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[Bancrofti]

Strong 1st post... And 6 years? So you're already MD/PhD?

Anyways, seems like a lot of confusion here. I was going to say if you're having trouble pressing on now, how are you going to get through your residency... but it's not that you're actually having trouble, since you're doing well. I couldn't tell you what to do, all I can say is it will show that your heart isn't in it down the line, and I (surely others as well) hate having to deal with people who have no genuine interest in what's going on. Maybe you just haven't been involved with an aspect of medicine that has sparked a fire in you yet since in the back of your head you've always had thoughts of what you truly wanted to do?

This is probably a conversation you should have had with yourself BEFORE you started! Now you're (probably) in debt to a degree and it will seemingly have wasted a year of time if you drop out now. I know of several people who have had a similar dilemma. One, arguably one of the smartest people I know and in a similar boat as you, was being pushed by her parents to pursue medicine, though she had no interest in it. She went through all the motions during college, got into a great school, and decided upon graduation that she wasn't going to go. She's doing amazing right now, career and life-wise, and I don't think she has regretted the decision. One of the others though... miserable right now.

I would normally say stick it out and maybe you'll end up loving it. You seem fairly adamant though that even upon graduation you will never use your degree to actually be involved in patient care though so why bother?

 

[cbrons]

What is it about linguistics that is so appealing? How were you even exposed to it? What does a linguist actually even do?

People will say if you don't like what you are doing, don't do it. However, the fact of the matter is the world has too many and does not need any more interior designers, faux artists, party planners, and social scientists. These degree/trade programs and humanities majors kids go into these days simply because it seems fun and the government gives them money to do so is simply not practical, and down the road there is a halfway decent chance they end up broke and living with their parents working a deadend job.

Not to say you shouldn't do quit and pursue that, but just something to consider before others tell you to "pursue your dream."

 

[DarkmanX]

Punctuation, please.

 

[Rendar5]

hello everyone, ready for a rant?
like many people who have posted desperately on SDN before, i am considering dropping out of medical school. i'm in my 2nd year of a 6 year combined program, so i'm still very young and have a long way to go, and maybe i could just suck it up and keep going, but the problem is that i've never wanted to be a doctor. i've always been into the humanities (specifically linguistics) and social sciences, and medicine has simply never interested me. so why am in med school? my parents had always pressured me to be a doctor since i was a kid, and i resisted for many years, but eventually i gave in and convinced myself that it wouldn't be so bad. what kind of job would i have if i studied humanities anyways? so i suppressed my prior disdain towards medicine and made myself believe that it was the right choice to the point where i forgot how i originally felt. but those old feelings couldn't be kept hidden for long, because they have officially resurfaced, and very intensely.
i was never passionate about medicine, and i'm a passionate person so it's hard for me to do something that i don't love 100%. i've been trying to figure out why i don't like it, because medicine seems like something that would be a good "fit" for me: i'm compassionate, get the greatest joy out of helping people, enjoy solving mysteries/putting the pieces of the puzzle together (which is kind of what making a diagnosis is, right?), and a good number of my relatives are doctors too so medicine is "in my blood", as my dad says. i have no problem with working hard, i've been getting As in all my classes and it's really not too challenging for me, so difficulty/overwhelmingness isn't the issue. medicine, for some reason, just doesn't spark that fiery passion in me. it's gotten to the point where i'm no longer motivated to study or even get out of bed some mornings. i want to free myself from this misery, but of course it's never that easy... i have to think about the money, the people i'll be disappointing, what i would do if i left and the possibility of regret down the road. what if medicine really is right for me and i'm just not seeing it yet? what if i'm not successful if i pursue something else? i've always been a top student and success was always the natural next step... it's part of my identity. so much fear. i look at my classmates in envy as they study hard and get excited about seeing patients, and would do anything to trade lives with them just so i could have their desire to be a doctor.
i HATE hearing the stories from my parents of people who dropped out of med school or didn't listen to their parents and go to med school and ended up being failures.
after all this thought, i've come to the conclusion that if i do stay, i'm only staying so i can get that coveted MD and do something nonclinical with it. the chances of me actually practicing medicine are very slim. i've considered getting a PhD in linguistics, my true love, after i graduate, but i don't know how plausible that is or what kind of job i would end up getting with a medical degree and a graduate degree in the humanities. i would rather stay than leave after putting in so much effort already, but i'm only here for the degree, not to become a physician, which isn't really a good intention. i know that having an MD opens a lot more doors, so i do want that degree. plus, that guaranteed job security + 6 figure salary could come in handy... if i can't find a job, i could always have my MD to fall back on and go practice medicine or something.
any thoughts?

