Questions from a spouse

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msduncan

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My wife is strongly considering applying for Med school. She probably knows much of what I'm going to ask, but I thought I'd come here and get some of my curiosity and questions hopefully answered. Hopefully you guys are ok with answering questions from someone who is not in the medical field who is curious about what his wife is considering. :)

Quick background:

She's been a Medical Technologist for almost 5 years, and she's always wanted to be a doctor. She wants to be a Pathologist, and I mean she's focused on this particular school of medicine since she works with Pathologists and knows she'd love it.

Questions:

1. How long is the process once you are accepted to med school? I've heard mixed reports of 3 years of book-school, or 2 years book/2 years rotations followed by residency, etc etc etc..... What is the real time breakdown?

2. Cost. I know the cost is formidable. My real question is how much aid is available for someone to do this? Obviously we already have a home, cars, bills, etc..... Are we going to be able to get enough aid (in any form) to help us through this?

On the other side when she becomes a pathologist, will she make enough to dig us out?

3. Time-sinks. Med school is no picnic--I understand that. But I guess what I'm wondering here is if it's a constant 100hr(+)/week sink, or does it vary from semester to semester, etc.

We have 2 kids. My dad went though law school without us ever knowing when we were young because he made sure to be home between 5 and 8 and then the rest of the time he busted his butt. I know pathology is in some ways less demanding than say -- some of the stuff a surgeon has to do. Can you give me an idea?


Thanks in advance for your help! I'm just a guy getting some information for myself rather than anything else. She's got a passion for this stuff. She's always wanted to do it. I'm willing, but I need to know what we're in for and I need to be able to figure out how we'll pay for school/living/bills in the meantime, and make sure we'll be able to get out from under it afterwards.

Thanks!
Scott

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msduncan said:
My wife is strongly considering applying for Med school. She probably knows much of what I'm going to ask, but I thought I'd come here and get some of my curiosity and questions hopefully answered. Hopefully you guys are ok with answering questions from someone who is not in the medical field who is curious about what his wife is considering. :)

Quick background:

She's been a Medical Technologist for almost 5 years, and she's always wanted to be a doctor. She wants to be a Pathologist, and I mean she's focused on this particular school of medicine since she works with Pathologists and knows she'd love it.

Questions:

1. How long is the process once you are accepted to med school? I've heard mixed reports of 3 years of book-school, or 2 years book/2 years rotations followed by residency, etc etc etc..... What is the real time breakdown?

2. Cost. I know the cost is formidable. My real question is how much aid is available for someone to do this? Obviously we already have a home, cars, bills, etc..... Are we going to be able to get enough aid (in any form) to help us through this?

On the other side when she becomes a pathologist, will she make enough to dig us out?

3. Time-sinks. Med school is no picnic--I understand that. But I guess what I'm wondering here is if it's a constant 100hr(+)/week sink, or does it vary from semester to semester, etc.

We have 2 kids. My dad went though law school without us ever knowing when we were young because he made sure to be home between 5 and 8 and then the rest of the time he busted his butt. I know pathology is in some ways less demanding than say -- some of the stuff a surgeon has to do. Can you give me an idea?


Thanks in advance for your help! I'm just a guy getting some information for myself rather than anything else. She's got a passion for this stuff. She's always wanted to do it. I'm willing, but I need to know what we're in for and I need to be able to figure out how we'll pay for school/living/bills in the meantime, and make sure we'll be able to get out from under it afterwards.

Thanks!
Scott

Scottie,
This scenario kinda makes me cringe. Realize to get a good gig anywhere in most careers (not just pathology), she would have to move you, the kids for medical school, maybe again for residency, perhaps for fellowship, then for a job, then maybe for a better job etc. etc...you would have to be committed to potentially not putting down roots for 4 years of med school + 5ish years of residency/fellowship. 9 years. That is the entire childhood of your kids. Think longggg and hard. path is okay, but if I didnt do this, trust me I would go on. :laugh:
 
LADoc00 said:
Scottie,
This scenario kinda makes me cringe. Realize to get a good gig anywhere in most careers (not just pathology), she would have to move you, the kids for medical school, maybe again for residency, perhaps for fellowship, then for a job, then maybe for a better job etc. etc...you would have to be committed to potentially not putting down roots for 4 years of med school + 5ish years of residency/fellowship. 9 years. That is the entire childhood of your kids. Think longggg and hard. path is okay, but if I didnt do this, trust me I would go on. :laugh:

thanks for the quick reply!

I don't know if this makes any difference at all, but we currently live in Birmingham, Alabama on the doorstep of UAB Medical School. She was going to apply here.

After that we were hoping she could apply for residency at the hospitals in southeast georgia and north florida or even central florida. We have family at all those locations.

It would be tougher on me than anyone else. She is a navy brat and thus used to moving every few years. Kids -- they presevere as long as the parents are together. Me? I'd have to suck it up and treat each move as an adventure. :p
 
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What's your financial situation? Med techs are in high demand (good med techs) around the country, and make decent salary. When you factor in med school tuition and the age at which she finishes training, is the extra salary going to even matter? You have a family so you have to think about such things. As a med student at signout today put it, when he starts residency he will be getting "a $75,000 per year raise" due to the loans. And that doesn't factor in repayment of debts, etc.

Plus, med school is not easy. You have to get the prerequisites, then take the MCAt, then apply and interview. None of this is free, cheap, or tax deductible. Then in med school you have to buy books, don't have time for a second job, and then go on interviews and take more tests, none of which is tax deductible. Then residency starts and you make decent money but still less than a good med tech, plus you work long hours.

