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set to matriculate this fall. do you think i've made a mistake?
- Thread starter lachat_noire
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I dont believe you should go to medschool. You seem to have made a very good case against it. I don't even see anything in your post that suggests you want to practice medicine. Just my opinion though.
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Med schools has only really one year of basic science classroom coursework, second year is not all that bad because they make things clinically relevant. Third year is rough but its only a year, and then fourth year you can do whatever including research electives. Third and fourth year are clinical and very relevant to what a public health professional should know.
Ph.D. programs can take forever, you're never certain when it'll end and whether or not you'll have secure employment when it ends.
I think you're making it out to be worse than it is. Excelling in medical school is difficult, but if you have no aspirations of some competitive residency and just want to pass, it can be quite simple. Since you haven't been exposed to much of medicine, you may also find something you really like and pursue that instead of preventive med or PH.
I think you are having some start of school jitters and should look at things rationally rather than emotionally.
Ph.D. programs can take forever, you're never certain when it'll end and whether or not you'll have secure employment when it ends.
I think you're making it out to be worse than it is. Excelling in medical school is difficult, but if you have no aspirations of some competitive residency and just want to pass, it can be quite simple. Since you haven't been exposed to much of medicine, you may also find something you really like and pursue that instead of preventive med or PH.
I think you are having some start of school jitters and should look at things rationally rather than emotionally.
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i agree with the previous post. don't go to med school. even those people who go in fully committed have trouble getting through it and staying motivated. i couldn't imagine putting in all that work and money for something that i wasn't really sure that i wanted.
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Hey, I'm really sorry for your predicament. Since I'm only an MS0 like yourself, I can't really offer much advice, but only wish you luck in whatever you decide to do. I definitely feel for you, mostly because I am just thrilled to be starting in 2 months and its really quite an amazing feeling that I wish you could have too. I will admit though that I do still get nervous about alot of things. I also worry if I'll do well, or feel overwhelmed at first. But I think that med school classes are going to be different from undergrad sciences in important ways that will make them more interesting and doable. You said you hated studying pathways and minutiae, and as a biochem major, I definitely know how crazy those can get. After learning every mechanism that the body uses to synthesize each non-essential amino acid you're like cool! That's awesome, now wtf am I gonna do with this information! Now see I'm weird, and thought this was totally cool information, if utterly useless at the time, but thats not the point. In med school, they're going to make it clinically relevant. You'll learn about amino acid and protein synthesis not just for the hell of it, but so you can understand how problems with these processes can cause disease. And you'll get to learn about all the really cool diseases that go along with the process or pathway or whatever. This is what is making me excited to study in med school.. Cause I have to admit, if I had to sit through one more year of undergrad biology, where the wedge fits into the little triangle hole on the cell's surface receptor and your like thats really cool and all, but who gives a flip.... I'd probably go insane. Because even thought alot of the people in these classes are premeds, the profs do not teach them with this in mind. These are research guys, who think doctors are crazy, and that these little details are interesting in their own right and do not need to be made clinically relevant. So I don't think that the minutiae is going to be so bad in med school because they will be trying to give us the big picture... I think in undergrad they try to drown you in minutiae just because its so competitive and the prof can only give out so many A's - at least that's how it was at my big public research driven school.
Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent here... this is just my take on it... I wish you the best in everything.... Good luck!
Anyway, I'm going off on a tangent here... this is just my take on it... I wish you the best in everything.... Good luck!
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You're thinking too much... just get in there and do it- you'll find that it's not bad after all. Medicine is incredibly diverse- and though you've got a narrow scope coming in, there's no telling what you'll take a liking to in the next four years.
I think that maybe now is a good time to talk to your dean of students. I don't know what school you will be matriculating at, but at my school, the administration is absolutely wonderful and I think that at most medical schools they tend to be very supportive of their student body. Perhaps you should talk about whether or not delaying your matriculation a year would be a good idea so you can explore other career options to see if something else would be a better fit for you... feeling like this now before the hard stuff starts is not a good sign and it is not setting you up for success for the next 9-10 months.
