I Quit

[Stolenspatulas]

"I wanted to go into medicine... but my criminal record screwed me." - The richest man in the world. (this is not a real quote, go buy vista)

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[OncoCaP]

OP: Hope you find something that you like. Just be careful not to jump from the frying pan into the fire. Yes, medicine does have some very rough edges and it is not for everyone. CS is a very good field if you like that kind of work. Outsourcing is not a huge issue (if anything the number of CS jobs seems to be going up). The main concern in CS is that the there are many jobs that the average person finds boring in CS (adding functions to a library, building software tools for others, etc.).

Dentistry seems to be a fairly low stress job. You may want to work on your MBA or take some business courses prior to dental school (take a close look at marketing a service) because Dentistry is very competitive, particularly for the most lucrative customers.

(I'm not sure why people are blasting you for this decision -- medicine is certainly not for everyone, particularly people that don't like stress, working with many sick people, or working long hours)

 

[basicscikills]

OK I am in the same boat as you. I have 5 aceptances and was contemplating throwing the towel in. I have an extensive education including a U of C MBA and am giving up a high 6 figure salary to go to medical school. Here is what I am going to do: Go to medical school and try out the first year and get to know more about medicine FOR MY SELF, not from shadowing, not from chatting with people, but with my own two eyes and ears. If I absolutely hate the idea of being in medicine at that time, then I am 50K under but will not look back on my life and say that I should have at least tried... maybe we are seeing things from different sides, but understand this, EVERY field has its problems and there is an eb and flow. I am not trying to preech here, but I work in the hedge fund business and although the $$ is great, the amount of stress that I encounter on a daily basis is insane. The only thing people care about more than their health is making buckets of cash. So I urge you to give it a shot, things could get better in medicine or better still, you could make things better in medicine.

Now a lot of people on this website are going to say your post is out of line and ridiculous etc. etc. but the reality is that it is NOT coming from left field. There are major issues in medicine, and I am sure that things will get worse before they get better, but dig deep into your heart and mind to determine why you decided to pursue this path in the first place. Contrary to what people have to say on this site, medicine is not an all or nothing proposition. I work with a plastic surgeon who is now doing asset allocations of health care/hosptial clients' $$$. I am also very close friends with traders making 7 figure salaries who are quitting to go to medical school. The grass may be greener, but for now sitting on the fence is OK. You can enjoy the view of both sides, medicine can catapault you into a number of different fields and take you in many different directions, but you will not know unless you try.

If you think the first year of med school gives you any idea what being a doctor is, you've got a distorted picture. Most of your time as a first year is spent learning anatomy, biochem, etc, not seeing patients. I realize that med schools are different, but pretty much every med student I know would give up if their basis for medicine is the first two years. If you're worried about whether or not medicine is right for you or not, I'd spend a year working in a clinic, volunteering, or shadowing in various settings.

Most of the med applicants I've interviewed as part of my med school's admissions process weed themselves out pretty quickly when we explore their reasons for pursuing medicine. It's pretty easy to tell the ones that just want to give things a try because their parents are pushing them to be doctors, because they watch a bunch of episodes of Gray's Anatomy or ER, or because they want to get paid. Still, some make it through, and they're eventually miserable because they've accumulated a pile of student loan debt from a couple of years of med school but have realized that they absolutely can't stand medicine. So be really sure this is what you want beforehand. Fifty grand worth of "let's see", plus denying someone who really wants to be there, is too big of a price to pay.

 

[Creightonite]

The OP either or all:

1) did not get accepted anywhere
2) waitlisted
3) a troll.

 

[HumbleMD]

(I'm not sure why people are blasting you for this decision -- medicine is certainly not for everyone, particularly people that don't like stress, working with many sick people, or working long hours)

I'm more suprised there aren't more "you shouldn't go in because I want your spot" responses.

 

[crowman]

If you think the first year of med school gives you any idea what being a doctor is, you've got a distorted picture. Most of your time as a first year is spent learning anatomy, biochem, etc, not seeing patients. I realize that med schools are different, but pretty much every med student I know would give up if their basis for medicine is the first two years. If you're worried about whether or not medicine is right for you or not, I'd spend a year working in a clinic, volunteering, or shadowing in various settings.

