How does residency affect where you practice?

[redgrover]

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I am doing some preliminary research trying to decide whether or not I'm going to drop out of law school (only finishing first-semester, second year) and pursue my goal of practicing medicine (which I foolishly dropped for a relationship that amounted to nothing, as it worked out).

I'm curious how the school that I attend and the residency I take will affect where I am able to practice. I'm fairly certain I'll want to go into general pediatrics. I grew up working as a lifeguard, as a swim coach, have volunteered at Children's Hospitals (among other places), and have assisted in medical mission trips to South America. Love kids. Love working with them.

I grew up in an area between Nashville and Atlanta, and I'd like to end up in either of those two cities. Or southern California where I worked for a year and absolutely loved it (but have no connections to now that my uncle moved away).

How important are school and residency to finding a job down the road (it's HUGE in law)? How about family connections?

Thanks!

 

[Voxel]

Actually general pediatrics is fairly simple to match into. It depends on the caliber of program you want to train in. You could probably train anywhere and get a job as a general pediatrician in or next to those cities. However, I am warning you that if you are at a top law school you should think very hard about dropping out. You will still be able to volunteer to help children outside of being a lawyer or do pro bono legal work for children. All of this can still be done without being a pediatrician.

 

[redgrover]

I appreciate the information. This is very good news.

I actually am at a top 10 law school, and I am going to put a lot of thought into this. I'm basically guaranteed a high paying job with a lot of perks if I go through with law (school rank counts far more in law than in medicine), but I'm beginning to hate the adversarial process already. I don't think I have the personality for it, even if I went into transactional law or trusts and estates.

It's a bit eye-opening to try on the Princeton Review Law School forum. You'll see what I'm talking about. Pre-meds on this site are very reluctant to even talk about their numbers (MCAT & GPA). On the pre-law site, they'll straight up tell you your numbers are terrible (in far less paternal terms), that you're going to a horrible school, and that you're going to be chasing ambulances the rest of your life. In some cases, that's going to be true. But that whole competitive thing never goes away. I'm not big on that at all.

 

[Hendooneh]

Medicine has a lot of politics too. I think its everywhere and can't be avoided. Unless if your concern is making lots of money, which doesn't sound like it if you want to do pediatrics then you will not be chasing ambulances but make a decent living practising law and helping people as a lawyer. (rare amoung lawyers)

 

[Trajan]

I'm a first year med student and have a family member going through Yale law right now. From what I have experienced and have seen him going through, I can say that med school is the opposite of law school. All we do years one and two is memorize facts. There is very little conceptual thinking, at least at this level. This, as I'm sure you know, contrasts dramatically to law school.

Some people are very comfortable with thinking through complicated issues wheras others flip out if they are asked to do anything but memorize a book. Personally, I enjoy the intellectual stimulation of law, but medicine is what I want to do as a career, so I'm sticking it out for these two years and am dutifully memorizing as much as I can. Also, med students have their own quirks. Get ready to be around people who are obsessed with grades and talk only about school. My impression of law students is that even if they are more adversarial, they are a bit more well rounded.

Just think long and hard about whether or not medicine and medical school are a good match before you leave a top ten law school.