Going on Momentum

[Mansoor]

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Anyone here really not even know whether they want to go to medical school? I've been thinking a lot lately, and have slowly come to the realization that i don't even necessarily want to be a doctor. I might be happier as a lawyer, or something...

It's just that there's so much momentum. I'm going into my senior year, taking my MCAT in August, and I have put countless hours of effort and mental energy into medical school. It's so hard to just give it all up.

Anyone here actually START medical school and then decide it wasn't right for you? What was going through your head?

 

[aunaturel]

I'm not sure if I want to go to medical school, but it's more like I'm thinking about pursuing it rather than what my current field of study is. So, sorry I'm really no help to you... unless it makes you feel better that you're not the only one confused. 😎

good luck

 

[principessa]

I've questioned my desire and aptitude for medicine quite a bit, especially while I was applying and going on interviews and it was a constant topic of conversation. I understand what you mean about being swept along by the momentum, because even while you're questioning whether you really want to do this, you're doing everything possible to make it happen. Every time I've questioned myself, though, I've still come out feeling like I'm doing the right thing. If you get a different answer for yourself, just remember you will always have a chance to stop. It gets harder as you go on, but you will always have a chance. I've heard of people who start and then drop out, people who finish and then do something else, people who defer after being accepted and then decide not to matriculate. Of course, it would be best to stop before you've accepted a spot in a medical school class, but these things happen.

 

[MoosePilot]

There's a similar thread about med school and regret in the allopathic forum if you're interested do a search. You might get more responses there.

 

[TripleDegree]

well. here's a perspective for you.

i am currently making over 125K in my current job. and i still want to give it all up and become a doctor.

 

[UCmed2004]

I dont know about your particular situation but I started med school in 2000 after spending the past 4 years of college working , pretty much only on advancing my stats and applying to medical school, studying hard, taking smart courses to keep up Aces. I majored in english to give me a boost. Accepted to some big name schools but came to california for fun, sun and of course mediSUN. i started thinking about momentum in my freshman year of medical school. i saw the work, and work and piles of work on top of that and i began to despair. i took the lsat also and i did very well and now i started to think about changing my mind. too late. before i knew it , its year 2 and im in major debt and i just cant afford to start over. needless to say my grades in med school were not all that amazing, i lost the momentum once i realized it was all pent up energy for applying to get into school, not the profession. attrition rates in general are very low at med schools but the ones who arent gung ho about wanting to be doctors are in general just waiting to get out and maybe go to law school or go into research to bring an md into it rather than using the md for practice. unfortunately, or otherwise, however you look at it, they are usually at the bottom of the class. this is not to say its wrong because someone needs to be at the bottom and they go onto good careers in some medically related field anyhow. happiness though is internal.
😀 im taking a few law school classes while i take year off. yes it took me a while but i have to see what this feeling is about.

 

[boilerbeast]

That's the story of my life! 🙂
I'm going into my senior year, have taken the MCAT, and finished the AMCAS app and some secondaries... and I'm having second thoughts like it's my job.

Does anyone else feel like they missed out on undergrad fun by trying so ridiculously hard to get into med school? Like staying in on Friday to get the auto A in o-chem or sacrificing spring break funds for an MCAT prep class, etc. etc. But now that I've put in the time and effort, I certainly don't want it to be in vain! I want to have wasted my youth on something semi-worthwhile. But the manatra in my head has to be "THIS IS SO WORTH IT! THIS IS SO WORTH IT!" to keep me sane...even so, I wonder a lot. Is it really worth it? Four more years of stress + 100K in debt just to be working an enormously stressful (albeit rewarding) career with more tragic outcomes and ethical dilemmas and threats of malpractice than I can even imagine. I know this is a negative picture to paint. I'm an EMT and being in the field ,have seen my share of fantastic outcomes and the rewards that accompany them. But now working in a big hospital and knowing hte doctors on a personal level, I can see that it's not the glamourous profession I'd envisioned--seems like many times the negatives far outweigh the positives.

Not sure if the whole doctor thing will work out...perhaps I'll be a trucker instead. 🙂

 

[Anka]

If you're actively interviewing/filling out secondaries/taking the MCAT, I would councel against second guessing yourself right now. For now, focus on succeeding. Once you're in, you'll have until mid-May to defer for a year... if you aren't sure at that point. Right now, if you keep thinking like this, there's a real chance you're going to psych yourself out.

That said, I wouldn't start med school until you were sure -- the debt load is pretty large if you don't go on to become a doctor.

Anka