Most of the med applicants I've interviewed as part of my med school's admissions process weed themselves out pretty quickly when we explore their reasons for pursuing medicine. It's pretty easy to tell the ones that just want to give things a try because their parents are pushing them to be doctors, because they watch a bunch of episodes of Gray's Anatomy or ER, or because they want to get paid. Still, some make it through, and they're eventually miserable because they've accumulated a pile of student loan debt from a couple of years of med school but have realized that they absolutely can't stand medicine. So be really sure this is what you want beforehand. Fifty grand worth of "let's see", plus denying someone who really wants to be there, is too big of a price to pay.

In my interviews I obviously articulated myself a little differently, hence the acceptances, and I am fully aware of the implications of medical school... my wife is an M4 and I have seen first hand what the first two years entail. The reality is that unless you have been in a previous profession for a number of years like I have, you cannot understand the nature of the decision for someone who is entering science from the business realm. The schools I have been accepted to do have a fair amount of clinical work in the first two years, but that was not the point. For me, part of the hurdle is gaining footing and approcaching the decision in managable pieces... I earned every bit of my education and my tenure at my firm and so I can say $50K is not a problem. And just because someone "really wants to be there" does not mean that they should have my spot. Beat my MCAT score, write better, study harder, thats what entitles someone to my spot, nothing else.

 

[OncoCaP]

I'm more suprised there aren't more "you shouldn't go in because I want your spot" responses.

Looks like OP struck a nerve with people. Also, the context probably makes people hesitant to jump on it.

Example: That's it; I'm getting out of real estate. You never know if you're going to make money or lose your shirt. ... Wanna buy my properties?

Err .. let me think about it.

 

[Towelie]

The OP is a troll.

Seriously. Stop posting.

 

[EctopicFetus]

As a PGY-1 I can say medicine is awesome. You really can improve peoples lives. The real key is choosing the right specialty for you. That doesnt necessarily mean one that is "easy" or a "lifestyle" specialty like Derm, rads etc just one where you feel challenged and satisfied with.

If you dont have the passion for it, then you should quit, sadly too many people go into med school for the wrong reasons. If it is because lots of people were bitching and moaning, dont quit. go for it! A lot of olders docs had it better and lots of folks in medicine think other jobs are so much easier, I worked other jobs and it is NOT easier. Lots of downsides as well..

Good luck

 

[sejin8642]

If you want to do something that fully satisfies your income and happiness, you gotta go up to the heaven.

 

[45408]

Here is what I am going to do: Go to medical school and try out the first year and get to know more about medicine FOR MY SELF, not from shadowing, not from chatting with people, but with my own two eyes and ears. If I absolutely hate the idea of being in medicine at that time, then I am 50K under but will not look back on my life and say that I should have at least tried

Med school != medicine. It's medical school. It won't help you understand what being a doctor is like. What I'm doing now (an M1) is NOTHING like being a doctor.

 

[MonkeyNuts!]

Haha crow. Told you everyone would jump on that.

 

[Mayday]

(I'm not sure why people are blasting you for this decision -- medicine is certainly not for everyone, particularly people that don't like stress, working with many sick people, or working long hours)

I think people aren't blasting him because of the decision, but rather because he made the decision AFTER going through the mcat and the application cycle.

 

[OncoCaP]

I think people aren't blasting him because of the decision, but rather because he made the decision AFTER going through the mcat and the application cycle.

Ah, I see. Seems like they are being hard on the guy tho'. I've heard of people dropping out after two years or after practicing for a while. Better now than later, no?

 

[pyrois]

I would caution people before immediately blaming the OP for being reckless.

Personally, I commend the OP for coming to such an important realization now, and for having the guts to back out before things get unbearable.

For those would-be criticizers, consider that every year, just over 1% of you (on this board easily over a hundred students) will drop out of medical school not for academic reasons, but simply because you decided you don't want to go into the medical field for one reason or another.

You can look up the statistics yourself (I'm not inspired to do so, so you'll have to take my word on it), but no matter how set you are on medicine now, you can't beat or ignore the stats.

In fact, odds are somebody who's already posted on this thread, criticizing the OP, will eventually change their mind after third year of med school, having wasted $100K+ on tuition and 3 years of their lives.

 

[Trepp]

We had a couple of people leave the first week of class! I think it was the smartest thing they could have done. Staying and hating life or failing out and wasting money just because you got accepted is not the best move.

