Deleted

[PandaCakeLife]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Deleted.

 

[Robin-jay]

I dont know about the attending life, but I know residency is not for people who want validation for intelligence, that's for sure. You will get the opposite feeling for a while before you get to the validation stage, unless you are really good.

I think one of the biggest issues throughout the entire process is how looked down upon you are during some of the residency years. It's just a lot to take on.

 

[Crayola227]

🧌

 

[gyngyn]

I think one of the biggest issues throughout the entire process is how looked down upon you are during some of the residency years.

Didn't you just start a podiatry residency a few weeks ago?

 

[Goro]

Long story short, I've always been interested in becoming a physician, though probably not for the right reasons.

The reasons boil down to:

• Trying to hang onto an idealized version of the field I had when I was a kid (would admire female doctors who practiced locally and think they were super smart and cool, wished I could be like them)
• Wanting validation for my academic smarts and intelligence (did well in school overall but was never the smartest...also did not do well in college which you can read more about below)
• Wanting a career with more job stability for Pete's sakes (aka no layoffs because of tough times)
• Wanting a career that is prestigious with high earning potential
• Intellectual interest in medicine (though I admittedly like psychology more)

However, those are probably bad reasons, and on top of that, I'm also terrible at STEM (earned A's and B's) and even earned a B- in Orgo 1.

I only have a ~3.56-3.62 science GPA for MD schools and a 3.74 science GPA for DO schools.

I'm clearly not a STEM person by any stretch of the imagination.

Here are my STEM grades if anyone is interested. I attended a T15-T20 public university.

• General Chemistry 1 & Lab: A/A
• Organic Chemistry 1 & Lab: B-/A
• Calculus 1: B+
• Calculus 2: B+
• Statistics: B+
• Human Physiology: A
• Organic Chemistry 2: P (Spring 2020)
• Stats & Data Science: A
  • Was listed under the statistics department and is statistics heavy
• Research Methods in Psychology: A+
  • It was a statistics and coding heavy class, I'm not sure if it counts towards BCPM for AMCAS

My academic strengths are in English, psychology, Spanish (for someone who learned the language at age 14 in high school LOL) and economics, in which I have earned all A's with ease.

I even sought out neuropsych testing to see if I have any learning disabilities. I do not have the test results in hand, but I highly suspect that I have ADHD, a really bad auditory memory, and really crappy visuospatial skills.

That being said, despite the fact that I'm bad at science and math and want to get into medicine for iffy reasons, I can't seem to let go of this field.

For context, my most recent therapist literally fired me after 9 sessions because she said my issues related to medicine were too intense for her LMAO. She suggested that I needed "intensive [redacted type of] therapy."

Does anyone have any advice? I'm 25 and this is heavily impacting my career.

Not a word about helping sick and injured,
I see.

A career in Medicine is a privilege, not a reward for being smart or a a good student.

With your rationales, you will be miserable. Find a different career.

 

[Goro]

I understand, but you didn't even comment on my academic concerns.

Until you get your mental health issues under control, Medical school will merely be a furnace for you.

 

[Goro]

My mental health is perfectly fine for the most part lol apart from ADHD and being bad at science

If you're bad at science coursework, med school isn't for you.

 

[Goro]

If you're bad at science coursework, med school isn't for you.

I'm also not going to tell you what you want tonhear, but what you need to hear.

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

Your grades aren't bad but the fact that you want to hear people telling you they're bad suggests some interesting psychology at play. I concur with your therapist, try whatever she told you to do. You're not going to have fun in med school if you think you're "not a STEM person" because you got a B- in one class.

 

[Goro]

Right, but do you see me being bad at science reflected in my grades?

Can you give us your year by year cGPAs and sGPAs??

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

A B- is slightly above average. A 3.6 science GPA is above average for DO and around average for MD. Buy a subscription to MSAR and do some research, you don't need a 4.0. Take the MCAT and see how you do. If you get a 500 you can prob get into DO, 510 for MD.

Caveat, I wouldn't recommend you apply until you get whatever's in your head under better control. You're going to be miserable regardless of the path if you don't take the time to get yourself sorted. You have plenty of time.

 

[Goro]

Your GPAs are competitive for medical school.

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

Doing something for external validation isn't a recipe for happiness. If you think you'd be happier being a writer, do that. You don't have to be "naturally gifted" at STEM to pass med school, just good enough to pass. My school is full P/F with a 70 being a pass.

 

[Goro]

It's because I genuinely feel like it would be a mistake to attend medical school if I'm not naturally good at STEM when I've received lots of validation/compliments for my writing "talents." I feel like I really struggle with math and science.

But at the same time, I want the validation that being a doctor would confer lol.

I can't even afford the intensive DBT therapy my last therapist suggested lol.

As I mentioned earlier, a career in Medicine isn't for your validation.

 

[gyngyn]

I want the validation that being a doctor would confer lol.

This is not a valid reason.

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

I understand, but in that case, what are valid and good reasons to want to be a doctor?

