Thinking about becoming a neurologist or an architect. Help.

[okiedokie99]

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I am an entering as a freshman in college and I was thinking about going into neurology but I wasn't sure then so I chose architecture but now thinking about it again. I'm thinking about getting into neurology. The problem is I don't want to wait too long when thinking about what I want to do. I like art and design and coming up with ideas but at the same time as weird as it sounds I always been wanting to learn about the brain and have become very interested in the subject of the brain. I have enjoyed watching the health channel more than the design shows I see in home and garden network. I've been interested in health almost as long as I have been interested in art its just back then I wasn't focused that much about the human body as I was about art and design. I'm now reading a book about the brain and this really made want to think about changing my plans but then I thought, I really like design. There are some downsides and fun things about both fields but I don't know what to do now. Especially my schedule, I don't want to drop the architecture course I chose just in case I find it more interesting than I thought but if I was curious about getting into neuroscience and architecture, what should I do to know what career I want to be in as far as what classes to take and stuff?

Architecture and Neuroscience are almost similar in education (long hours, years of education, internship, license and exams) but the downside of architecture is the starting salary and probably the demand for architectures in the future. THe downside is neurology is the long hours and I'm not the kind of person that is well..caring or nurturing or whatever. I like how there are many specific fields of neurology that you can get into. I don't know what to do right now.

 

[PhakeDoc]

I'm not the kind of person that is well..caring or nurturing or whatever.

Ok so I'm post-call so pardon my brusqueness, but why in the world do you want to even pursue a clinical medical field involving patient care if these qualities are not applicable to you? Perhaps what you might be interested in instead is neuroSCIENCE via the graduate school route. I think you should probably get some semesters of college under your belt before deciding.

 

[okiedokie99]

It's not that I'm a cold person I just don't have that experience. But I was going to ask if there is a field in neurology that doesn't involve patient care just studying the imaging of the brain, but now that you mentioned neuroscience I'll look into that. But I also looked into, if I'm right, but what about neuroimaging. I like to see imaging of the brain and I'm interested in how it functions.

 

[PhakeDoc]

There are plenty of scientists who use neuroimaging to study aspects of the brain, ie diffusion tensor imaging, functional MRI, etc. And they don't have M.D. degrees. You don't need an MD to do research in neuroimaging.

 

[rockydoc]

dude, you're so early in the game dont worry about such specific fields yet. Your mind will inevitably change as you gain more experiences in college. Your game plan should be to just rock all of your classes to the best of your ability, get involved with things on campus / community that you enjoy, and have fun. That way, if you do decide to do something competitive such as medical school, you will have the grades and background for that. And if you decide to do something less competitive, it wont matter. Good luck. You'll figure it all out.

Oh, and the traits of caring and compassion are things that can grow in you as well...you never know. You will mature and turn into a different person throughout college. So dont kick anything off of your list of possibilities right now. I personally started college thinking I would hate working w/ people as a physician and would rather do research....but that did a 180 real quick.

 

[okiedokie99]

dude, you're so early in the game dont worry about such specific fields yet. Your mind will inevitably change as you gain more experiences in college. Your game plan should be to just rock all of your classes to the best of your ability, get involved with things on campus / community that you enjoy, and have fun. That way, if you do decide to do something competitive such as medical school, you will have the grades and background for that. And if you decide to do something less competitive, it wont matter. Good luck. You'll figure it all out.

Oh, and the traits of caring and compassion are things that can grow in you as well...you never know. You will mature and turn into a different person throughout college. So dont kick anything off of your list of possibilities right now. I personally started college thinking I would hate working w/ people as a physician and would rather do research....but that did a 180 real quick.

I never thought about that before, things may change, maybe there WAS a reason that I didn't get into my art school of choice because something like this would probably happen. oh man it makes sense now. but yeah.

 

[Aphtalyfe]

Architecture and Neuroscience are almost similar in education (long hours, years of education, internship, license and exams)

Minimum years to become an architect = ~8
Minimum years to become a neurologist(MD) = ~12
Minimum years to become a neuroradiologist(MD) = ~13

 

[okiedokie99]

well they all require long years of training but interesting..I would think that someone getting into radiology would get less years than someone in neurology. But anyways neuroradiology deals with the imaging of the brain. Which is something I have been interested in..images.

 

[Braindoc19]

Hi there. I'm a neurologist. If I could go back and do it all over I'd probably end up in Neurology again, but I would certainly try to be more informed before jumping-in. I wouldn't be too concerned about the starting income. With the consult CPT codes cut and the SGR problems, I've taken about a 45% cut in pay. It's still probably more than the avg. architect, but there are quite a few trade-offs. I doubt many architects get called at 2 or 3 am a couple of times a week to work on some drafts and I doubt that the years in training are similar to residency (although with this new 80 hour week rule it might be?). I'd recommend finding some residents and talking over the state of medicine in general with them. Then, I'd find some docs in the trenches and ask for their opinions. The current atmosphere in medicine is one of excessive government control, rapidly decreasing reimbursement, and markedly increased liability. If you do end up going into medicine, you should go in open minded. Maybe you'll end up in Neurology, maybe something else. Either way, your interests and studies need to be broad in order to be an effective doc in any specialty. Good luck!