 

[Mayday]

We had a couple of people leave the first week of class! I think it was the smartest thing they could have done. Staying and hating life or failing out and wasting money just because you got accepted is not the best move.

If this happens do they still call in people off the waitlist?

 

[Nickelpennykid]

The OP either or all:

1) did not get accepted anywhere
2) waitlisted
3) a troll.

Or you could just be so self-consumed that you can't possibly comprehend the fact that an intelligent aspiring pre-med might actually change their mind and *gasp* decide not to go into medicine.

Give him/her a break...I want to go into medicine but it is not the best field out there.

 

[NonTradMed]

After all the effort i put into the MCAT, prereqs shadowing and interviews. I have decided to call it quits even though i presently have 3 acceptances. I am no longer comfortable with medicine as a profession. I wish I had thought a lot more about this choice before wasting some of my time, but it is better for me to quit now than later. While I have an interest in medicine, I am not happy with the way medicine is being practiced today. I really researched the profession, talking to ~30 doctors so far, and I don't like what I am hearing. Everyone seems to believe things are spiraling out of control. The climax for me was I even approached the dean of students affairs of one of the schools that accepted me and she set up interviews with some doctors for me. You would have thought that they will somehow be encouraging, but they kept going with the same negative stuff. Only one out of six doctors took his time to highlight a few very abstract positives. Maybe it is just faith that has made me talk to the few bitter doctors out there, but i now believe that the sacrifice is not worth it. I plan on contacting the schools that offered me a spot this fall to tell them i am no longer interested, hopefully that will open up an opportunity for other brave people willing to go into medicine. As for me, I begin a pursuit of a computer science degree while attemping to get into dental school, and I am pretty sure I will never look back.

Just curious, why dentistry and computer science? Those two fields don't seem to intersect all that much.

As a computer science major, I have to warn you that if you choose to go into the IT field, it may be jumping from one frying pan to another. The field has its own problems. In fact, when I told my co-workers that I was going to med school, many were envious that I was leaving IT for the "more stable and lucrative" world of medicine. I'm not sure you'll going to find happier people in IT than you did in medicine.

I was going to say the exact same thing, that I was under the impression that the golden era of CS had passed. I'm a few years out of college now, but the CS boom was probably at its peak when I started (and everyone and their mother was either doing CS or ibanking), but 4 years later when I graduated most of my CS friends were jumping ship (out of misery and lack of job prospects...and these were highly qualified, brilliant CS people). I can't tell you how many people I know who wanted to kill themselves after working for a year or two for some of the most coveted CS companies out there, and who quit their 6-figure starting salaries to go do God-knows-what because they were really just that utterly unhappy. And don't dentists have one of the highest suicide rates (after toll booth workers)?

Well, there are still good jobs in IT, the 'golden' days of IT was a gross exaggeration. Most people were not getting ten job offers. Yes, many got good offers, and some got multiple offers, and it was good money, but hardly anyone I knew got rich on stocks during the high tech boom. It's still a good place to work if you like to code and design, but certain places makes you work really long hours for seemingly nice starting salaries. Just gotta be careful where you pick your job.

2. cs people dont worry about malpractice at all, they dont worry about how to pay off debt etc, they arent in loads of paper work and worrying about health policty etc. , they work on very tough problems as well and if he likes that more i tihnk thats fine

Don't know what company you worked for, but mine had a ton of paperwork. I'd spend a whole day doing it sometimes at certain points in the rev cycle. Medicine doesn't have a monopoly on paperwork, corporate has plenty of it on it's own!


To the OP, congrats on reaching a decision on an important point in your life. Just be sure to look into your new professions with as much care as you did for medicine. There are no 'perfect' profession, don't jump into something else simply because you hate your current chosen profession.

 

[BNSN]

THE AUDACITY OF HOPE

 

[Stolenspatulas]

Blanket....!

for each political figure added, I will add one picture of a celebrity in a mugshot.... that is a promise.