What is the ultimate goal? She "likes pathology" but unfortunately that wouldn't be enough for me here. That's good enough for someone in college with no family and no huge debts yet, and young enough to afford the risk.

Depending on what part of pathology she likes, she can also get a PA degree, or train to be a diener for autopsies. PAs make $75-100k sometimes. Dieners don't get paid that well but they get overtime, etc. All of this without the responsibility and with normal working hours.
 
Both LA and Yaah make excellent points. You really need to figure out if this option is a good investment. Consider that she will have to go 100-200k in debt for medical school, then make about 40k per year as a resident (for four years), then a probable additional fellowship year. Will the 150-200k/yr salary as a pathologist be worth that time and monetary investment, considering that she would be forgoing at least nine years of her current salary? I am simply posing the question. I do not know the answer.

The process of becoming a physician, especially a specialist like a pathologist, is indeed a long and arduous one. I did it without the additional burdens of family and children, and believe me it was tough. I personally couldn't imagine doing it with the demands of a family. Think this through long and hard before making a decision. If she does decide to pursue this, then she'll have to go in head first and completely dedicate the next decade to acheiving her dream.
 
pathdawg said:
Both LA and Yaah make excellent points. You really need to figure out if this option is a good investment. Consider that she will have to go 100-200k in debt for medical school, then make about 40k per year as a resident (for four years), then a probable additional fellowship year. Will the 150-200k/yr salary as a pathologist be worth that time and monetary investment, considering that she would be forgoing at least nine years of her current salary? I am simply posing the question. I do not know the answer.

The process of becoming a physician, especially a specialist like a pathologist, is indeed a long and arduous one. I did it without the additional burdens of family and children, and believe me it was tough. I personally couldn't imagine doing it with the demands of a family. Think this through long and hard before making a decision. If she does decide to pursue this, then she'll have to go in head first and completely dedicate the next decade to acheiving her dream.

Oh and also realize that 20 years of 80K/year is worth FAR MORE than 10 years of 160K/year due to graduated income taxes and deductions. Then factor 9 years lost of interest accruing on a retirement plan and loss of capital gains in general on your money. To make worthwhile in a financial sense she would have to work full time for 20 or so years at least, maybe more. And from the sounds of it, she is what? 30-35? Maybe getting her first job when she is what? 39-44? Assuming everything goes perfectly. You arent even taking account the risk: even at good pathology programs that screen heavily you can see up to 20% of the residents get fired/released. Nothing is a sure thing. What about disability? What if she has a vision problem? Do think you have full professional disability insurance in medical and residency?? Um no you dont. What about just general medical issues? Lots to consider.

People have a tendency to think completely linear: if I do A then--->B, then---->C, then of course---->$$$ its not even close to that simple and at any number of stages the whole plan can go completely haywire. That is true for everyone of us, yes, but most of us dont have kids+spouse to stress over and didnt leave a solid paying job to be here (in fact I was a college bum sleeping on people's couches, if I didnt do this I would probably be a homeless person, so for me it was all win-win)
 
Hypothetically, if I was my current age and in a different career and wanted to change, the last thing I would do would be to drop everything and go to med school. That is just me, of course. I would rather get a phd than an MD, at least you get subsidized.
 
Thanks for the quick and honest responses guys.

She's 27. However, I think she's decided that she's going to spend the next year fullfilling some prereqs while mulling it over. She never took Physics, and she didn't have to have Org Chemistry II. She got an A in Org I, but the Med Tech program didn't require the second class.

In any case.... we have time to think it over. In the meantime she just got a job as Lead Tech. Even still the pay as a Med Tech (which is indeed the 4 year degree you are thinking of) isn't nearly as good as you think. She's only getting $24 per hour, and this latest position gave her a $3 per hour bump in pay!
 
$24/hour = $192 /day = $960/week = $3840/month = $46,080 / year. That is more than residents make, and that isn't including overtime pay which would probably be fairly easy to get, plus the fact that you are only working an 8 hour day. You could get a part time second job at another hospital and get another $10k per year maybe.

I still don't think it's worth it financially. Financially isn't the only consideration though.
 
yaah said:
$24/hour = $192 /day = $960/week = $3840/month = $46,080 / year. That is more than residents make, and that isn't including overtime pay which would probably be fairly easy to get, plus the fact that you are only working an 8 hour day. You could get a part time second job at another hospital and get another $10k per year maybe.

I still don't think it's worth it financially. Financially isn't the only consideration though.

Wow 24 bucks an hour is only 46K a year?! Ouch. I would consider doing lab equipment sales, they can easily rake in 6 figures.
 
I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents since my background is similar to your wife's. I was a pathology lab tech (histotech) for 2 years before I went back to college and finished my bachelor's degree. I started med school at 26, just graduated at 30, and won't be done with residency/fellowship until I'm 35. I moved to a different state for med school and across the country for residency. No, I didn't have a spouse or children to worry about during this time but it still was a struggle. Would I do it all over again? In a heartbeat. I liked my work as a histotech but I knew that I wouldn't be satisfied with it for the rest of my life. If your wife thinks that being a physician is the only job she'd really be satisfied with I'd encourage her to take her prerequisites and spend some time at the microscope with the pathologists she works with. That's what sealed the deal for me.
 
That is a good point - there is definitely a lot to be said with being satisfied in life, even if you have to sacrifice. If you have support, why not. But you definitely have to be ready and prepared for the ordeal of getting there - lots of people try it and find that they can't or shouldn't have, and by that point they have lost productive years.
 
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