Is an MD the way to go for money? prestige?

[doomer_md]

Short answer is yes to both.

This should also be common sense but I think it's worth reiterating since it gets brought up so often - do NOT become an "entrepreneur" and create a startup.

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[Angus Avagadro]

Since the main topic of this thread seems to be money, I thought I would post some of my impressions regarding prestige of medicine based on a recent experience. The other day, I was looking through some of the biographies for trustee members of the undergrad university that I attended. I noticed that nearly all of them had backgrounds in finance/law, and surprisingly, not a single one had a background in medicine. Not many had tech backgrounds either. I’m not necessarily sure what this says about the medical profession’s “prestige,” but I am guessing it means that the ceiling is higher for finance/law, floor is higher for medicine.

Other possibilities include:
-Physicians are too busy/have schedules that don’t permit quarterly travel to board meetings.
-personality of finance/law professionals is more conducive to being elected to the board.
-being a trustee is afforded to mega-donors, who are more likely to work in finance/law (mostly finance)

My 2cents.

Very often you need to make a 7 figure or higher donation to the institution to be on the board. Lawyers, and other businessmen can make a corporate donation, rather than out of their salary. At least that is what it costs at my undergrad. Unless a doc has been a very successful investor, I don't see many wanting to lay out that kind of coin just to be on a college board of directors.