The other thing to consider is that medicine does not limit you-- it opens doors. Have you considered doing an MPH along with the MD degree? It would really give you a great opportunity to make a difference in the field of preventitive health.
Try not to doubt your abiltiies-- and when you do, remember that everyone else does too at one time or another. Med school can be overwhelming. However, you would not have been accepted if you could not do the work and your school will not let you fail as long as you try. You are smart enough to do this. Try to remember the reasons that you got into this and see if these are conducive to the practice of medicine-- if you are interested in preventitive health, thenb it certainly seems that there is a place for you in the field of medicine.
Good luck with your decision, and please don't do anything rash. You worked very hard to get where you are today, and so you at least owe it to yourself to call your dean and discuss this situation with him/her. After all, that is what they are there for.
The other thing to consider is that medicine does not limit you-- it opens doors. Have you considered doing an MPH along with the MD degree? It would really give you a great opportunity to make a difference in the field of preventitive health.
Try not to doubt your abiltiies-- and when you do, remember that everyone else does too at one time or another. Med school can be overwhelming. However, you would not have been accepted if you could not do the work and your school will not let you fail as long as you try. You are smart enough to do this. Try to remember the reasons that you got into this and see if these are conducive to the practice of medicine-- if you are interested in preventitive health, thenb it certainly seems that there is a place for you in the field of medicine.
Good luck with your decision, and please don't do anything rash. You worked very hard to get where you are today, and so you at least owe it to yourself to call your dean and discuss this situation with him/her. After all, that is what they are there for.
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lachat_noire: It's great that you are willing to really ask a question like this in an area that most MS0's probably would not be willing to seriously entertain because they have worked so hard to get to this point (something many med students will be telling themselves for the next 8 years). I'm all for thoughtful consideration, but I also realize that sometimes what might be thoughtful consideration turns out to simply unhealthy worry. It's important to distinguish between the two, I'm sure you'll agree.
It is possible for something like fear to cause you to doubt yourself in an unnecessary way ... the kind of worry that could destroy pretty much anything you could enjoy. You could have this same feeling about a new MPH job in the future, for example. So, let's take a your post and perhaps clarify where you are coming from.
Rather than sorting out every possible aspect, I would take a few things and try to understand the underlying reasons and make sure you are really in a place right now to make important decisions such as turning down a med school admission (which you won't get to "do over" if you change your mind again). Part of my reason for exploring this is that I've talked to several students and it's not unusual to feel apprehension about starting a new experience like med school with a "reputation." It's probably more common than you seem to suggest in your message. I assume you have read the "precommitment jitters" thread on this forum to hear from others.
Well, before this recent questioning, what made you think med school was the right path? Leave out the negativity for a moment and think back on your motivations.
Why do you think you would only be competent in PM? I'm not talking about interest for the moment, just competence. Below are some other phrases that make me wonder if you are just worrying, putting undue emphasis on certain concerns instead of carefully weighing the issues. Here are just my reactions to some of the things you are saying:
Yes, med school & physician life is stressful. However, med students and physicians have fun to and have rewarding careers in many cases. Many things in life worth doing are not easy. Have you talked to med students and physicians about whether they grew spiritually or emotionally? My guess is that you would more than a few who did (I know I have). My thought here is just to make sure you have information that gives an accurate / representative picture to the extent that you can have such a thing now.
After a stressful and emotionally draining experience like you have had, I would not make life changing decisions quickly. I've even heard it said that after a major event like a divorce or whatever, a person should avoid making major changes (like remarrying changing careers, etc.) for a period of up to a year because the change my make things even less pleasant in the long run. Not saying that this is relevant the case here, but what I'm saying is that it's possible that your "stressful, emotionally draining spring" could be causing you to think in a way that is more a symptom of your negative experience than a carefully considered reflection of your future and true long-term interests.
