First of all, Med school > Vet school. Now lets see why.
1) Most human beings over value the idea of "loving what they do". Do the same crap for 5+ years, and you'll be bored. A job becomes a job after 5-10 years. Period. Whether its an engineer, or a doctor, or a vet....a job becomes a job for most people.
2) Most people if given the option between work vs vacation will likely say they are happier when they are at vacation or with family etc. Essentially, very few people will say they are the happiest at work. My point is...everyone says "do what makes you happy", having a family, having a life outside of work makes most people happy.
3) Money. Having pieces of paper called money in your wallet likely won't make a difference. But having that dream vacation to spain and staying at a luxurious 5 star resort without thinking of finances will probably add to your general happiness.
4). Wedgedawg is right, prestige isn't a good reason to go into medicine. But, he makes residency fairly miserable. A lot of specialties in medicine DO NOT do 80 hrs a week even during residency. Lets see...PMNR, Derm, radiology, EM, Family, psych, Neurology...likely a lot more which I'm not aware of. I interviewed at some EM programs where they did 18 8 hour shifts a month, which is far less than 80 hrs a week. Ofcourse EM has a lot of ICU months (6 or so at most programs), but eh....still quite better than 80 hrs a week.
5) Wedgedawg talks about the initial monetary and time sacrifice physicians make and says that its usually not worth what doctors have to go throguh to become docs. Really depends on what you go into. If you do become a family medicine doctor, most likely the 180k job with the stress of seeing patients every 15-20 mins might not be worth it. Family medicine compensation keeps decreasing, and they are now having to squeeze in more and more patients into their schedule. So yes, most likely that monetary sacrifice isn't quite enough if you go into family med or peds. But there are some other really great fields out there. When you do IM, you can become a hospitalist and make between 200-250k depending on location and work 1 week on, 1 week off. Which is great for raising a family, spending time doing the things yuo enjoy doing. Another great option is Emergency medicine, working 15 10 hour shifts a month and taking home 300-400k depending on location. In texas, you can work at a moderate volume ED, have scribes writing your notes, and you making 250/hr easily. What that means is that you work 3 days a week, and do whatever the hell you want and enjoy your life (if you want to go on a vacation or a 3 day cruise every other week. You sure as hell can afford that as well). And ofcourse then there are fields like radiology, anesthesiology, derm...But I'd still take family medicine over becoming a vet. But then again, I'd never do FM 😉 I think you should go into medicine with a open mind. There are many specialties that you don't know about.
6) 80k salary after 4 years more education and 160-180k debt is just the worst financial decision. If you like both options equally, pick the one with the bigger compensation. Lets me explain what 80k after 4 years and 180k debt means.
So the take home income after taxes on 80k is roughly around 56-58k. By the time you finish school, your 180k of debt has become 200k (6.8% interest). Your interest alone will cost you 13k a year. So, once you start making money, your 58k after paying JUST interest on your loan will be 45k. Now that doesnt even touch the principle. You'll likely have to pay 20k a year for 15 years to get rid of your loan in total. So your 58k in reality is 38k of actual working income after everything 🙂 Now...like most 30 year olds you'd be thinking about buying a home, family, kids, saving for school for children etc...Good luck doing that with the 38k that you have left after paying just your loan and taxes 🙂 Anyone who says don't make a decision based on what you'll make, hasn't quite thought about everything. I don't know about you...but after 8 yrs of education, if I struggled to save up for my children's college, I'd be stressed and in life (ding ding ding...see how the lack of money can cause stress. Money might not make you happy, but the lack of it can definitely cause stress and unhappiness).
What's the alternate life of a doctor? Lets say you become a hospitalist in Texas. 250k. That's 166k after taxes. And hell you could pay off your loans in 2-3 years if you wanted. Then at 30, you can finally buy a home, catch up on life, start a family (kids are expensive), go on decent vacations, have a lot of time off of work as you'll do 1 week on 1 week off. Have a lot of time with people you care about. And things only get better if you get into EM, derm, anesthesia, optho...
