Have any of you thought of switching your goal from MD to another medical profession?

[ClrkKnt]

I have a GPA which has gone down from a 3.7 to the lower 3s (embarrassing I know) so for me it seems like a US MD is pretty much out of the question now. Other than DO, has anyone else thought of going from MD to another medical profession like RN, Pharmacy, or PA?

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[allantois]

RN is really not something to consider if you are a pre-med because it is a completely different route, unless you want to start over. I know somebody who got into a PA school with 2.9 GPA. But you have multiple options including doing a post-bac if you think that may help your GPA as well as pursuing other healthcare degrees. What's the reason your GPA took such a hit?

 

[ClrkKnt]

RN is really not something to consider if you are a pre-med because it is a completely different route, unless you want to start over. I know somebody who got into a PA school with 2.9 GPA. But you have multiple options including doing a post-bac if you think that may help your GPA as well as pursuing other healthcare degrees. What's the reason your GPA took such a hit?

I was being a *****. Was studious earlier in college but had a terrible social life. Spent the past 2 semesters screwing up a 3.7 GPA by being late to class, not going to class as often, partying (a lot!), and just not caring much about school but it was a dumb mistake by me. Don't think I am cut out to be an MD either and like some other medical careers like pharmacy a bit more.

 

[DoctorLacrosse]

there are tons of hurdles to overcome to make it in this field. I had a crappy GPA in the beginning also, worked hard to improve that, and now the mcat is giving me issues haha. it's always something, but if you want it bad enough, keep working and you can get there. if you think you like other fields better, then by all means do that and don't be bogged down by the stress of this route.

 

[ciestar]

In high school, I actually applied to schools with all intentions of pre-med, but coming from a very poor family, I didn't think I'd ever be able to financially pull it off. So I started my undergrad career pursing my BSN/RN. Ultimately changed my mind, didn't feel like the field was really for me. I was working at a pharmacy at the time, realized I had a profound interest in pharmacology, so I decided to go the pre-pharmacy route. Shadowing pharmacists and continuing work in a pharmacy dissuaded my pursuit of this. The job market didn't exactly help either. Medicine was always in the back of my mind, always. Shadowed a few physicians and that confirmed what I already knew all along, I want to be a physician. I was also further educated in financing a medical school education and I realized it was possible and that shouldn't be the one thing to hold me back.

 

[ciestar]

there are tons of hurdles to overcome to make it in this field. I had a crappy GPA in the beginning also, worked hard to improve that, and now the mcat is giving me issues haha. it's always something, but if you want it bad enough, keep working and you can get there. if you think you like other fields better, then by all means do that and don't be bogged down by the stress of this route.

The damn mcat is death. My self confidence is taking such a hit because of it right now. Undergrad really didn't give me a ton of trouble, but there's nothing I can change about my gpa now. So I'm extra stressed over this test!

 

[ClrkKnt]

In high school, I actually applied to schools with all intentions of pre-med, but coming from a very poor family, I didn't think I'd ever be able to financially pull it off. So I started my undergrad career pursing my BSN/RN. Ultimately changed my mind, didn't feel like the field was really for me. I was working at a pharmacy at the time, realized I had a profound interest in pharmacology, so I decided to go the pre-pharmacy route. Shadowing pharmacists and continuing work in a pharmacy dissuaded my pursuit of this. The job market didn't exactly help either. Medicine was always in the back of my mind, always. Shadowed a few physicians and that confirmed what I already knew all along, I want to be a physician. I was also further educated in financing a medical school education and I realized it was possible and that shouldn't be the one thing to hold me back.

More on bold and underlined please? I have been reading about this and it seems like pharmacists have a good career outlook in the future in terms of finding a job and such.

 

[DoctorLacrosse]

The damn mcat is death. My self confidence is taking such a hit because of it right now. Undergrad really didn't give me a ton of trouble, but there's nothing I can change about my gpa now. So I'm extra stressed over this test!

agreed! the thought of having to retake is just awful, nevermind the idea of opening that score and seeing something like a 20 haha. idk how I'd cope. guess ill tackle that when I need to lol

 

[ciestar]

More on bold and underlined please? I have been reading about this and it seems like pharmacists have a good career outlook in the future in terms of finding a job and such.

There's research out there that suggests the job market will hold steady, but they absolutely do not take market saturation into account. There are so many pharmacists graduating each year and only so many jobs. I also couldn't imagine spending the rest of my life in retail.

If you also venture over to the pre-pharm/pharm forums, there's a lot of information over there for you to consider.

