Well I was accounting for the legwork that is required to get into med school in the first place, which is not insignificant. Nontrads may have a different perception of this. But as a traditional myself, I felt the latter half of my college experience if not the entire experience was geared toward eventually entering med school. There are a good number of prerequisites to get into med school--all of the usual items seen on successful applications (most of which I frankly would have never done if I had no intentions of applying to med school). And traveling all over the place for interviews. All of this is a sizeable up front investment even before med school begins, or at least I felt that way in my case.
So I feel I'm well over 50% of the way to an MD. In simple terms, each year would count for 25%, but that says nothing of the premed hurdles. Those were the implications I lumped into that 75%. I should have clarified all that on my previous post but I was in a rush or tired I think. I think it is misleading to say to someone post (
status post?) Step 1 "you are now halfway to being an MD". And for someone who has been on the verge of quitting--like myself--I think it's helpful to look at only the meaningful checkpoints of the guantlet instead of the entire length. Just taking it one Step at a time--quite literally if we are talking about USMLE's. Quitting after 2nd year means everything prior has gone to waste. Quitting post graduation is different. Too much to get into right now, gotta run--but to some extent these are all rationalizations I've had to come up with to keep myself from leaving this path prematurely, in a move I would likely regret later.
OP--if you are still around even--check the following blog post referenced in the SDN newsletter which covers non-clinical/nontraditional careers as an MD:
http://studentdoctor.net/blog/2008/05/17/non-clinical-opportunities-for-phyisicians/#more-571
Incidentally, be wary of this: I hear it goes on record and can come back to bite you later on careerwise.