Many of your fellow matriculants have doubts also. They are not necessarily going to share that with you. Probably the worst thing you can do right now is compare yourself to others. I would focus on understanding this potential journey, your motivations, and what are the reasons for your concerns. For example, are your concerns simply a better self-examination or normal worry that many MS0's are experiencing.
The funny thing is that this eager pre-med might have the same feelings of dread that you have once the excitement of getting accepted wears off. We'll let's cut it off there and see what you have to say.
It is possible for something like fear to cause you to doubt yourself in an unnecessary way ... the kind of worry that could destroy pretty much anything you could enjoy. You could have this same feeling about a new MPH job in the future, for example. So, let's take a your post and perhaps clarify where you are coming from.
Rather than sorting out every possible aspect, I would take a few things and try to understand the underlying reasons and make sure you are really in a place right now to make important decisions such as turning down a med school admission (which you won't get to "do over" if you change your mind again). Part of my reason for exploring this is that I've talked to several students and it's not unusual to feel apprehension about starting a new experience like med school with a "reputation." It's probably more common than you seem to suggest in your message. I assume you have read the "precommitment jitters" thread on this forum to hear from others.
Well, before this recent questioning, what made you think med school was the right path? Leave out the negativity for a moment and think back on your motivations.
Why do you think you would only be competent in PM? I'm not talking about interest for the moment, just competence. Below are some other phrases that make me wonder if you are just worrying, putting undue emphasis on certain concerns instead of carefully weighing the issues. Here are just my reactions to some of the things you are saying:
Yes, med school & physician life is stressful. However, med students and physicians have fun to and have rewarding careers in many cases. Many things in life worth doing are not easy. Have you talked to med students and physicians about whether they grew spiritually or emotionally? My guess is that you would more than a few who did (I know I have). My thought here is just to make sure you have information that gives an accurate / representative picture to the extent that you can have such a thing now.
After a stressful and emotionally draining experience like you have had, I would not make life changing decisions quickly. I've even heard it said that after a major event like a divorce or whatever, a person should avoid making major changes (like remarrying changing careers, etc.) for a period of up to a year because the change my make things even less pleasant in the long run. Not saying that this is relevant the case here, but what I'm saying is that it's possible that your "stressful, emotionally draining spring" could be causing you to think in a way that is more a symptom of your negative experience than a carefully considered reflection of your future and true long-term interests.
Many of your fellow matriculants have doubts also. They are not necessarily going to share that with you. Probably the worst thing you can do right now is compare yourself to others. I would focus on understanding this potential journey, your motivations, and what are the reasons for your concerns. For example, are your concerns simply a better self-examination or normal worry that many MS0's are experiencing.
The funny thing is that this eager pre-med might have the same feelings of dread that you have once the excitement of getting accepted wears off. We'll let's cut it off there and see what you have to say.
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Perhaps see if you can defer your admission for a year. Work a year out in the real world and it may change your perspective. In the end, you have to do what is best for you and live with the consequences of that choice. Good Luck.
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Disagree -- if the OP truly prefers studying "nutrition, psychology, sociology, anthropology, public health", then s/he is going to have to put much of that on the back burner for at least 4 years. You get very little of that in med school, and maybe even residency. Sure, you can make the argument that clinical stuff "relates" to what a public health professional should know, but the same argument could be made that the prereq courses for med school or the basic science years are something public health professionals should know -- it's all foundation but saying it directly correlates is a stretch. (If anything, a lot of the nutrition stuff is vitamin stuff you get in first year biochem).
So OP, the question is, is your career target something you want enough to put your current interests on hold for a number of years, or would you rather immerse yourself in that subject matter now. Without a better idea of your career target and reason, I'm inclined to go with dutchman on this one. If you are going to hate med school for 4 years, it won't be worth it for you.
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lcn,
It seems very valid for you to be exploring these tough questions now as opposed to in 3 or 4 years. It is of course impossible to know how happy/unhappy you will be in a given field until you are immersed in it. A few things that you have said--namely, your complete lack of interest in medical school or a medical career, and your "despondency" and "crushing dread" at the though of it, make me feel like you medicine is not where you belong. However, it is important to seperate normal concerns and fears that many students have when embarking on such a rigorous path from warning signs that it is the wrong path for you.