You are not in a 6 year program, you are in a 6 year + 3-7 year program. You cannot fall back on an MD and practice medicine if you do not complete residency. Are you in a college-med school program? If you are please swap over to the college program. An MD isn't going to be a life changer most likely.

 

[ucladoc2b]

What is it about linguistics that is so appealing? How were you even exposed to it? What does a linguist actually even do?

People will say if you don't like what you are doing, don't do it. However, the fact of the matter is the world has too many and does not need any more interior designers, faux artists, party planners, and social scientists. These degree/trade programs and humanities majors kids go into these days simply because it seems fun and the government gives them money to do so is simply not practical, and down the road there is a halfway decent chance they end up broke and living with their parents working a deadend job.

Not to say you shouldn't do quit and pursue that, but just something to consider before others tell you to "pursue your dream."

That's a bit overly general. In my experience, skills needed to succeed at a job/career are much different then the skills needed to succeed in a classroom. Even if you have the top GPA from MIT, once you get beyond some basic technical skills, soft skills really matter more. That's why you see many sucessful people with a wide variety of majors. Your education is what you make of it.

 

[mzarrowsmith]

1) Since you're interested in linguistics, let me drop some knowledge on you. Anything written in Chinese before the 1950's is very difficult to read. Why? They didn't use any punctuation! Ancient texts like "The Analects" and "The Art of War" originally had no punctuation, so some gnarly scholars had to go back and add it to make them readable. Please use correct punctuation/capitalization.

2) Medicine is a team sport. If you don't want to play the game, nobody wants you on their team. If you're a half-@ss, uninterested med student or resident or physician, you just make everyone's life that much harder.

3) Moreover, I think this sort of "my-dad-told-me-to-be-a-doctor-so-here-I-am" mindset cheapens the monumental challenges that many, many people have overcome to get admitted to med school and become physicians.

 

[LovelyBRass]

hello everyone, ready for a rant?
like many people who have posted desperately on SDN before, i am considering dropping out of medical school. i'm in my 2nd year of a 6 year combined program, so i'm still very young and have a long way to go, and maybe i could just suck it up and keep going, but the problem is that i've never wanted to be a doctor. i've always been into the humanities (specifically linguistics) and social sciences, and medicine has simply never interested me. so why am in med school? my parents had always pressured me to be a doctor since i was a kid, and i resisted for many years, but eventually i gave in and convinced myself that it wouldn't be so bad. what kind of job would i have if i studied humanities anyways? so i suppressed my prior disdain towards medicine and made myself believe that it was the right choice to the point where i forgot how i originally felt. but those old feelings couldn't be kept hidden for long, because they have officially resurfaced, and very intensely.
i was never passionate about medicine, and i'm a passionate person so it's hard for me to do something that i don't love 100%. i've been trying to figure out why i don't like it, because medicine seems like something that would be a good "fit" for me: i'm compassionate, get the greatest joy out of helping people, enjoy solving mysteries/putting the pieces of the puzzle together (which is kind of what making a diagnosis is, right?), and a good number of my relatives are doctors too so medicine is "in my blood", as my dad says. i have no problem with working hard, i've been getting As in all my classes and it's really not too challenging for me, so difficulty/overwhelmingness isn't the issue. medicine, for some reason, just doesn't spark that fiery passion in me. it's gotten to the point where i'm no longer motivated to study or even get out of bed some mornings. i want to free myself from this misery, but of course it's never that easy... i have to think about the money, the people i'll be disappointing, what i would do if i left and the possibility of regret down the road. what if medicine really is right for me and i'm just not seeing it yet? what if i'm not successful if i pursue something else? i've always been a top student and success was always the natural next step... it's part of my identity. so much fear. i look at my classmates in envy as they study hard and get excited about seeing patients, and would do anything to trade lives with them just so i could have their desire to be a doctor.
i HATE hearing the stories from my parents of people who dropped out of med school or didn't listen to their parents and go to med school and ended up being failures.
after all this thought, i've come to the conclusion that if i do stay, i'm only staying so i can get that coveted MD and do something nonclinical with it. the chances of me actually practicing medicine are very slim. i've considered getting a PhD in linguistics, my true love, after i graduate, but i don't know how plausible that is or what kind of job i would end up getting with a medical degree and a graduate degree in the humanities. i would rather stay than leave after putting in so much effort already, but i'm only here for the degree, not to become a physician, which isn't really a good intention. i know that having an MD opens a lot more doors, so i do want that degree. plus, that guaranteed job security + 6 figure salary could come in handy... if i can't find a job, i could always have my MD to fall back on and go practice medicine or something.
any thoughts?

