I’ve finally been accepted to medical school (Northstate) but now I am in a place of not being completely sure of going. I became an emt and worked through bls companies and now am working for Santa Clara county ems running 911 calls and I love it. I have also applied to paramedic programs and am waiting to hear back if I get in or not. My plan became medic firefighter Rn micn and then later go for dnp. Has anyone else been in the same position? I really appreciate any thoughts. I know to most it sounds crazy but this is where I am at.
Should I go to medical school?
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Go to med school.
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If your goal is to put the entire alphabet after your name, do NP. If you just want the MD, go to medical school.
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EMT -> medic -> med student here. No ragrets so far. Definitely take you acceptance and run with it, don't look back.
Sometimes I wistfully think about how sweet life was... Making 60k/yr pre-tax working 2x24-hour shifts/week, dedicated station-based 911. Live cheap, put all your money into a Roth IRA/Vanguard fund, get really handy and do your own auto work / plumbing repairs / etc. Not a bad living for having 5 days off per week.
If you're already having inklings of wanting to do DNP though... I say just go straight to medical school.
Here's a post I have bookmarked that I re-read 20 times when I was trying to make this same decision you're making. I swear, every time I re-read this post I find more wisdom in it. And now I know what temporal arteritis and pancreatic pseudocyst are!
Should a pre-med student go Medic?
This post is directed at the OP, but applies to traditional undergrads as well. Anyway,
I'm assuming you're an EMT-B already, since that is usually a mandatory pre-requisite to becoming a paramedic (though this might be different in other states). Great, you got a head start on your med school hopeful peers, you don't really know too much as an EMT-B so you still have a healthy appreciation that you don't know very much about medicine. Believe it or not this is a wonderful place to be. I strongly advise you to stop right there (at EMT-B) and devote yourself entirely to becoming a physician.
Here's why:
EMS is a bit of a trap, you can get all caught up in it, because you are enjoying what you are doing, helping others, taking care of emergencies, etc. It's a good high when things go really right. Then you meet a paramedic, and think to yourself: boy can this guy take care of business, I'd really love to be able to do all that great stuff too! But there is really not that much to being a paramedic. Unfortunately nobody really tells you this. IN your world, all these new skills are exciting and impressive, So then things start to take a turn in your life. Let me tell you a little about what I mean:
Paramedics are funny people, they are experts in a very, very, narrow slice of medicine. In fact, when it comes down to the business of prehospital emergency care, nobody does it like a medic. WOW, I think I want to do this medic thing, I'm going to go for it, atleast for now, until I go to med school next year. BUT, you can easily get all caught up in the ALS pre-hospital care scene. Because you are doing life saving interventions you may feel like you fast forwarded yourself to "doctor" or at least the preconceived notion you had of doctors before you ever got involved in medicine. So anyway, there you'll be doing all these great skills, and soon you'll start to think that gee-whiz look at all the great things that I can do as a medic (ha! nurses my ass, they can't do this stuff!). Heck, all that other stuff in medicine really is not as important as this stuff I'm doing right now (IVs, intubation and pacing oh my!), and that's when you start to make a very big mistake. All of a sudden you really stop caring about all the other things that medicine has to offer, so you stop learning about anything that doesn't have anything to do with the "important stuff". Now depending on how long this lasts you can piss away 4,5,6 years doing EMS work and be totally satisfied. But then something happens, it can be some job that went bad on you or you come across something you've never been prepared to deal with, or any other number of things that cause you to become reflective about yourself as a professional. So then you start to read again and you once again rediscover that there is a whole world of medical knowledge out there you weren't aware of as a medic. So now you're studying again and learning about the things you didn't know, but you are never able to do it in any coherent way. The sheer volume of the material is intimidating and you have no real way of knowing if you are making any progress. Plus you are surrounded by your peers, fellow paramedic professionals who tell you things like who the heck cares about temporal arteritis, that's not important and what the heck is so important about this pancreatic psuedocyst you speak of??? So now you start to get frustrated, and you look around at the people around you who are very content with being medics and knowing what medics know, and incorrectly equating their skill proficiency with medical knowledge. But not you. You start to remember that you wanted to be a doctor, and you look back and say, how the **** did I get here, this isn't what I wanted for myself professionally or personally. This whole medic thing was supposed to be a stepping stone to becoming a physician. You become, really frustrated, pissed off, burnt out and then to add insult to injury you start to realize that you are wildly underpaid for the work you are doing. Nurses don't have to put up with 1/2 the crap that I do and they get paid 3 times as much, plus I know a hell of alot more! That's the last straw, F-this you say, I'm going back to school. Only now you are well into your mid- late 20's, (in your case, mid-late 30's) maybe you got a mortgage, a big monthly car payment, who knows maybe a wife and kids in private school, your Golden Opportunity to become a physician is now well past you. You now must suffer in new and interesting ways to get to where you wanted to be in the first place. So sacrifices and painful choices are made and finally 7-8 years later you are back on track for the MD, older, a little more worn out, less enthusiastic, but hopefully a little wiser. Maybe.