Wanting to help sick people and do good for society, because you enjoy it not because you want people to tell you what a good girl/boy you are. Having a particular passion in medicine, like I want to do gender affirming care as a trans person myself. Loving the job/process of being a doctor itself enough to sacrifice a lot for it, usually this is more a surgical phenomenon. Something along those lines I'd say.

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

Personally, yeah. The other stuff is a nice bonus. I already had a "great" career as a software engineer, I would've topped out around PCP/peds pay there so I'm probably net losing money to stop working for 7+ years. I just felt like I wasn't doing anything important and nobody would care or notice if I died tomorrow. Having impact and furthering humanity matters to me.

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

There's nothing wrong with wanting a decent job, but I have a hard time categorizing medicine as "just a job." There's a lot of societal expectations and sacrifices to just do it for that. Imo those factors should be a bonus to your main reason, not the primary factor.

In the time it's take you to be a BC physician, you could certainly cultivate a decent business career in a stable industry like gov, pharma, etc. We're in a very unstable economy RN so I wouldn't hang your hat on it because you got laid off one time.

 

[Robin-jay]

There's nothing wrong with wanting a decent job, but I have a hard time categorizing medicine as "just a job." There's a lot of societal expectations and sacrifices to just do it for that. Imo those factors should be a bonus to your main reason, not the primary factor.

In the time it's take you to be a BC physician, you could certainly cultivate a decent business career in a stable industry like gov, pharma, etc. We're in a very unstable economy RN so I wouldn't hang your hat on it because you got laid off one time.

Sorry if you've stated before, but how far along in your medical career are you?

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

Sorry if you've stated before, but how far along in your medical career are you?

I'm just getting started in med school, but I was a part time premed for 4-5 years due to work and family constraints. I've been grinding 60-80h a week for that period of time toward this goal.

I'm sure some of my positivity will wear off over time, but I'm happy with my choice so far.

 

[Goro]

I understand, but I also dislike business.

You'll dislike med school even more, and residency even less.

 

[Robin-jay]

I am actually interested in medicine and the final result of being a doctor.

The final result sounds nice. But I can tell you as a resident, life is not easy. 6 am to 10 pm days exist, and you are just doing all the work for your doctors that they don't want to do.

My thought process was that being a resident would be bearable because you are actually making money. But you are too busy to even care about the barely-living wage checks they give you.

I may have a pessimistic view of residency, that I'm in intern year, and it gets substantially easier as time goes on, but I think it's a pretty grueling process. I think intern year is probably the hardest year of your life.

 

[Robin-jay]

LOL, well, you know, getting laid off from your first job in business straight out of college, having only been there for 6 months, and having not found a job since Feb 2023 isn't too hot either.

That happened to some of my former coworkers at our last job.

That's fine, but my schedule tomorrow is hospital inpatient rounding from 6 am to noon, then new consults and ED until 6 pm, when on-call person takes over, but I'll have an academics surgery lab from 6:30 pm to 9 pm. Then finish notes, etc. from earlier that weren't done. Tomorrow there aren't even any surgeries scheduled.

wash and repeat 5 days a week unless you're the on-call person, then you have to round weekends too. so it's like that 7 days.

I had 4 days off last month, 2 saturdays and 2 sundays.

It's not a pleasant life.

 

[Goro]

I am actually interested in medicine and the final result of being a doctor.

For the wrong reasons, hence my comments.

 

[Goro]

However, I have actually wanted to be a doctor since childhood.

Irrelevant to the point I and others have been trying to make.

Being unteachable gets people fired from residency.

Do you have any patient contact experience?

Doctor shadowing?

 

[Robin-jay]

Neither is being unemployed for 12+ months and relying on parents to survive (my former coworkers) and having a job that you absolutely hate, is also very competitive (aka strategy consulting) and be filled with regret every day that you didn't do medicine.

I'm only 25, so I'm not going to say I have a ton of experience and have worked every single type of job in the world. I've never done residency.

But I'd rather grind it out in residency and have a decent paying job for the rest of my career than deal with freaking layoffs and corporate BS for the rest of my life. My 1.5 years in consulting taught me that.

Grass is always greener on the other side.

I know that year 2 and 3 residency here are extremely chill compared to first year. So there is solace in that.

It's just sometimes I think people underestimate how long a year or 2 in life really are. It's easy to say you only have to do 1 intern year in your life, but it doesn't feel that quick when you are actually doing it.

 

[Crayola227]

The OP has made many similar posts in the past. They are either a pathological sort (not a medical diagnosis I am making here) or a troll, or some combination.

Perhaps they really feel all the things they claim, regardless, and this is why I lean to troll: they have no reason to think their reasons for wanting to go to medical school are appropriate and articulate this understanding, also there is more than enough info on SDN and they have been told directly more than once, that their grades and GPA are fine and they need to do the MCAT. They still feel they aren't good at STEM and recognize a talent and appreciation for STEM is essential to being a good physician.

What's more, they have been advised to seek professional help and claim they did. They claim they were so pathological their counselor ended therapy.

Friends, there is nothing left to do here. I'm about the last person that feels a thread should get locked but between the duplicate threads and advice, and the nature of the discussion here, there's nothing more to say. Continuing to see people waste their time advising this troll is just sad.