Putting Off Residency?

[Sdclegg]

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I would like some opinions about possibly putting off residency after med. school. Here's the deal. So, I want to attend medical school and have a family, and so it seems, that I can't have my cake and eat it too. By the time I finish med. school, I will be 26, and the only way I can reconcile having a family and going to med. school, and finishing residency is by not doing residency directly after I matriculate, but doing it after my children are of preschool age, which would put me back in the game at around 30. And, the reason I would be doing this, is a medical one. I don't want to have kids after I am 30, primarily because of the huge risks, and I just don't want to play Russian Roulette with that. And yes, I would rather have my own kids than adopt (and to further clarify, yes I am female). What do you think about it?

Thanks

 

[ucsfstudents]

I think you should follow whatever plan you're comfortable with. People approach this from different angles. There is no right or wrong way of going about this. People have children before, during, and after medical school. It's really up to you and your partner.

 

[Antibodies]

I think you should follow whatever plan you're comfortable with. People approach this from different angles. There is no right or wrong way of going about this. People have children before, during, and after medical school. It's really up to you and your partner.

I think the question here is: Will she match anything decent after not being in school for 3-4 years.
(it will be much harder for her to match)

 

[ucsfstudents]

It is significantly harder to match into a speciality if you take years off after finishing medical school. Competitive schools and competitive specialties will always prefer people straight out of medical school. You will just need to pick your priorities and make the necessary sacrifices in order to have the family life you desire. These decisions are not easy, and it is often not realistic to plan for these. Life happens, and a lot of these plans often go out the window because of some unforseen event.

 

[turkeyjerky]

so you're gonna be 26 when you finish med school? You are aware that that is just about the earliest one can finish med school, right?

I'm going to be blunt. Delaying residency 3-4 years b/c you want to "have a family" is f'ing ******ed. Look, people have kids all the time in medicine. Half the b*tches in my class got pregnant 2nd year. My surgery residents loved telling me all about their kids. Hell, I was born during the second year of my mom's residency--that was before any such thing as duty-hour limits.

Also, are you an idiot or something? Wtf do you mean playing "russian roulette" by having a kid after age 30. What, do you think some switch gets turned at that age and you get a 1 in 4 chance of having a baby that's gonna be called "downy" for the rest of its life? Do some f'ing research honey, there're risks in everything we do.

 

[auburnO5]

so you're gonna be 26 when you finish med school? You are aware that that is just about the earliest one can finish med school, right?

I'm going to be blunt. Delaying residency 3-4 years b/c you want to "have a family" is f'ing ******ed. Look, people have kids all the time in medicine. Half the b*tches in my class got pregnant 2nd year. My surgery residents loved telling me all about their kids. Hell, I was born during the second year of my mom's residency--that was before any such thing as duty-hour limits.

Also, are you an idiot or something? Wtf do you mean playing "russian roulette" by having a kid after age 30. What, do you think some switch gets turned at that age and you get a 1 in 4 chance of having a baby that's gonna be called "downy" for the rest of its life? Do some f'ing research honey, there're risks in everything we do.

Nailed it. I would LOVE to only be 26 by the time I graduate.

 

[marele86]

Might be cheaper in the long run to simply invest in freezing your eggs for use after you finish residency. Not kidding; think about it.

 

[namethatsmell]

I get where you are coming from OP, but I agree with the last two posters...plus the fact that you'll be allowing the interest on your debt to skyrocket while also putting yourself further away from obtaining an income level needed to pay it off.

Unless you are sitting on piles of cash now, this seems like an unwise risk to take (call it "financial roulette" if you like).

 

[Perrotfish]

Many students in my class came in with kids, many more got pregnant while they were here. Also yes, taking time off between medical school and residency is a bad idea. For the sake of applications yes it makes you a significantly less competitive applicant. For the sake of loans you will need to start paying down your monster debt the second you're outta school, so unless you share a last name with a famous brand of some kind you'll need to deal with crushing poverty and rapidly compounding interest. Finallly the millions of factoids you learn in medical education has a short half life. If you take 4 years off at any point in your career you're going to be way behind your peers. In general, once you start medical school I wouldn't plan on taking more than a year off at a time until you're ready to put down the stethescope for good. It's not fair to your patients.

 

[Melicopter]

I know so many people starting families at or around 30. In addition, a lot of people have kids in medical school and in residency. Taking one year off somewhere is probably not going to hurt you, but planning on a multi-year break? Seems like a very bad idea.

How close are you to applying? Do you have a partner/spouse? Is this just purely hypothetical for you? You seem to be a bit stressed out about something that is way in the future.

FYI - when I was in my early 20's I was sure I'd have kids before I was 30, mostly because of the risks involved in having kids later in life. Turns out I'll be 30 soon, and have never felt like the time was right to start a family. I still might - maybe soon, maybe not. If I were you I'd work on other relationships and things around you so that when you are ready your marriage and home will be in good shape. People do this all the time. They have kids while in school, they have kids while working... unless you want to be a stay-at-home mom, don't freak out. If you do want to be a stay-at-home mom, you may have picked the wrong field.

 

[gravitywave]

Have you got Daddy yet? What does he think about all this?

 

[Knicks]

It is significantly harder to match into a speciality if you take years off after finishing medical school. Competitive schools and competitive specialties will always prefer people straight out of medical school. You will just need to pick your priorities and make the necessary sacrifices in order to have the family life you desire. These decisions are not easy, and it is often not realistic to plan for these. Life happens, and a lot of these plans often go out the window because of some unforseen event.

How many years are we talking here for it to have an [significant] effect?

Nailed it. I would LOVE to only be 26 by the time I graduate.

SOO true!