Help! Scared out of my mind :(

[kdwhite525]

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Hey everyone,

So I need major advice. I am a non-trad student; I majored in Music Education because I got a music scholarship and I liked playing the cello. I have realized it is not the career for me and am pursuing medicine. Ask for more details if you want to know anything else about that 🙂.

The problem is that my parents are not going to help me financially. I want to do a postbacc, but I am scared about the costs... I have practically no money. It seems so daunting.

I have no idea how to approach paying for the pre-reqs and med school... Help!! 🙁

Thanks!!

 

[odieoh]

You need to really sit down and do the math on how much your education is going to cost you. I interpret "non-trad" as being an older student. The cost of education has inflated greatly in just the past 10 years or so, and realistically you are looking at 7 years of training and likely somewhere between $150-$400k debt. If you still have to do some undergrad prerequisites, even more for that tuition, and more time. So weigh all that against what your salary would be as a physician (broad range of 100k-300k ish) but remember, if you plan on going into a higher paying subspecialty, there is no guarantee that you will get a residency spot in that specialty. You may end up stuck in specialty that is not your first choice.

For a younger student, going through all that process and coming out with 300k debt and a salary of $200k would still be a reasonable financial situation given prudent spending and debt repayment. For someone starting the process in their 40's I don't think it makes much sense. So you need to look closely at the tuition of the schools you think you would end up at, look at your age and do some math and figure out what is best.