Switching from Pre-Law to Pre-Med

[deleted1114164]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here. I had been having somewhat of a life crisis in the past year. I'm currently a rising undergraduate senior and I've been set on law school pretty much my entire life because humanities was always my strong suit and law just seemed like the right path. Every summer and semester in college I've done an internship at a legal org. I've enjoyed these experiences, but they didn't have much of an impact on me since I've pretty much always assumed I would do corporate law. In high school chemistry and physics were a struggle for me, but I really enjoyed bio. I kind of took the chemistry struggle as me just being weaker in the sciences and completely turned away any possibility of medicine because I just thought I wasn't good at science. For math and science, I had to try to do well whereas humanities classes I could not even try and I would do well.

Fast forward to college, I've pretty much only exclusively taken humanities courses, even my gen-eds were the most humanities of the possible science and math courses available. Then during my junior spring I had to fulfill a science distribution requirement so I took a neuroscience class about functional neuroimaging of psychiatric disorders. It was my favorite class that I had taken in college so far. I wrote my final paper about the effects of psychedelics on treating mood disorders and reading the "sciency" parts of research papers and writing about them were actually so interesting and more enjoyable than any other history paper I had written. In class, we shadowed a psychiatric interview take place and that was a moment I will never forget from my college career. Since last semester I had been constantly thinking "if I was good at chem, I would have been pre-med" or me regretting that I never even tried it freshman year. When someone asks me why I want to be a lawyer, it's mostly that me and everyone I know thinks I would be good at it. If I were pre-med and someone were to ask me why I wanted to be a doctor, the patient interaction and impact one can have on other's lives just speaks so much more to me than "changing someone's life" through an excruciatingly messed up legal system.

I'm about to enter my last year in college, with a resume filled with only legal-related experiences and a transcript of humanities courses. This thought of mine - the possibility of trying for medical school - could just be a random fantasy. I think I've always thought that being a doctor would be the dream - especially coming from a family of doctors. I just always doubted my abilities and immediately wrote it off because I know law school is so much easier. I am well aware that medical school and entering the medical profession is not easy at all. You have no time for a social life, your entire life is just studying, and then once you graduate and go to residency you work 60+ hours for a menial salary. Not to mention that the matching process for whatever speciality you want to enter is incredibly difficult and stressful. My reason for not being a pre-med in college was that it's too much work, and I don't think I could succeed at the work. But the more I've been thinking I've been wondering what if I just put in the effort - I know if I'm motivated and I want something, I will work my ass off at it. That's how I got into the #1/2 ranked university in the country. Since I entered college, I just lost so much motivation especially with my mental health. I have a 3.8 gpa but I'm not enthusiastic about the internship work I do. I've finished the requirements for my major (History & Literature) so I have just enough space left to complete a minor in neuroscience - but then I would be risking not having the more probably A I would get from my humanities courses that could boost my gpa for law school. And even if I were to decide to do a post-bacc, there's volunteering at a hospital, doing research, getting published, so much more that goes into preparing for medical school.

I guess my question is for people who've switched very late from law to medicine, how did you do it and would you recommend it? It's not that I don't want to go to law school - I still do - I guess I'm just figuring is the possibility of a career and life in medicine more rewarding to me?

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[M&L]

ok... there is A LOT to unpack here, but its actually pretty straight forward. this is the most important thing (if you read only one sentence from everything i wrote, make it this one)

YES, medical profession is not easy. But you know what's even harder? spending your life doing something, while wishing you did something else. there is NOTHING worse in life than regretting missing an opportunity. It is easier to regret things you have done that things you havent.

now, a few statements:

1. you are what? 22? 23? Jesus. you have SO MUCH time to make it happen. I dont care if you dont have a single science credit at this point. to think that you are "too late" is ridiculous.

2. Majority of people who do science are not inherently amazing at science, they just work their ass off. So you will definitely need motivation. But otherwise, there is absolutely nothing standing between you and A's in science. Put in the effort, and you will get there.

3. to address this: "You have no time for a social life, your entire life is just studying, and then once you graduate and go to residency you work 60+ hours for a menial salary.". yeah, thats not true. first of all, of course you have time for social life. People even have babies in medical school, take trips, get married, etc. Your entire like is not just studying. If you are good at time management (btw they will teach you that if you are not), you can do whatever you want. I run (training for a marathon), i play video games, magic gathering (if you dont know what it is, dont worry , i play 2 scenarios in DnD (dungeon and dragons), and binge watch TV shows. I go out, date, etc. My grades are solid, and i am applying for a pretty competitive specialty next year. also, not all residencies are 60+ hours. Psychiatry is much less. Radiology is less. Pathology is less. EM i think is less as you get later into training. Depending on the specialty you will make great money afterwards. In my specialty of choice average salary is 400K with 45 hours workweek on the average..... Residency is 45-50 hours a weeks tops.

4. matching process is stressful, - yes. But it is a step by step process, that you just make happen. its not crazy.

5. you dont have to publish to get into medical school. Honestly, depending on the school you dont really need research necessarily. SHadowing, volunteering - yes.

6. Have a classmate who was in your position...... Except he decided to do to law school. And switched after... Dude..... now he is sitting on a huge debt and wasted time.

7. If you switch to medicine now (or even in a few years), no one will even blink an eye. You are in UNDERGRAD. you are allowed to change you mind. I changed my career several times before i switched to medicine after i turned 30. A lot of my classmates are near 40. You have no idea how early you are in the process.


ok, this is what you need to do right now:

1. start volunteering. this will be useful regardless of career path.
2. start shadowing doctors. Different specialties. Doesnt have to be a lot of hours, - 40-50 is enough. Make sure part of that is in primary care (family medicine doctor, or pediatrician, or general practitioner of some sort.
3. if you want, send me a message and ill help you figure out what classes you would need.

Look, if you want to give this a shot, you need to start with taking coursework, then MCAT, and you can always change your mind at that point. But get yourself at least to that point. THEN decide. There is nothing worse than regretting not doing something and keep thinking "what if"

 

[Dral]

Another thing you could consider would be a dual degree. You would probably not go into that unless you have a good career vision in mind...if not, I fear you would end up 'wasting' your time with one of the degrees.

I went to UVA for MD and I know they offer a dual MD/JD degree that shaves a year off of having to do them separately.

Health Law

The distinguishing feature of the Law School’s program in health law is its collaboration with the University’s School of Medicine and its Medical Center, which is consistently ranked among the nation’s top hospitals.

www.law.virginia.edu

 

[Dave1980]

That's how I got into the #1/2 ranked university in the country.

Princeton or Harvard?

I guess I'm just figuring is the possibility of a career and life in medicine more rewarding to me?

Hard to say. Medicine is a job just like law is a job. Average MD has a much better quality of life compared to the average JD IMO.

Have you taken the LSATs and prepared everything for a JD application this cycle?

 

[Goro]

I guess my question is for people who've switched very late from law to medicine, how did you do it and would you recommend it? It's not that I don't want to go to law school - I still do - I guess I'm just figuring is the possibility of a career and life in medicine more rewarding to me?

OK, I ignored the novella and want to answer your questions

I agree with my wise young colleague that you have to start volunteering with patients, to see if you really want to spend the next 30-40 years around sick people, and then shadow doctors to find out what their days are like.

In the mean time, read this:

Med School Rx: Getting In, Getting Through, and Getting On with Doctoring Original Edition by Walter Hartwig
ISBN-13: 978-1607140627
ISBN-10: 1607140624

 

[Osminog]

Shadow some lawyers. Shadow some doctors. After, picture yourself being in these roles, and decide which one better suits you.