So the question is, are you absolutely, positively sure that being a medic is what you want? Think long and hard about this, this is your life afterall. That being said, you gotta do what you gotta do, if you are supporting your whole family or you are on your own out there I can understand. But think about this seriously think about this. This is a long post, but I did not make all of this stuff up, I speak to you from my experience. There are alot of other things I can go into, all sorts of crazy stuff that you'll be banging your head against, but I think I'd be writing for days and days. Anyway best of luck, you can always drop me a PM if you have any specific questions.
Sometimes I wistfully think about how sweet life was... Making 60k/yr pre-tax working 2x24-hour shifts/week, dedicated station-based 911. Live cheap, put all your money into a Roth IRA/Vanguard fund, get really handy and do your own auto work / plumbing repairs / etc. Not a bad living for having 5 days off per week.
If you're already having inklings of wanting to do DNP though... I say just go straight to medical school.
Here's a post I have bookmarked that I re-read 20 times when I was trying to make this same decision you're making. I swear, every time I re-read this post I find more wisdom in it. And now I know what temporal arteritis and pancreatic pseudocyst are!
Should a pre-med student go Medic?
This post is directed at the OP, but applies to traditional undergrads as well. Anyway,
I'm assuming you're an EMT-B already, since that is usually a mandatory pre-requisite to becoming a paramedic (though this might be different in other states). Great, you got a head start on your med school hopeful peers, you don't really know too much as an EMT-B so you still have a healthy appreciation that you don't know very much about medicine. Believe it or not this is a wonderful place to be. I strongly advise you to stop right there (at EMT-B) and devote yourself entirely to becoming a physician.
Here's why:
EMS is a bit of a trap, you can get all caught up in it, because you are enjoying what you are doing, helping others, taking care of emergencies, etc. It's a good high when things go really right. Then you meet a paramedic, and think to yourself: boy can this guy take care of business, I'd really love to be able to do all that great stuff too! But there is really not that much to being a paramedic. Unfortunately nobody really tells you this. IN your world, all these new skills are exciting and impressive, So then things start to take a turn in your life. Let me tell you a little about what I mean:
Paramedics are funny people, they are experts in a very, very, narrow slice of medicine. In fact, when it comes down to the business of prehospital emergency care, nobody does it like a medic. WOW, I think I want to do this medic thing, I'm going to go for it, atleast for now, until I go to med school next year. BUT, you can easily get all caught up in the ALS pre-hospital care scene. Because you are doing life saving interventions you may feel like you fast forwarded yourself to "doctor" or at least the preconceived notion you had of doctors before you ever got involved in medicine. So anyway, there you'll be doing all these great skills, and soon you'll start to think that gee-whiz look at all the great things that I can do as a medic (ha! nurses my ass, they can't do this stuff!). Heck, all that other stuff in medicine really is not as important as this stuff I'm doing right now (IVs, intubation and pacing oh my!), and that's when you start to make a very big mistake. All of a sudden you really stop caring about all the other things that medicine has to offer, so you stop learning about anything that doesn't have anything to do with the "important stuff". Now depending on how long this lasts you can piss away 4,5,6 years doing EMS work and be totally satisfied. But then something happens, it can be some job that went bad on you or you come across something you've never been prepared to deal with, or any other number of things that cause you to become reflective about yourself as a professional. So then you start to read again and you once again rediscover that there is a whole world of medical knowledge out there you weren't aware of as a medic. So now you're studying again and learning about the things you didn't know, but you are never able to do it in any coherent