 

[kypdurron5]

I was bored with Computer Science and yes it maybe gives you an opportunity to make 70k when you are 25, but I am giving it up for medicine

Wow, ditto. It's not that I didn't like computer science, I just couldn't see myself doing it as a profession. There were challenges, sure, but as you said...it would make such a boring career. I gave it up for medicine almost 4 years ago. The other thing to consider is that it tops out quickly. The same is true of nurses, LPN's, etc...they make good money, but there aren't a lot of places to go from there. At least with medicine you could work harder, expand your practice, move to a different area of the country, take on another specialty, etc., etc. To the OP....when you decline your acceptances how about putting in a good word for me!

PS- part of this whole process is weeding people out. I'd bet there are very few people in your position who get all the way up to acceptance and then quit, but it's one of the big reasons that schools require lots of clinical experience, research, etc...so that you get a good taste of what you're getting into. If for one reason or another it's not for you, there's nothing wrong with that. As for me...I've been so discouraged lately with this whole process. I'm on two waitlists, I can't get a single acceptance despite decent stats, and I strike out every time I try to find a doctor/healthcare professional to help me increase my clinical exposure. Even my local hospital's volunteer office won't return my calls. Still, visiting the hospital today reminded me more than ever why I want do be a doctor....some things which I can put into words and some things which I can't. Maybe there are some really horrible things about medicine and our entire healthcare system, but I would much rather be in the fight than cowering in an office cubicle for the rest of my life.

 

[LIDO]

LeT THE CONVERSATION BEGIN!!

 

[Eric Lindros]

Or you could just be so self-consumed that you can't possibly comprehend the fact that an intelligent aspiring pre-med might actually change their mind and *gasp* decide not to go into medicine.

Give him/her a break...I want to go into medicine but it is not the best field out there.

leave it to a yankees fan to get owned by troll bait

 

[baylormed]

Or you could just be so self-consumed that you can't possibly comprehend the fact that an intelligent aspiring pre-med might actually change their mind and *gasp* decide not to go into medicine.

Give him/her a break...I want to go into medicine but it is not the best field out there.

Agreed. Medicine is a field, not necessarily the field (if the field even exists).

I think that medicine is somethimes romanticized to much, especially by pre-meds. People talk about saving lives and helping people, about being looked upon as an authority figure.

The truth is, medicine is a job, you will have obligations, paperwork, politics, bad and good workplaces, bad and good colleagues, and bad and good patients. Another SDNer once said it better than I ever would (I would credit them but I can't remember their username): "Don't expect confetti to fly out of your patient's a** when you heal them."

If somebody just realized that after going through the application process then they hadn't given it too hard of a look. However, getting out now is better than getting out later on when you've invested more time and money into it.

 

[Eric Lindros]

I just quit too.

Party time.

 

[west nile]

 

[chad5871]

At least with medicine you could work harder, expand your practice, move to a different area of the country, take on another specialty, etc., etc. To the OP....when you decline your acceptances how about putting in a good word for me!

Still, visiting the hospital today reminded me more than ever why I want do be a doctor....some things which I can put into words and some things which I can't. Maybe there are some really horrible things about medicine and our entire healthcare system, but I would much rather be in the fight than cowering in an office cubicle for the rest of my life.

Wow, I agree so much what what you said. First of all, you stated one of the reasons I am deciding to go into medicine - the career is so dynamic. With an MD degree, you have so much flexibility in terms of what path you follow. Arguably it is one of the most useful and flexible degrees once you earn it.

 

[MonkeyNuts!]

For all of you saying that we shouldn't jump on the OP for coming to a realization, if you read the first post carefully, the OP states he has an interest in medicine. It's not like he did the clinical experience and then realized he hated it. He says he is still interested, and is basing his dropout on hearsay.

That's the main thing that bugs me. If you're interested, you have to at least see the real thing for yourself. The second thing that bugs me I already explained in my LOTR monologue... the reason for quitting is problems in the field, which for some like myself is a driving reason to enter the field...

 

[BNSN]

For all of you saying that we shouldn't jump on the OP for coming to a realization, if you read the first post carefully, the OP states he has an interest in medicine. It's not like he did the clinical experience and then realized he hated it. He says he is still interested, and is basing his dropout on hearsay.

That's the main thing that bugs me. If you're interested, you have to at least see the real thing for yourself. The second thing that bugs me I already explained in my LOTR monologue... the reason for quitting is problems in the field, which for some like myself is a driving reason to enter the field...

less serious posts more political satire plz

k. thx.

 

[Mr. Tee]

less serious posts more political satire plz

k. thx.

u r 2 ez, stop.

