where it came from.
 
If you choose to drop out now, you're burning bridges. If in 10 years you decide you do want to do clinical medicine, there's really no way to enter back into the field, because no medical school will take you back to finish your degree (at least not in the states).

At least if you get your degree, you can pursue something else, then come back and reapply to residency after a time. I would follow L2D's advice, though, and at least complete an intern year and Step 3 so that you can be licensed.
 
MilkmanAl said:
... Alternatively, assuming you're required to do a sub-I, you could do medicine, work really hard, and then take a month or two to study for Step 3 so you can get your license without having to suffer through intern year. Personally, I think that's what I'd do...?
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For most states you will need at least a year of residency under your belt to get licensed, so rushing Step 3 doesn't really get you anything.
 
Law2Doc said:
For most states you will need at least a year of residency under your belt to get licensed, so rushing Step 3 doesn't really get you anything.
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For most states American graduates need a year of residency to even sit for Step 3, so you couldn't rush it even if you wanted to.

There's a few exceptions though.
 
Did you hit the lottery jackpot? I'd do the same.
 
Law2Doc said:
For most states you will need at least a year of residency under your belt to get licensed, so rushing Step 3 doesn't really get you anything.
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I believe that either a lot of states are now TWO years of PGY or at least there is talk of it.
 
Raryn said:
For most states American graduates need a year of residency to even sit for Step 3, so you couldn't rush it even if you wanted to.

There's a few exceptions though.
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Do you have a source for this? Most of the residents I know got it over with early in PGY 1, and have strongly advised me to do the same.
 
link2swim06 said:
http://www.fsmb.org/usmle_requirementschart.html
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Yes, but you can register in any state, including those with no required time period and take it right away. And you don't have to live in that state, or even physically take the test in that state.

It's a strange loophole that most pathology residents utilize, since most of us like to take the test early while all of the clinical information is still in our head from med school.

So the OP could take it without doing an intern year.
 
Tiki said:
Yes, but you can register in any state, including those with no required time period and take it right away. And you don't have to live in that state, or even physically take the test in that state.

It's a strange loophole that most pathology residents utilize, since most of us like to take the test early while all of the clinical information is still in our head from med school.

So the OP could take it without doing an intern year.
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Again, TAKING step 3 is meaningless if you still need a year of internship to be licensed where you likely will practice. No point in taking step 3 if you aren't going to do intern year.
 
Dude, it's 4th year...definitely finish. You can at least use the MD to consult and make bank.
 
If you are a current M3 and don't want to do residency, why would you drop out? 4th year should be a breeze since you aren't applying and you are almost done with 3rd year.
 
Rothbard said:
As far as future job prospects go, is there any point sticking it out? From what I understand, it doesn't seem like an MD without a residency will do much for you, and if anything will 'overqualify' you. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Just stick it out... MD without residency still opens many doors for you like research and even the FDA. One of my friend plans to work for the FDA directly out of graduation with his PharmD ~ which I suspect you could too with your MD.
 
sr6622 said:
Looks like we got a future McKinsey & Company employee
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Or not. A consulting company doesn't want a doctor that doesn't know what in the hell they're talking about. Which is exactly what the OP would be without residency training.
 
Rothbard said:
As far as future job prospects go, is there any point sticking it out? From what I understand, it doesn't seem like an MD without a residency will do much for you, and if anything will 'overqualify' you. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I have a friend who is "Investment Banker, M.D." because he didn't want to be a doc halfway through 3rd year, but finished anyway. Now he can capitalize on it when trying to get the $$$ from practicing docs. Don't underestimate what the actual M.D. can do for you in terms of credibility.
 
upright said:
Or not. A consulting company doesn't want a doctor that doesn't know what in the hell they're talking about. Which is exactly what the OP would be without residency training.
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Michael Crichton didn't do a residency....although he did graduate from Harvard Med.
 
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