way. The sheer volume of the material is intimidating and you have no real way of knowing if you are making any progress. Plus you are surrounded by your peers, fellow paramedic professionals who tell you things like who the heck cares about temporal arteritis, that's not important and what the heck is so important about this pancreatic psuedocyst you speak of??? So now you start to get frustrated, and you look around at the people around you who are very content with being medics and knowing what medics know, and incorrectly equating their skill proficiency with medical knowledge. But not you. You start to remember that you wanted to be a doctor, and you look back and say, how the **** did I get here, this isn't what I wanted for myself professionally or personally. This whole medic thing was supposed to be a stepping stone to becoming a physician. You become, really frustrated, pissed off, burnt out and then to add insult to injury you start to realize that you are wildly underpaid for the work you are doing. Nurses don't have to put up with 1/2 the crap that I do and they get paid 3 times as much, plus I know a hell of alot more! That's the last straw, F-this you say, I'm going back to school. Only now you are well into your mid- late 20's, (in your case, mid-late 30's) maybe you got a mortgage, a big monthly car payment, who knows maybe a wife and kids in private school, your Golden Opportunity to become a physician is now well past you. You now must suffer in new and interesting ways to get to where you wanted to be in the first place. So sacrifices and painful choices are made and finally 7-8 years later you are back on track for the MD, older, a little more worn out, less enthusiastic, but hopefully a little wiser. Maybe.
So the question is, are you absolutely, positively sure that being a medic is what you want? Think long and hard about this, this is your life afterall. That being said, you gotta do what you gotta do, if you are supporting your whole family or you are on your own out there I can understand. But think about this seriously think about this. This is a long post, but I did not make all of this stuff up, I speak to you from my experience. There are alot of other things I can go into, all sorts of crazy stuff that you'll be banging your head against, but I think I'd be writing for days and days. Anyway best of luck, you can always drop me a PM if you have any specific questions.
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Do not throw away your medical career.
Making $20ish an hour to do an extremely thankless, dangerous job isn’t even remotely worth it.
Docs get to do the really cool stuff. Go to med school, become an ER doc, Med direct an agency and put lights and sirens on your Porsche. Sounds awesome right?! Make $40k/y per agency + $300+/hr at work.
Was in EMS before med school, did the paramedic thing and in hindsight... the experience was not worth it for the personal tolls you have to pay.
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If you truly enjoy being an EMT, you will love being an EM doc.
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If you were admitted to Northstate and are having doubts, don't get on that highway given that the toll is high if you decide to leave that highway for another route later.
If you think that you would be fulfilled in a different career, go for it. You've proven to yourself and the world that you aren't taking this other path because you couldn't get into medical school but that you chose it given a choice. Follow your bliss. As @Goro likes to say, medical school is not going anywhere and if you decide later that you need/want that credential, you can always reapply. But starting out and being unsure could saddle you with an enormous debt and no easy way to pay it off.
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But wouldn't OP be virtually blacklisted when reapplying because they got into med school?
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This current generation of Pre-meds is the YOLO generation. OP, there is no better reason to go to Medical school than YOLO. *There is no sarcasm font*
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They got into Northstate. I doubt anyone would blacklist a non-trad (the OP would be non-trad by the time they reapplied) who had gotten into Northstate more than 5 years earlier.