 

[ciestar]

agreed! the thought of having to retake is just awful, nevermind the idea of opening that score and seeing something like a 20 haha. idk how I'd cope. guess ill tackle that when I need to lol

Yeah idk if I would cope! Haha, I got a 20 on my first practice fl when I took it cold. I would feel like I wasted so much of my life.

 

[WillburCobb]

I have a GPA which has gone down from a 3.7 to the lower 3s (embarrassing I know) so for me it seems like a US MD is pretty much out of the question now. Other than DO, has anyone else thought of going from MD to another medical profession like RN, Pharmacy, or PA?

I almost went to grad school for social psych instead of applying to med school, though more because of personal interest. Also, I had a GPA >3.5 and was able to receive several MD acceptances as an ORM, so I wouldn't say it's out of the question for you and there's absolutely nothing wrong with the DO route either. Regarding the doom and gloom about pharmacy I'm not sure where that's coming from. I went to a school with a large PharmD program and work with a number of pharmacists at my current job and SDN is the first place I've heard anything negative about the future of pharmacy.

 

[ciestar]

I almost went to grad school for social psych instead of applying to med school, though more because of personal interest. Also, I had a GPA >3.5 and was able to receive several MD acceptances as an ORM, so I wouldn't say it's out of the question for you and there's absolutely nothing wrong with the DO route either. Regarding the doom and gloom about pharmacy I'm not sure where that's coming from. I went to a school with a large PharmD program and work with a number of pharmacists at my current job and SDN is the first place I've heard anything negative about the future of pharmacy.

A majority of the job negativity I faced was from hospital pharmacists I met and shadowed. The market is fine, now. But by 2019, what will it be? It's hard to say. So many new schools opened that haven't graduated a class yet, further adding to the market with not necessarily a rise in demand. It all must be considered, granted, the Philadelphia area is ridiculously over saturated with pharmacists with 3 schools in the city. There aren't enough jobs in this area. So I guess it's all relative to where you live and look for a job following graduation.

Many new graduates I've met make a living as a "floater" pharmacist. You have no permanent store and just float around from pharmacy to pharmacy.

 

[La Presse]

I'm still on the edge about going dental and trying to become an oral maxillofacial surgeon.

 

[WillburCobb]

A majority of the job negativity I faced was from hospital pharmacists I met and shadowed. The market is fine, now. But by 2019, what will it be? It's hard to say. So many new schools opened that haven't graduated a class yet, further adding to the market with not necessarily a rise in demand. It all must be considered, granted, the Philadelphia area is ridiculously over saturated with pharmacists with 3 schools in the city. There aren't enough jobs in this area. So I guess it's all relative to where you live and look for a job following graduation.

Many new graduates I've met make a living as a "floater" pharmacist. You have no permanent store and just float around from pharmacy to pharmacy.

Weird because I work with hospital pharmacists too. It's likely because I live in NoDak and our economy and job market are pretty ridiculous right now compared to the rest of the country.

 

[ClrkKnt]

A majority of the job negativity I faced was from hospital pharmacists I met and shadowed. The market is fine, now. But by 2019, what will it be? It's hard to say. So many new schools opened that haven't graduated a class yet, further adding to the market with not necessarily a rise in demand. It all must be considered, granted, the Philadelphia area is ridiculously over saturated with pharmacists with 3 schools in the city. There aren't enough jobs in this area. So I guess it's all relative to where you live and look for a job following graduation.

Many new graduates I've met make a living as a "floater" pharmacist. You have no permanent store and just float around from pharmacy to pharmacy.

If you could link me to some threads on the Pharm section that talk about this it will be amazing but how tough would it be to get a job as a pharmacist in a lot of the world class cities in the USA like say NYC or Los Angeles?

 

[ciestar]

Weird because I work with hospital pharmacists too. It's likely because I live in NoDak and our economy and job market are pretty ridiculous right now compared to the rest of the country.

That likely has a lot to do with it! I'm sure more rural areas and places without a million pharmacy schools (PA has 6) have a much better job market.

 

[WillburCobb]

If you could link me to some threads on the Pharm section that talk about this it will be amazing but how tough would it be to get a job as a pharmacist in a lot of the world class cities in the USA like say NYC or Los Angeles?

Hey hey hey hey hey hey now...Fargo is a world class city!






When it comes to drinking....'cause that's really all there is to do here.

 

[ciestar]

If you could link me to some threads on the Pharm section that talk about this it will be amazing but how tough would it be to get a job as a pharmacist in a lot of the world class cities in the USA like say NYC or Los Angeles?

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...d-here-if-you-want-to-know-the-truth.1073963/

This is like a mega thread, there are a ton of links to out threads about this. The NIH article is a good one to glance over though.