 

[blargh]

i don't think i've met someone who doesn't hate his job.

 

[CCEMTP2DOC]

I'm in it to win it.

MY eyes!!!!!!! My eyes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[sirus_virus]

Those medicine vs dentistry threads have claimed one victim.

What is up with you guys loading large images of hideous looking politicians on this thread?

 

[MonkeyNuts!]

"I have plenty of experience dealing with corrupt politicians! Ha Ha Ha"

"For the last time, I did not have relations with that woman!"

"Then why is this picture framed above our fireplace?"

"See Bill. See Bill pimp. Pimp Bill, pimp."

"RAHHHHHHHHHHHH ASDFWAAJDOFUEOFJDLFSJ!!"

"Simmer down ya crazy b****, Bill gonna ride up to dis here bumper and smack mah monkey"

 

[Mayday]

OMFG!

 

[southpawcannon]

One thing I have to say is having done all that work just to apply to med school, he/she/it will hopefully be set in CS, dentistry, or whatever the desired field of the week may be. If the OP does dump medical aspirations in the trash only to say later while in another field 'man, I sometimes wish i gave med school a try,' very doubtful this person would even be looked at considering he/she/it quit the path once and could very well quit once in med school.

 

[Trepp]

If this happens do they still call in people off the waitlist?

At my school they did not. Now that you mention it, I think it would have been a great idea.

 

[gujuDoc]

You couldn't have thought about this before you took the MCAT, prereqs, and paid for applications?

Yeah but at least he/she can use the prereqs to get into dental school.

 

[Falco2525]

Don't quit

 

[DrZeke]

Don't quit

Does anyone else think that if the OP was SO serious about quitting that they would not have posted on here? I have a feeling that the OP posted on here so they could get convinced not to quit. Honestly, what were you expecting OP?

It's probably a trollish ploy to get other ppl to quit and give up their spots so that the OP can get off 3 waitlists...LOL I kid...

 

[Filibuster]

As for me, I begin a pursuit of a computer science degree while attemping to get into dental school, and I am pretty sure I will never look back.

Start interviewing Computer Science people. Let me be your first IT professional. I've been in the profession for ten years and can say without a shadow of a doubt it is a terrible career and the entire industry is spiriling out of control due to H1B Visa's, outsourcing, globalization in general and many, many other factors. The field outright sucks. I know many people who feel the same as I. I'm leaving IT after 10 years and will not look back. Just one person's professional opinion.

 

[Stolenspatulas]

It's probably a trollish ploy to get other ppl to quit and give up their spots so that the OP can get off 3 waitlists...LOL I kid...

Exactly what I thought. It's a sad premed world we live in.

 

[gujuDoc]

Actually a good deal of docs on this site will tell you that med school is nothing like practicing medicine... I'd have to say you would AT LEAST have to go through your clinical years to really begin to understand medicine

Thank you. I was thinking the same thing when I read his post. While the latter half of his post isn't wrong, the part about suggesting a year of med school is all he'll need to decide what medicine is about is a bit pushing it. Even as a 3rd year, you still don't truly understand what it is too be in medicine. There are a lot of people who loved medicine but then residency came and it sucked the life out of them. The guy who you quoted should think long and hard before he decides what to do because if he's currently making the money in another job he should think about what it is that he wanted from medicine that he's not getting in his job and if those positive things can overcome the negative aspects. But don't waste as seat in med school. med schools invest in their applicants and to take away a seat from someone who would remain for 4 years is not worth it.

 

[BNSN]

I expected more from you, eternalrage

ps: to the OP, don't quit medicine. u will regret it. kandthx.

 

[gujuDoc]

I would caution people before immediately blaming the OP for being reckless.

Personally, I commend the OP for coming to such an important realization now, and for having the guts to back out before things get unbearable.

For those would-be criticizers, consider that every year, just over 1% of you (on this board easily over a hundred students) will drop out of medical school not for academic reasons, but simply because you decided you don't want to go into the medical field for one reason or another.

You can look up the statistics yourself (I'm not inspired to do so, so you'll have to take my word on it), but no matter how set you are on medicine now, you can't beat or ignore the stats.

In fact, odds are somebody who's already posted on this thread, criticizing the OP, will eventually change their mind after third year of med school, having wasted $100K+ on tuition and 3 years of their lives.