I also enjoyed humanities type subjects far more than most of my basic sciences in undergrad--I was an english major and found very little in chem, o-chem, physics, or even much of biology to be terribly enjoyable. What I did find interesting, though, was anything in those classes that was directly relevant to the functioning of the human body. I also worked for years in a clinic and found a great sense of enjoyment and reward in my interactions with patients there. It was therefore my fascination with the human body and sense of fulfillment in patient care that made me decide this was the career for me, in spite of a general dislike of "hard" sciences. And to be honest, much of the preclinical years (which I have just completed) does consist of memorizing a lot of boring detail. While much of it is clinically relevant, especially in the second year, even for someone with a deep and abiding interest in the functioning of the body it can be overwhelming and at times mind-numbing. While I may have wondered about how, for example, the impulse to movement in the brain is translated into actual physical action, I certainly never wanted to know every step in the pathway and neurotransmitter involved.
Despite this, I still have enjoyed med school so far and can't imagine doing anything else. While there are parts of it I dislike, including the demanding lifestyle I am now facing, overall it satisfies most of what I was looking to do with my life. I do not hear anything in your post that shows an interest in medicine apart from public health. If you are not interested in clinical sciences or patient care, and only want to work in public policy or research, truthfully your interests will be better served in another graduate program. The stability career-wise of an MD is not a small thing to throw aside, and for many of us that too is part of the appeal, but neither is it worth being miserable over. It is normal when making such a huge commitment--going to med school, getting married, etc--to have doubts and wonder if there aren't other, better options for you. Usually in these cases, you must remind yourself of the reasons you chose that particular path and the things you find rewarding about it. If you truly can't find anything in medical school or a career as a physician that you are looking forward to, get out while you still can. If, on the other hand, there are aspects you think you really will enjoy and are just concerned about some temporary parts of the training, talk to other med students who have been through it (I'm sure your school could put you in touch with some third or fourth years if you don't know any) and consider the pros and cons carefully before making a decision. Good luck.
It seems very valid for you to be exploring these tough questions now as opposed to in 3 or 4 years. It is of course impossible to know how happy/unhappy you will be in a given field until you are immersed in it. A few things that you have said--namely, your complete lack of interest in medical school or a medical career, and your "despondency" and "crushing dread" at the though of it, make me feel like you medicine is not where you belong. However, it is important to seperate normal concerns and fears that many students have when embarking on such a rigorous path from warning signs that it is the wrong path for you.
I also enjoyed humanities type subjects far more than most of my basic sciences in undergrad--I was an english major and found very little in chem, o-chem, physics, or even much of biology to be terribly enjoyable. What I did find interesting, though, was anything in those classes that was directly relevant to the functioning of the human body. I also worked for years in a clinic and found a great sense of enjoyment and reward in my interactions with patients there. It was therefore my fascination with the human body and sense of fulfillment in patient care that made me decide this was the career for me, in spite of a general dislike of "hard" sciences. And to be honest, much of the preclinical years (which I have just completed) does consist of memorizing a lot of boring detail. While much of it is clinically relevant, especially in the second year, even for someone with a deep and abiding interest in the functioning of the body it can be overwhelming and at times mind-numbing. While I may have wondered about how, for example, the impulse to movement in the brain is translated into actual physical action, I certainly never wanted to know every step in the pathway and neurotransmitter involved.
