My heart honestly says to go to medical school. I'm not sure what is truly holding me back. Maybe cause I already invested a year in PA school. Moving to a whole new state again by myself. Possibly failing, but I know I have been doing well in PA school. But still I know that is not to a comparison. I guess I am also afraid if I do hate medical school I truly have nothing to fall back on to.
Don't fall for the sunk cost fallacy. Follow your heart.
i feel like i freaked poor OP out on the wcucom thread as we discussed the remediation policies/course load/curriculum changes/etc haha and i'm sorry if that instilled fear in you! the reality is every single med school (especially DO schools) has remediation policies and course load that are incredibly similar to ours; and while i will always say things are subject to change, i just personally feel like its better to be aware up front and some of that is stuff i wish i would've known coming in! NOT that it would've changed my decision, it just would've been nice to know ahead of time!
but don't let that freak you out! chances are your PA school probably has some pretty strict remediation policies, but it seems like you're a good student so hopefully you haven't encountered them!
just a couple of pieces of encouragement based on some of your comments on this thread:
1) everyone hates medical school at some point. so don't be afraid of "hating med school." you will at some point! everyone does! but we're not in it to become med students. were in it to become physicians. and i think the general and very wise encouragement you've received is to look at *who* you want to be *when you're done with training*. look at the quality of life, pay, scope of practice, opportunities for innovation/income streams, compensation, roles, etc and make your decision based on that.
2) the other wise advice you've received is that WCUCOM will get you the degree you need to become a physician. you might not have as many resources at your fingertips as at a T20 MD lol but nothing WCUCOM will do will hold you back. you've got to be willing to put yourself out there, explore opportunities for networking, etc and i have had to do all of that, but as a pretty average student with no incredible academic background, i have thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Carey in preclinical and genuinely wouldn't change a thing in retrospect. yes, there are some first year curriculum changes coming and we'll see how those go, but i can tell you from personal experience the people who are at the helm are good people who have the very best intentions, with decades of experience, and are genuinely trying to give you the best experience possible. as a side note, anecdotally, i took comlex a few weeks ago, and it felt like a *breeze* in large part because of the stellar OPP curriculum at Carey, which is a very nice selling point in my opinion.
3) like others have said, this is your one shot to be a physician. even if you finish your PA degree and decide to reapply, med schools will now see you had a med acceptance that you declined and i believe the general knowledge is that that will make you pretty much DOA at a lot of schools if you were to reapply. i totally understand if you feel disappointed your app cycle didn't turn out the way you wanted, but ultimately you have the exquisite privilege of receiving a medical school acceptance in the US, which is a privilege tens of thousands of students every year don't receive.
finally, i would as objectively and honestly look at the pros and cons of PA vs MD/DO and decide which field more aligns with your vision of who you see yourself being in life. then make your decision. but please don't make a decision out of fear of failure! you will be given every single chance to succeed at Carey, you just have to decide if you want to!