Good post. I don't think the OP is wrong to get out of it now if he doesnt want to be in medicine.

My brother has a very good friend who did the same thing a few years ago. She had just been interviewed and accepted at one of our state schools and she decided that she didn't want to do medicine for the same reason. Recently after taking some time off (her hubby is a computer programmer) she got a masters in epidemiology and is now doing her PhD. She's much happier then she might have been if she ended up going into medicine. And even if you get accepted and don't go and decide to apply after a few years of real life experience I don't think that's going to hurt you as much as people make it sound like it will. At least it will show that you thought this through and through so that you may not end up as bitters as many people tend to do so.

To each their own. If the OP doesn't want to go, remember that schools interview enough people for a reason. They'll fill the class up with someone from the waitlist that wants to be a physician.

 

[gujuDoc]

Does anyone else think that if the OP was SO serious about quitting that they would not have posted on here? I have a feeling that the OP posted on here so they could get convinced not to quit. Honestly, what were you expecting OP?

It's probably a trollish ploy to get other ppl to quit and give up their spots so that the OP can get off 3 waitlists...LOL I kid...

Who knows. I've seen people quit after getting an acceptance but you are right that none of them posted on sites like this.

 

[Mayday]

At my school they did not. Now that you mention it, I think it would have been a great idea.

That's too bad. Of course, getting a call 3 days into the quarter "Hi! you're accepted! Pack your stuff, and be here by tomorrow!" Would really kinda suck, but I guess not as much as not getting into a school at all.

 

[basicscikills]

In my interviews I obviously articulated myself a little differently, hence the acceptances, and I am fully aware of the implications of medical school... my wife is an M4 and I have seen first hand what the first two years entail. The reality is that unless you have been in a previous profession for a number of years like I have, you cannot understand the nature of the decision for someone who is entering science from the business realm. The schools I have been accepted to do have a fair amount of clinical work in the first two years, but that was not the point. For me, part of the hurdle is gaining footing and approcaching the decision in managable pieces... I earned every bit of my education and my tenure at my firm and so I can say $50K is not a problem. And just because someone "really wants to be there" does not mean that they should have my spot. Beat my MCAT score, write better, study harder, thats what entitles someone to my spot, nothing else.

Actually, I went to med school after a number of years in a high paying business career, so I know exactly what you are describing. I've been there, done that, and have copious amounts of t-shirts. I'm glad you have the money to blow off fifty grand and a year of your life to see if you like med school. I just disagree with your outlook. If you've been in business you know that you don't launch a new product without doing the work to make sure there's a market, the product is priced right, there aren't any legal pitfalls, etc. Similarly, before you get accepted into med school you should have done plenty of research into what will be your life for as long as you continue being a physician. To do otherwise is doing a disservice to yourself, the medical profession, and the patients who will one day put their lives and those of their loved ones in your hands.

By the way, your last sentence either shows an appalling lack of awareness about med school admissions or a great deal of arrogance. It's not "your" spot. The opportunity is yours, but if you think the spot is, try failing a few classes and see how long it takes before your spot becomes no longer yours. The fact is that an acceptance was extended to you partly because of your past work, but mainly because someone with whom you interviewed thought you have the potential to be a great physician and an asset to that med school. I'd venture to guess that there are people out there who have beaten your MCAT score, studied harder, and write better. But they might not have been as good a talker as you, so they didn't get in. Or maybe they just didn't wear the right tie to the interview that day. Or maybe they didn't apply to enough schools and fell victim to a numbers game.

I can tell you that the student with the highest GPA in my med school class didn't have a great MCAT score and he never even graduated high school. Still, he loves to learn, patients love him, and I'd trust him with members of my family. Many of our classmates had higher test scores, but I'll bet you that none of them will be better doctors than him. He values the opportunity to be there and feels he needs to prove himself. It's too bad that you don't seem to see things the same way.

 

[NickRiviera]

I can tell you that the student with the highest GPA in my med school class didn't have a great MCAT score and he never even graduated high school. Still, he loves to learn, patients love him, and I'd trust him with members of my family. Many of our classmates had higher test scores, but I'll bet you that none of them will be better doctors than him. He values the opportunity to be there and feels he needs to prove himself. It's too bad that you don't seem to see things the same way.