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Is this situation common? Getting accepted then have thoughts of not becoming a physician? I’m just confused on how an applicant can have doubts after experiencing this gruesome application process and answering the ‘why medicine’ question many times. For me I would take that acceptance in a nano second.
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You're lying.
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I wouldn’t go to any medical school where I couldn’t get federal direct loans suitable for income based repayment and possibly PSLF. No. Don’t go. If you’re called to be a physician, improve your application and reapply elsewhere.
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Sure. However, if OP turns down his acceptance, isn't his goose pretty much cooked if he ever decides that medicine is for him after all - and cooked so badly as to resemble charcoal more than goose?
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I don't believe that turning down Northstate will be looked on as badly as turning down any other school. And if there were so many years between application cycles that the MCAT was expired and retaken and it was a non-trad applicant all the way, I think that it is a different picture than someone who is not happy with admission to Podunk Private College of Medicine and thinks that they could do better in the next cycle.
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Is Northstate's bad rap due solely to its profit driven business model (and the implications on operations due to the profit model)?
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After 14+ years in EMS (10 of those as a paramedic), I get to tally a broken spine and five level fusion, divorce, and financial debt, to my career as a medic. The pay sucks, the hours suck, the eight year average burnout sucks, and the physical toll on you body is NOT worth the benefits.
If you are accepted into a med school, you'd be insane to decline and go to medic school. It is all sorts of fun at first. The siren and kinda cowboy nature of EMS field medicine. But that wears off FAST when it comes time to have children and be in a relationship.
If you are accepted into a med school, you'd be insane to decline and go to medic school. It is all sorts of fun at first. The siren and kinda cowboy nature of EMS field medicine. But that wears off FAST when it comes time to have children and be in a relationship.
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this
Now, one might say, "why did you apply to such a school?" and it is possible to plead ignorance during the application process to the implications of being admitted to a school whose students are ineligible for federal direct loans.
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I'm really worried about the students at CNU. Especially since so many concerns have been raised about whether or not the school will be able to deliver quality clinical education in its core clerkship's.
If I'm not mistaken, the inaugural class is matching next Friday. I think a lot of people are anxious to see how the first American for-profit medical school will match its students.
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Basically a DO school w different letters. Don’t forget about that for-profit model
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I’m not any admission official at this point in my career but if I did get roped into such duty...”It wasn’t financially feasible for me to attend the school I was admitted to, on review of their unusual financial aid policies” seems like a legit reason to decline to go there and reapply to a normal program. It’s not vanity or immaturity/life instability or indecision re one’s calling, which I assume are the reasons turning down a previous admission would be seen as red flag.
But on rereading the OP it sounds like there’s more general indecision. Don’t go to this school ever and don’t go to any medical school unless you become determined that becoming a physician is the one most right path for you.
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i keep reading about Northstate... What happened there?
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Basically, the school opened and matriculated their first class in the same year without the AMCAS app, only paypal and faxes....so it was very chaotic. Additionally, they actively chose to deny students access to federal aid money only internal loans (granted, the private loans they are offering are very competitive, but they are still private loans). It is a for-profit school.
Nothing has happened there yet and it appears all of the fears for the students were over hyped as they appear to have matched well. However, all of the ADCOMs on here say their anger is directed towards the faculty at Northstate, not necessarily the students or the school itself.
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ok, i see. Thank you. I am glad the students matched well, and i assume that the school is fully licensed. That being said, i do not understand why they wouldnt use AMCAS app or allow federal aid.... What do they gain from that?
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They use AMCAS now. The reason they did not initially is because, as a for-profit institution, profit was the number one goal and investors likely wanted money flowing as quickly as possible. Last I heard, the school is on track for full LCME accreditation. Additionally, the reasoning behind no federal aid is they privately negotiated all of the loan contracts with local lenders and, again as a for-profit institution, I would guess that this is with money in mind (they may collect a certain portion of the interest paid on student loans in exchange for providing exclusive lending rights to particular lenders). That is just my speculation, however.
