To all my friends who are considered doing premeds: Is It Worthwhile to Become a Doctor? (Part 1: Opportunity Costs)
Background
I am not going to hide the fact that I was thinking about being a doctor for half of my life. As of now, I am hesitated to become one. I know that many of my friends are considered doing pre-med or being on a pre-med track while they are in college. This was a question that I often asked myself: what is the incentive of becoming a doctor for you? What does it mean to be a doctor?
I thought that being a doctor means that I could save people's lives, and I love the fact that there will be people adored me due to my skills. I was incited to become a doctor because I want to help more people and have the feeling of being the "lifesaver" for them. However, the reason that I hesitated now is that I realize I only enjoy the part of this occupation after the medical school. In other words, I am afraid of facing the torture of competing with my friends in the premed weed-out classes (e.g., chemistry, biology, organic chemistry, biochemistry, etc.) and applying to maybe 30 or more medical schools in one (if I were lucky), or even more application cycles.
Introduction
Just imagine after you finish your bachelor's degree, it would be another four years in medical school. Then, after all these years of schooling, you got matched with a residency program, and finally, got paid by the hospital although the salary is meager during the residency. Also, all these imaginations are based on the fact that you are lucky and successful in every transition period of your road to becoming a doctor. Above all, is it worthwhile to become a doctor after going through long years of schooling and carrying significant amounts of debts? What about if you decided to not become a doctor anymore and you still need to pay those debts? Besides these financial situations that you need to consider, these are some factors that influence me to not want to become a doctor anymore:
Opportunity costs of studying "religiously" in college and applying to medical school
The adults have kept telling us that college is the time for personal growth and discovering what you love to do for your life. Right now, you might just be daydreaming what you are going to do in college. But if you decided to do pre-med, that would basically turn four years of college life into going over another four years of high school in which you try to get into a Top 20 medical school.
Let's face it. All those pre-requisites classes for medical schools are meant to weed out people who are not academically fit for applying to medical schools. This reflects on your GPA. According to U.S. News, "premed undergraduates must work hard and strive to achieve a GPA of 3.5 or higher to get accepted into a top-tier program." All the time you spent studying and grinding for that 3.5 GPA, you may spend the time to hang out with your friends, do networking, or doing something you enjoy instead of studying. Which part of the college life would you weigh it more?
Besides having a stellar GPA and MCAT score, which is the standardized test for medical schools, you need to ensure you have 15 extracurriculars to fill out in your medical school application. And for those 15 spots in a standard applicant profile, you need to have volunteering opportunities for both hospitals and non-hospitals, research experience, shadowing experience, clinical experience, and leadership positions to prove that you really want to be a doctor. Also, all the times that you have spent to prepare yourself to be a better applicant would be wasted if you happened to not get admitted to any medical school? Are you willing to wait for another year to apply in the second round? If you decided not to, what would you do with your biology or chemistry degree (if you happen to major in this degree) since there is not a lot of job opportunity one the current job market? Would you regret that you spent so much time on applying to medical school? These are things that you need to consider.
For more of my opinions, please visit part 2 of this blog.
Source:
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools/articles/2018-10-02/how-high-of-a-college-gpa-is-necessary-to-get-into-medical-school
Image:
http://colodetoxs.net/p/2017/06/a-convoluted-road-rohan-maini-for-how-many-years-to-become-a-doctor.jpg
I am not going to hide the fact that I was thinking about being a doctor for half of my life. As of now, I am hesitated to become one. I know that many of my friends are considered doing pre-med or being on a pre-med track while they are in college. This was a question that I often asked myself: what is the incentive of becoming a doctor for you? What does it mean to be a doctor?
I thought that being a doctor means that I could save people's lives, and I love the fact that there will be people adored me due to my skills. I was incited to become a doctor because I want to help more people and have the feeling of being the "lifesaver" for them. However, the reason that I hesitated now is that I realize I only enjoy the part of this occupation after the medical school. In other words, I am afraid of facing the torture of competing with my friends in the premed weed-out classes (e.g., chemistry, biology, organic chemistry, biochemistry, etc.) and applying to maybe 30 or more medical schools in one (if I were lucky), or even more application cycles.