 

[karayaa]

A doctor I just shadowed pleaded with me to consider optometry, dentistry/orthodontist/OM surgery or podiatry rather than medicine: Less stress, higher salary, better lifestyle. Have you considered those?

 

[allantois]

A doctor I just shadowed pleaded with me to consider optometry, dentistry/orthodontist/OM surgery or podiatry rather than medicine: Less stress, higher salary, better lifestyle. Have you considered those?

Optometrists hardly break 100k. I wonder if it was a family doctor who told you that.

 

[ClrkKnt]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...d-here-if-you-want-to-know-the-truth.1073963/

This is like a mega thread, there are a ton of links to out threads about this. The NIH article is a good one to glance over though.

thanks man

 

[hmockingbird]

RN is really not something to consider if you are a pre-med because it is a completely different route, unless you want to start over. I know somebody who got into a PA school with 2.9 GPA. But you have multiple options including doing a post-bac if you think that may help your GPA as well as pursuing other healthcare degrees. What's the reason your GPA took such a hit?

There are one-year "second bachelor's" BSN programs out there for people who already have another degree. (Of course that would mean you couldn't do that until you graduated, but might be easier than starting over in a 4 year program, depending on what year in college you are?) That was actually one of my backup plans if I didn't get into medical school.

 

[allantois]

There are one-year "second bachelor's" BSN programs out there for people who already have another degree. (Of course that would mean you couldn't do that until you graduated, but might be easier than starting over in a 4 year program, depending on what year in college you are?) That was actually one of my backup plans if I didn't get into medical school.

good point, I forgot about those degrees. Nursing is basically extremely flexible as a career.

 

[Frazier]

Didnt have any temptations about alternate medical fields.

However, in retrospect, if I had to pick an alternative: dentistry.

 

[Doctor Dream]

Podiatry is a neat profession to look into as well. Flexible hours/life style, great pay, and you still see patients, diagnose, prescribe, do procedures, etc. It's much less competitive than MD and DO as well. I shadowed a podiatrist before I decided medicine and it was a cool profession.

I chose MD/DO (thinking Family medicine) over it though because it was all about the feet, not enough diversity to keep me excited. The podiatrist I shadowed removed 4 ingrown toe nails in one day, which she said was fairly normal. A lot of trimming diabetic's toenails, scraping off calluses, wart treating too. They do surgeries too sometimes but I didn't get to see any the day I shadowed (removing bunions, correcting hammer toe, amputating gangrenous toes, etc.) I'm keeping podiatry as a second career option though. I love the patient-caregiver dynamic, one of my favorite things about podiatry and medicine

 

[Psai]

I would probably do np or crna so I could practice medicine and see patients without having to deal with annoyances like signing other people's charts

 

[V5RED]

I have considered NP. I volunteered in a nursing unit at a hospital. They got a lot more patient contact than the doctors I saw at the hospital, and that really appealed to me.

Another part that I liked is that becoming an NP is faster(after getting a BSN, you need 1-2 years of nursing experience, then 1-3 years for your masters and you are working according to the sites I checked) and far cheaper than becoming an MD while still having a very high pay (64k-120k with an average of 90k). I am nontraditional and won't be an attending until I am almost 40. I want a family, and nursing seems a lot more friendly to that goal than medicine is.

If I had known when I started that NPs had such a strong lobby and were now getting it put into law that they have equal or close to equal practice rights and pay as physicians, I might have gone that route. I mean if you can spend 2-5 years after undergrad to become an NP earning the same salary and doing the same job as an MD/DO, but without the 200k+ debt, that seems like a great option.

Note: I did not say nurses are able to do every specialty nor did I say they have equal training, just that it looks like that division between NP and MD/DO is being blurred or even erased in some areas of healthcare such as family medicine.

 

[BestDoctorEver]

A majority of the job negativity I faced was from hospital pharmacists I met and shadowed. The market is fine, now. But by 2019, what will it be? It's hard to say. So many new schools opened that haven't graduated a class yet, further adding to the market with not necessarily a rise in demand. It all must be considered, granted, the Philadelphia area is ridiculously over saturated with pharmacists with 3 schools in the city. There aren't enough jobs in this area. So I guess it's all relative to where you live and look for a job following graduation.

Many new graduates I've met make a living as a "floater" pharmacist. You have no permanent store and just float around from pharmacy to pharmacy.

The pharmacy market is probably fine in rural america, but not in big/medium size cities....

 

[TheWeeIceMan]

Pharmacy is in pretty rough shape at the moment and will likely only get worse. Probably the most saturated of the health professions. It used to be an awesome market not too long ago, though.

As to the OP's question, I considered dentistry for a bit.