Reconsidering attending med school
I graduated 2024, applied for med school, and got in this cycle. For nearly all of my life, I wanted to be a doctor, and it’s really all I’ve been working towards. However, now that I have graduated and have A LOT of time on my hands to think, I’m starting to reconsider this. I’m really struggling in deciding whether to go to medical school or not, so I wanted to ask for some advice based on my reasons why and why I wouldn’t go:
Why I’d go to Medical School: - What I want to get out of life is to use the best of my ability to create something of value for many people. Given that I have a background in healthcare & clinical research as a pre-med, attending medical school + residency may give me more credibility & experiences in the healthcare space so that I know what the consumers need + create something for them.
Prestige & money. I know I sound horrible when I say this, but you really can’t ignore this one.
Room for upward mobility in the hospital system (nearly all the higher ups in my hospital are physicians). Also, you can switch to research, teaching, & industry if you’re an established physician. So there’s some variety after you become a physician.
I’d help people long-term.
Why I wouldn’t go to Medical School: - Massive debt
Residency: being overworked & mistreated for a 55k salary. Depending on speciality, this would be at least 5 years. Knowing myself, I’d probably be delirious every day with less than 6 hours of sleep.
Whenever I shadowed physicians, I felt bored. To be fair though, I can’t see what’s going on in the physician’s head. However, simply going off of watching them talking with patients, doing assessments, & instructing on lifestyle choices & medications, I get very bored after the first hour.
I volunteered at an ER. Talking with patients and helping them was fine, but when I ask myself if I actually liked it, I just don’t know. It’s not like I hated it, since helping people gave me some level of satisfaction (albeit not an insane amount). Shouldn’t I know if I liked interacting with patients? At the very least, I did feel happy when I saw the same patients come back– they recognized me and I got to talk with them again. Not happy that they got sick again, just happy to see them lol
I’m scribing now. It’s fine as well. I don’t feel like I’m helping them at all. One thing I do notice, is that all the doctor really can do is urge a patient to switch their lifestyle (which they inevitably don’t) and give meds based on diagnosis/symptoms.
Anatomy and biology makes my head hurt. Every time I look at a complete diagram of, let’s say the heart, it’s just so overwhelming. Sure, I could learn it. Do I find the diagram itself interesting, though? No. Did I find DNA replication, countercurrent multiplication, or tidal volumes interesting? Learning about hormones and psych/neuro was much more interesting– so if I find maybe a small fraction of biology/anatomy interesting, is that enough for me to pursue medicine??
Am I just overthinking it? Literally so lost. Sorry this is so long. If you think I shouldn’t do medicine, any suggestions on what I should pursue?? Have been thinking about healthcare consulting, product management, public health, and biotech.
Edit: thank you all for the helpful advice, didnt expect this many replies wow! I’ll get thru and reply soon :)