Despite this, I still have enjoyed med school so far and can't imagine doing anything else. While there are parts of it I dislike, including the demanding lifestyle I am now facing, overall it satisfies most of what I was looking to do with my life. I do not hear anything in your post that shows an interest in medicine apart from public health. If you are not interested in clinical sciences or patient care, and only want to work in public policy or research, truthfully your interests will be better served in another graduate program. The stability career-wise of an MD is not a small thing to throw aside, and for many of us that too is part of the appeal, but neither is it worth being miserable over. It is normal when making such a huge commitment--going to med school, getting married, etc--to have doubts and wonder if there aren't other, better options for you. Usually in these cases, you must remind yourself of the reasons you chose that particular path and the things you find rewarding about it. If you truly can't find anything in medical school or a career as a physician that you are looking forward to, get out while you still can. If, on the other hand, there are aspects you think you really will enjoy and are just concerned about some temporary parts of the training, talk to other med students who have been through it (I'm sure your school could put you in touch with some third or fourth years if you don't know any) and consider the pros and cons carefully before making a decision. Good luck.
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You are seriously over-thinking things. Look, first and second year are like a vacation, especially since you are aiming low for a primary care specialty to parlay into an MPH or something equally worthless. All you need to do is barely pass everything and the primary care world is your oyster.
Third year blows. Fourth year will be like a vacation in comparrison. Intern year will blow but then you are home free in your preventative medicine track or whatever is involved.
Just suck it up.
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I would very strongly advise you to take a year off at the very least. While many people would urge you to "just try it", you should consider that you will likely be $50,000+ in debt at the end of one year of "just trying" it. Unfortunately, that will even further narrow your career options if you don't like it, as you now have to find a career that will support you AND pay off your massive debt. It IS a big decision, and shouldn't be taken lightly. Taking a year to explore another path will likely provide insight as to whether you might be happy doing something else (in which case you should do that, whatever the something else is) or if you HAVE to practice medicine to be happy.
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Who doesn't enjoy sociology and anthropology, etc.. more than biochemistry? Very few people.
Her alternative is a public health PhD program which probably doesn't involve all that much nutrition and psychology either and has other negatives as I pointed out. In the end she'll be better off as an MD in public health than as a PhD.
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If you don't want to go to medical school, don't go. Quit before the debt. Some of it isn't as bad as people make it out to be (a lot of it actually), but some of it is. It's also partially a financial consideration. You want to go into a specialty that is low on pay and even more dependent on the whims of beauracrats than the rest of medicine. You can't reconfigure your practice as some public health official. You will owe a lot of money. If you don't actually want to go, understand that you will have very little choice but to stay in your field with your graduation debt.
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Having taken a course in each I can honestly say I disliked all of them pretty equally.🙂
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lcn
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I agree. It would be nice to be able to "try out" medicine before you buy. Med school is a big commitment.
I hope you realize that doing what you like/enjoy and "[optimally] serv[ing] my community" may not always intersect in a job. For example, making a big contribution to your community might involve many hours of routine work. A more satisfying job might have more flexibility and have more job content in your area of interest, but be less of a priority to the community. Perhaps you may want to (relatively) prioritize your personal satisfaction or service to the community or determine that it's ok to spend years doing something boring because you get satisfaction from the benefit it has from others (a risky idea).
Also, why the generic mistrust of the people who gave you this information? Sure, validate these "facts" as much as possible. Also, I realize that every person is different, but does it makes sense to you that with an MD there are more career options available to you than with a Ph.D. in Public Health? With an MD degree you could do everything from treating AIDS in Africa to Heme/Onc in LA to Surgery in New York to running a drug abuse rehabilitation center in the midwest to, yes, working in public health for the CDC in Atlanta, GA. It's hard to have so many (true) options with any other education, long as that education/training may be. Have you ever had any kind of public-health related job or internship?
It's hard to get a read on someone over the Internet. I assume you are already talking to long-time mentors or trusted friends who know you and can tell if this is just a panic phase you are going through or whether you are experiencing some deeper insight into your plans. As I read your original message & replies, I just don't get the impression that you are someone who has made some intellectual discovery that has helped clarify your career aspirations. You come across more as someone who is questioning themselves because the upcoming years could be challenging (even via boredom) and expensive for you.
