Look at the financial stats... medicine sucks... sure you are getting a lot of money, but in reality, you are simply not going to make the same amount as one who has started their career earlier and has done successfully... (Besides the nice hospitals that may give you 'sweet' deals on malpractice insurance. Yeah right, you will still be paying through the nose...) Consider the fact that on average you will still lose about 2k on your first year making money out of med school in residency... how is that a wise choice money wise? As I wrote in another place (HS SDN)
"Being a premed is hard. It feels like it will never end, and when it does you only have a 40% chance of you entering school. You spend hundreds if not thousands of hours volunteering, researching, shadowing and studying. You do this when your friends are having fun going to the beach, playing video games, going on vacation, and just relaxing. You do this when you don't feel like doing it. You do this in the early morning and late into the night. You spend time on the MCAT, the GPA.... the letters, the numbers.... You go to clubs, you work, you are a leader, you are a teacher, you are a researcher, you are a student, you are helping.... and at the end of the day, you are tired. People don't get why you can't just go out and have some fun. They don't get what it takes to be a doctor. They see how hard it is as a pre-med and quickly label you "teacher's pet," "OCD," "Nerd," and other lascivious names.
You tell yourself day in day out that this is what you want to do. You tell yourself that they will see you later and be amazed at all that you have done. But, you read how the heath care system is failing. You see that there is no end to the pitfalls, the governmental nonsense, and all this leads to a 51% rate of physician dissatisfaction with their job.
Being a physician is not a simple calling. It is a moral step. It is the volunteering of yourself for others. It is responding to a call you heard. Perpahs it was when you landed in the hospital yourself, or perhaps it was an odd twist of fate that you ended up on this long, winding pathway. Perhaps it was a teacher, a friend, or a co-worker.
All I can say to you all is congrats, you made the dumbest, longest lasting, most financial stupid, emotionally taxing, least family friendly, morally difficult and, and most unhealthy choice you could have. However, you knew that you knew that you knew you wanted to do this. YOU knew that there was only one calling that could suffice the burning feeling in your heart. You knew that there was nothing you could do that would satisfy this need in you. You couldn't be a nurse, a PA, a dentist, a podiatrist, lawyer, businessman, or teacher. You needed to be a doctor. You needed to put theses hours in to do this.
It is at the point of breaking. When the long nights, early mornings, the stress, the worry, the tiredness, the anxiety, becomes too much... when you had enough, and you want to quit... don't. People burn out and don't take a chance. Take your time, breath...."
So yeah do you want to be a doctor? Because if you think any amount of money will make you happy enough to do this job, you are so wrong. Look deep inside of you. Find what makes you burn... is it seeing the suffering of children in malnourished countries, or is it seeing poorly handed funds that could be make more efficient, or is it seeing how you really enjoy working in a restaurant seeing people smile when they get their food?
You are brave to ask your question, be brave to listen to yourself and do what is in your best interest. Honestly, we don't need another burned out doctor, we need truly happy, helping doctors out there...
BTW- Doctors make more money than you need to live on. So, figure out what you NEED vs WANT, and begin to paint a rough picture of what you want to do.
