Why I Would Advise A Non-Trad Not To Go To Med School

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There is no way that you are spending 95 productive hours a week. I'd estimate that most medical students work less than 60 hours a week. I mean true work hours, that is to say, time spent learning high yield material in an active focused state.

I'm still learning how to make this productive.

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Don't go to lectures, and its not that bad.

Residency is what will kick your ass.

As for me, I am 90% leaning towards dropping out of my elite post bac program because medical science is tedious to me, and I have some leads on interesting jobs that won't require me to be living on loans and working 30 hr shifts into my 40s.

At the moment, I go on just for ****s and giggles. It amuses me to see my classmates panic for an ochem test tomorrow.

This stuff is not that hard, it is just boring as hell.
 
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As for the cheating wife thing, original poster, she didn't cheat because of you going to med school, she cheated because she is a ho.

Drop her like a bad habit and never look back.
 
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Oh and did I mention that my wife is 40+ wks pregnant?

Not to hijack the thread, but congrats NTF...mines is 35+ weeks now. Though your wife has already given birth I'm sure.

To the OP, I hope all works out and you can find a much better balance between family & the necessities of med school.

I often wonder how it's going to be once I matriculate, however, I've spoken with my wife (we have 3 other children btw) and she's extremely supportive and as of now understands I will be away from home for long periods of time throughout the day.

I'm already barely home due to my current career as a bail bondsman, but I still try to always find time for my family no matter how busy I get.

We can only read (those of us not in med school yet) the difficulties and extremely time consuming tasks required while in med school, and although we've read up on this subject countless of times and we may feel "well informed" of the rigors associated with medical school, we WILL NOT actually know the sacrifices truly required till we're sitting in the classes.
 
There is no way that you are spending 95 productive hours a week. I'd estimate that most medical students work less than 60 hours a week. I mean true work hours, that is to say, time spent learning high yield material in an active focused state.
He didn't say they were all productive. Presumably, he's including commuting, meals at school, and plenty of other time-fillers. His point was just that he's gone that much.
 
I agree that it is quite insensitive and presumptuous for anyone to lecture/judge/question the OP. I think folks do this because they want to believe that they are 'different' and immune to the strain of medical school.

I have yet to apply to med school. Every time I hear things like this I take note and wonder if I'm doing the right thing. Just yesterday I toured a med school and one of the school VPs stressed to me how medical school rips families apart... destroys marriages, etc. Scary!

I want to be a physician... I want to serve others... I want to practice medicine... BUT I do not want to lose my family.

Any stories (good or bad) from folks who are married with no kids? I have two boys but by the time I matriculate (2013 hopefully) they will be away at college. Still, I wonder how medschool and residency will impact my marriage. I'm hoping to get into school in my home state, which will allow my husband to keep his job. But what about residency? If he has to quit his job to follow me to residency he will resent me. Also he makes quite a good yearly salary - jobs like his do not just come along every day.
 
Just wanted to say I went to med school while raising two special needs kids as a single mom and I have no regrets. Medicine is demanding, but it's a calling. I got this advice early on: if you can do anything else and be happy, do that. Well, I tried doing other things and realized I really needed to be a doctor. If this is the path you are truly supposed to be on, and you do it right, you can still have a healthy family life. I'm re-married now (divorced before medical school for reasons having nothing to do with medical school) with a supportive spouse in a strong marriage and have no doubts we'll get through residency just like the kids and I got through medical school.

It's true family is worth more than career, but there's no reason to assume a person can't have both in the right situation. I advise a lot of searching of the heart and a lot of prayer.
 
I agree with the post about having to work anyway and have been thinking this to myself for forever....I currently work 60 hours a week in a health care admin position (pre-med here), and it is not a rewarding, adventurous job that pays really well. I will gladly put in more (many more?) hours per week if I can get what I want from a job. I'm going to have to work my entire life anyway...

Also, I have a one year old baby, husband, rental property to manage, extra curriculars, and 10 hours of post baccs this semester. Bring it on!
 
Any stories (good or bad) from folks who are married with no kids?
I think I might have already written my story in this thread a month or so ago, but I'll say it again: I was in graduate school while my wife did her first three years of medical school, and now I'm a first-year at a different institution in another state while she's finishing her fourth year. We hope to be reunited when she does her residency.

We're both relatively low-stress people and don't have major lifestyle or time demands, but medical school definitely stressed her out (although the stress decreased as she advanced, which is somewhat unusual - I think the stress peaks in third year for most students). It was the most stressed I've ever seen her. She was good about not lashing out at me (and making sure to apologize if she felt that she had been mean to me at all), and for my part, I tried to be as helpful and understanding as possible. If both partners take that sort of attitude, you can probably get through any challenging scenario. Obviously it helps that both of us were knowledgeable about medical school and shared the same career goal.

Even knowing that we were both dedicated to each other and not high-strung people, we went in knowing that medical school can be a real strain on relationships. I wouldn't say that our relationship ever felt strained, but I never allowed myself to let my guard down. I expect that when she enters residency the stress levels will peak again. Just stay focused on your relationship, partake in the usual good practices of talking things out before they develop into something larger, don't ever go to sleep with an unresolved conflict, etc. and you'll probably be fine. I get the impression that problems develop when the medical student either puts career before family (or doesn't give the proper signals of dedication to family), or when the non-medical student partner is not understanding/supportive of what the student is going through.
 
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