The only thing that matters is making your family proud because in the end, who else matters? Everything else is just selfish. So whatever you have to do, whether it's being the best g-d dang linguist or the worst effing physician (assuming these are the only two choices), do it!

Besides, if you really don't want to be there, you'll get weeded out eventually... it's just the truth.

 

[evilbooyaa]

A 6-year MD program?

This means 1 of 3 things:

1) You are in a MD/PhD program, in which case you have no debt to speak of (AFAIK with MD/PhD programs) from medical school. Drop out if you don't really want to be a doctor and do whatever you want to do, knowing the financial risks you take from it.

2) You are in a 6-year BS/MD program. It's your 2nd year, which means you're sitll in undergrad. Drop out, switch majors NOW before you graduate and go to medical school.

3) You are doing a 6-year program in somewhere outside the US, like England or something. In this case, finding a good residency in the US will be extremely difficult for you anyways since you'll be an FMG graduating in 4 years. Drop out and do whatever you want, knowing the financial risks of your decision.

It'd be nice if you could clarify which one of these situations you are in.

No one is in a 6-year MD program (without a BS/PhD thrown in there) in the US. The only people there may be because they had to split their 1st and 2nd years (thus adding 2 years to the standard 4-year MD program)

 

[Kinis]

3) You are doing a 6-year program in somewhere outside the US, like England or something. In this case, finding a good residency in the US will be extremely difficult for you anyways since you'll be an FMG graduating in 4 years. Drop out and do whatever you want, knowing the financial risks of your decision.

.

 

[peteB]

I think you should follow whatever career path suits you best. If you are sure you do not want to do any sort of medicine, then it's really a waste of 4 more years and a lot of money to continue down that path.

My only concern, to be perfectly honest, is that your other career plan is linguistics. I have some friends who studied Linguistics and the job market is very tough. If your other career plan was hard sciences or engineering, for example, I'd say go for it because you won't have much trouble getting a good job, but linguistics will be tough!

 

[Sabate]

tl;dr.

But I read a couple bold and italicized points and it sounds like you would suck at any career. Boo hoo you got addicted to coffee lol welcome to america. And you were mad your mum convinced you to do biology major instead of art and english, which probably would've got you nowhere anyway unless you wanted to be a teacher.

Lol you got into a US (didn't read long enough to make sure) med school in which 1000s of people try to do and fail, and you dropped it because your hair wasn't looking beautiful 24-7. **** man, honest to god, first world problems.

Definitely first world problems but hey she figured out that it wasn't a good match and went against her folks' wishes to be happier. Plenty of kids go into med school with the similar stories but never muster the courage to walk away from something they don't enjoy. More power to her. Med school isn't a good fit for a lot of folks. The earlier you figure that out the better (though 1st year is a rough/expensive point to find that out).

 

[Wordead]

Definitely first world problems but hey she figured out that it wasn't a good match and went against her folks' wishes to be happier. Plenty of kids go into med school with the similar stories but never muster the courage to walk away from something they don't enjoy. More power to her. Med school isn't a good fit for a lot of folks. The earlier you figure that out the better (though 1st year is a rough/expensive point to find that out).

+1 Better for people who are in med school to please their parents to just drop out asap. This is not the way to spend your 20s if you don't actually want it - I can only imagine how miserable it must be.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

tl;dr.

But I read a couple bold and italicized points and it sounds like you would suck at any career. Boo hoo you got addicted to coffee lol welcome to america. And you were mad your mum convinced you to do biology major instead of art and english, which probably would've got you nowhere anyway unless you wanted to be a teacher.

Lol you got into a US (didn't read long enough to make sure) med school in which 1000s of people try to do and fail, and you dropped it because your hair wasn't looking beautiful 24-7. **** man, honest to god, first world problems.

+1

Yeah I read the last part too. Sounds like a classic case of "OH NOES MED SCHOOL IS ACTUALLY HARD!!". Not to mention, it sounds like you were just not great at studying and got used to skating through the first semester based on your undergrad knowledge. Sleeping 4 hours a night during anatomy? It was probably a good choice to drop out anyway but this should be taken as a case of "Med school too hard-> Time to leave" rather than anything else.

Also, stop pushing your blog on every post you make or you're gonna get banned pretty fast.

 

[J ROD]

One less person for me to compete against...........👍

 

[GoSpursGo]

It appears this thread was pretty well dead, and since there wasn't a particular reason for bumping it it is now being closed. Anyone wishing to start a new discussion may do so in a new thread.