I do like the idea of deferring a year and maybe taking some public-health related courses and getting more clinical exposure through EMT training, a job at a family doctors office, etc., but I'm not sure how flexible schools are about this kind of deferral under your circumstances. Since I'm not familiar with these details, I personally would post another thread asking for people who have deferred and how easy / difficult that tends to be to get approved. I would also be a little bit worried (perhaps unnecessarily so) about creating the wrong impression because at this point you were supposed to have already done all the medical exposure experiences to be able to decide to go into medicine.
This (below) does sound like a good idea to explore further:
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I feel nervous to enter med school as well. Thinking of all the debts that I would have four years later makes me worried. However, like others have said, you have worked so hard to be here today, so don't give up last minute due to some overwhelming thoughts. If you feel that you need re-evaluate your situation, then you probably should consider taking a year off. Perhaps you're just tired after so many years of working so hard and feeling burnt out. If you defer, then don't tell the Dean that because you're having doubts. Just say you're tired and need to take a year off.
D
da8s0859q
I also dislike the sciences but still like medicine, so it's kinda nice to see someone that's with me on that. Seems like so many other premedders I talk to are like, "yeah, bio lecture is SOOOOO interesting."
OP: I've not even applied yet and have a laundry list of doubts not entirely unlike yours (albeit without the preventative med interest - I'm more of an EM fan like our dear Uncle Panda here). Many, many people have also given me advice like the above. If you're the type that will think a choice into the ground based on a series of what-ifs, and you know that you're like that, I think that's probably something to weigh. It's obviously a scary prospect for you, but at the same time, you'd be an awfully stagnant person if you never took risks. And who's to say that you wouldn't second-guess yourself later if you opted to not go?
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I have to agree with Panda Bear here. I don't think there's anything that you've said that has me at all convinced that you really don't want to do medicine. You seem to have a bad case of the "just about to start med school jitters" coupled with the fact that you just bailed on some MPH programs which probably makes you feel doubly bad.
Taken from the first paragraph you wrote "the only area in which i feel like i'd be competent is preventive medicine--possibly psych but more from a therapy standpoint than medical; at this point, i have no interest in any other field."
This alone makes me feel better about telling you to go to medical school. You got into a medical school? Trust me, you will be more than competent to practice preventive medicine or psych. Of course you're not competent to deliver babies or perform surgery yet. That's why you have four years of school ahead of you! Then residency to actually master what it is you choose to do! And if you do decide to psych, then you'll go into a program with a strong psychotherapy component and do that (although I'd argue that it this point, your "medical" vs "therapy" knowledge of what psychiatry is about is probably way more influenced by what you've seen on TV, the internet, or your own experiences than what psychiatry is really about). Or you decide clinical medicine isn't you and you'll do an MPH, do a 3 year residency in something like internal medicine (there may even by preventive medicine residencies?) and work in a public health setting for the rest of your career. My father in law works at the CDC and they seriously can't get enough MDs to come and work for them.
Taken from your second paragraph "i've realized that maybe the med school/physician "lifestyle" isn't for me. it doesn't seem very healthy or conducive to continued spiritual and emotional growth (don't flame, this is my opinion). these aforementioned aspects have become important in my life since my relatively stressful, emotionally draining spring. in other words, the past six months have led me to reprioritize my life. unlike my fellow matriculants whom i met at a med school get-together two weeks ago, i don't get excited when i think about starting med school. i actually feel an enormous sense of dread--a suffocating, chest crushing dread. i definitely feel like a fraud. i feel selfish for holding my spot when there is some eager pre-med student out there who wants it more than me."
Medical school isn't THAT bad in terms of lifestyle. First and second year aren't too different to undergrad although the hours spent studying will definitely be more. But class doesn't start until 8 or 9am and you can skip it if you want to and do whatever you want on your own. 3rd year is tough but you'll have a few easier months thrown in. Fourth year is the easiest. Residency is going to suck. I don't know what else to say. That said, if you do choose psych, you'll be fine. The psych residents at my school are the happiest residents by far and consistently work 8-5 hours (with overnight call 1 to 2 times a week). After residency, if you want to do psychotherapy 30 hours a week, that's largely up to you if you can handle it financially. Half of today's graduates are female. Solo pracitioners are fading away as large groups take over. The demand (and therefore supply) for jobs with fewer hours or part time status is only increasing.
