Weighing my options...

[childrendoctor]

Hi there!
So I don't post on SDN that much, but I just wanted to give it a try to see what you all think. Anyway, I'm kind of caught in indecision right now as to whether or not I should pursue medical school....
I figured since you all are going through it, it would be best to ask you....is it worth it? What is it about medicine that made you want to pursue it? Is there any other career you would have chosen instead?

All my life I said I wanted to be a pediatrician, but it is now when I'm considering my options (I'm second year, undergrad btw). Other careers that I've considered are teaching music or a school counselor. I just don't want to jump into a profession without thoroughly thinking about it's benefits and drawbacks.

Any advice you have on this would be awesome!

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[Transmogrifier]

Here are two threads that look at some of these issues:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=55501
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=195799

 

[tennisball80]

Hi there!
So I don't post on SDN that much, but I just wanted to give it a try to see what you all think. Anyway, I'm kind of caught in indecision right now as to whether or not I should pursue medical school....
I figured since you all are going through it, it would be best to ask you....is it worth it? What is it about medicine that made you want to pursue it? Is there any other career you would have chosen instead?

All my life I said I wanted to be a pediatrician, but it is now when I'm considering my options (I'm second year, undergrad btw). Other careers that I've considered are teaching music or a school counselor. I just don't want to jump into a profession without thoroughly thinking about it's benefits and drawbacks.

Any advice you have on this would be awesome!

Read the stickies.

 

[sindadel]

Why not major in education or music education and be careful to get high grades. Your undergraduate GPA is a very important factor should you ever decide to go into medicine and it is the hardest to change.

You can work for a few years as a music teacher or school counselor (make sure to do some volunteering in the community, which should be easy to get access to). If you decide then that you really still want to be a pediatrician, you will have your ducks in a row to do an informal post-bacc to complete the pre-reqs (you might be able to knock off one or two of them in the regular course of your undergrad degree), take the MCAT, add some clinical experience and you'll be ready to apply.

 

[TexasPhysician]

I kept trying to resist the pull of medical school........but it was too strong......I'm stuck now.......and I like it

 

[Brrooother]

Hi there!
So I don't post on SDN that much, but I just wanted to give it a try to see what you all think. Anyway, I'm kind of caught in indecision right now as to whether or not I should pursue medical school....
I figured since you all are going through it, it would be best to ask you....is it worth it? What is it about medicine that made you want to pursue it? Is there any other career you would have chosen instead?

All my life I said I wanted to be a pediatrician, but it is now when I'm considering my options (I'm second year, undergrad btw). Other careers that I've considered are teaching music or a school counselor. I just don't want to jump into a profession without thoroughly thinking about it's benefits and drawbacks.

Any advice you have on this would be awesome!

I'm with Sindadel on this one - I actually am a music major who decided to pursue medicine, and I will be starting med school next year. You can major in anything you want, so maybe do what I did and go the music route for a while, but keep your grades up and consider taking some prereqs along the way. Admissions committees like well-rounded people, and if you decide to do medicine, music will make you stand out and look different and unique.

For me, I went full-on with music first but decided I had to see if medicine is what I really wanted, otherwise I always would have wondered, you know? I'm glad now that I gave both a shot and I feel 100% about my decision to pursue medicine.

Good luck!

 

[sarahg]

Get some experience that's as close to what you'll be doing in the actual profession as possible, for all the professions you're interested in. For medicine that will probably mean shadowing a doctor. For teaching music that might be giving cheap lessons in your instrument to kids. I'm not sure what you'd do for school counseling, but with further research you could probably find something. There's really no substitute for real-life experience when it comes to choosing a profession -- something that seems perfect for you on paper might be tedious and boring or overly stressful to you in real life.

 

[childrendoctor]

Thank you all for the great advice! I think I will definitely take the shadowing advice to heart, because I haven't done any yet. If I shadow, I think it'll definitely help me to decide and just kind of go from there.

Thanks again!