I also think that if you asked, a surprising number of those people at that med school party you went to are filled with a surprising amount of dread and moderate to even severe anxiety about starting medical school (esp. if they're on SDN too much!) The fraud feeling is very common and it doesn't always go away either. I just graduated from medical school, and the main dean of the med school, the head honcho big guy, gave us this lecture about how much he felt like a fraud the day he graduated. How he wanted to run back to school and give back his degree because he couldn't possibly be, no way no how uh uh, competent to take care of patient. Now he's the big dude at the school. Physicians are naturally self-doubting people. That's what drives them to study so hard because they never fully trust themselves that they've gotten it right. It's a good quality to have because the worst physician is an overly confident one. But too much self-doubt can lead one to be frozen and refuse to move ahead.
from OP post--"on the other hand, there is no guarantee that another path would be easier, and i don't expect that anything worthwhile would be. i don't know what to expect if i choose a phd career in public health since you essentially have to find your own funding throughout your education/career. i might be in just as much debt with a much lower earning potential if i choose this route. granted, i might be happier going through the process (research, studying, teaching relevant information versus just studying medical information), but if the end result is the same (i.e., preventive work) then what's the lesser of two evils--disliking the education process (md) or having a lower earning potential (phd)."
Exactly--there are no guarantees in life. Up until the end of undergrad, our lives our fairly laid out for us. take a bunch of AP exams in high school, graduate top of class, go to big name school with scholarships or bigger name school and have parents pay, ace classes while dabbling in some extracurricular stuff. Then we graduate, and there are no more guarantees.
A PhD in public health may be right thing for you or it may not. My husband is going a PhD and man, it can be tough because at least in medicine, you can bumble your way through and be close to the bottom of your class for four years and still get your MD and get a residency in something. PhDs require a hell of a lot of motivation--in brief, the highs are higher and the lows are lower. You can work all semester (or longer) on a project, even get what you think are great results, and then it gets rejected by the conference or journal you swore you'd get. That is extremely demoralizing. And then you can get two papers at once admitted for the same conference and that's awesome! One year, you come close to running out of funding and don't see how you'll finish the degree. Then miraculously that fellowhsip you applied for comes through. It's not easy and way more people drop out of PhD programs than medical school (finances probably also have something to do with this but at you have a much higher earning potential coming out of medical school. Bigger upfront investment, bigger long term reward).
ultimately only you know and can decide what's right for you. When you talk about how bad physician lifestyle is and whatnot, where are you getting this info from because SDN can be notoriously negative at times at medicine. We need a place to come and vent because quite frankly, others don't always understand what we go through. But honestly, it's not that bad. Life isn't easy, there's no low rish, high reward career out there.
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I read this thread with interest because I've also been accepted and am having some pre-matriculation jitters. AAMC has data for the past 10 years on the number of applicants, accepted applicants, and matriculants, and I was really surprised to see that each year over a thousand people who are accepted end up not going to med school:
2006 data
Total Applicants: 39,108
Total Acceptees: 18,442
Total Matriculants: 17,370
I guess this situation is not that uncommon, and as someone mentioned earlier it's better to think these concerns through right now than one or two years after matriculating.
2006 data
Total Applicants: 39,108
Total Acceptees: 18,442
Total Matriculants: 17,370
I guess this situation is not that uncommon, and as someone mentioned earlier it's better to think these concerns through right now than one or two years after matriculating.
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As much as I will like to tell you to quit; something in me tells me you are a good fit for medicine. Yes, hopefully there are more people like you willing to do that preventive medicine thing, so I don't have to touch it. Now, if you have anything like Rads in mind, i'll say you quit right NOW. Run and never turn back.
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you have to consider that a lot of people chose to defer. I'm not sure about 1,000 pushing off matricuation a year but i dont think many people would choose to apply, get accepted, and drop an acceptance.
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a tad harsh, no?