Just imagine after you finish your bachelor's degree, it would be another four years in medical school. Then, after all these years of schooling, you got matched with a residency program, and finally, got paid by the hospital although the salary is meager during the residency. Also, all these imaginations are based on the fact that you are lucky and successful in every transition period of your road to becoming a doctor. Above all, is it worthwhile to become a doctor after going through long years of schooling and carrying significant amounts of debts? What about if you decided to not become a doctor anymore and you still need to pay those debts? Besides these financial situations that you need to consider, these are some factors that influence me to not want to become a doctor anymore:
Opportunity costs of studying "religiously" in college and applying to medical school
The adults have kept telling us that college is the time for personal growth and discovering what you love to do for your life. Right now, you might just be daydreaming what you are going to do in college. But if you decided to do pre-med, that would basically turn four years of college life into going over another four years of high school in which you try to get into a Top 20 medical school.
Let's face it. All those pre-requisites classes for medical schools are meant to weed out people who are not academically fit for applying to medical schools. This reflects on your GPA. According to U.S. News, "premed undergraduates must work hard and strive to achieve a GPA of 3.5 or higher to get accepted into a top-tier program." All the time you spent studying and grinding for that 3.5 GPA, you may spend the time to hang out with your friends, do networking, or doing something you enjoy instead of studying. Which part of the college life would you weigh it more?
Besides having a stellar GPA and MCAT score, which is the standardized test for medical schools, you need to ensure you have 15 extracurriculars to fill out in your medical school application. And for those 15 spots in a standard applicant profile, you need to have volunteering opportunities for both hospitals and non-hospitals, research experience, shadowing experience, clinical experience, and leadership positions to prove that you really want to be a doctor. Also, all the times that you have spent to prepare yourself to be a better applicant would be wasted if you happened to not get admitted to any medical school? Are you willing to wait for another year to apply in the second round? If you decided not to, what would you do with your biology or chemistry degree (if you happen to major in this degree) since there is not a lot of job opportunity one the current job market? Would you regret that you spent so much time on applying to medical school? These are things that you need to consider.
For more of my opinions, please visit part 2 of this blog.
Source:
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools/articles/2018-10-02/how-high-of-a-college-gpa-is-necessary-to-get-into-medical-school
Image:
http://colodetoxs.net/p/2017/06/a-convoluted-road-rohan-maini-for-how-many-years-to-become-a-doctor.jpg
Amazing post! As someone who is also contemplating med school, I found your post very clear and insightful. I wanted more concrete numbers to compare and found that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, doctors miss out on an average of $57,304 for at least their first four years of medical school, compared to those who had only gotten a bachelors. I was surprised and thought this number was much lower than it should be. Upon further research, I looked into student debt. Doctors are about $416,216 more in debt than the average college graduate. Another aspect of the cost is the cost of utility. The article I read said that making $75,000 dollars more a year does not statistically make you more happy; in essence you could be gaining the same utility at a far lesser cost. Do you think medical school should be cheaper to allow more aspiring doctors to afford it?
ReplyDeleteSource
https://www.bestmedicaldegrees.com/is-medical-school-worth-it-financially/
Insightful post, Emily! I'm also considering doing pre-med in college, but I'm not quite sure if it'll be worth the extra stress of doing well in weeder courses, applying to medical schools, then spending another decade of my life working my way up to becoming a doctor. While I was doing college tours, a question I often found myself asking was, "How difficult are the pre-med required courses? Around how many pre-meds enter and how many end up going to medical schools?" And for the most part, the answers I got were that pre-med courses were known to be extremely difficult, with only the top 5-6% of students getting As. And for those who can't maintain a high GPA, they inevitable drop out of the path to pursue a different career. But are these difficult courses a good way to determine who's fit to become a doctor? A study found that undergraduate science grades were inversely correlated with empathy scores, and that by weeding out the "weak" students, they were weeding out those with the best interpersonal skills. Those interpersonal skills are the best predictors of clinical skills down the road, so I wonder why the path to medical school focuses more on the grades rather than the clinical skills? Either way, there are plenty of other options for us besides pre-med that will definitely be less stressful and difficult!
ReplyDeleteSource: https://www.stanforddaily.com/2017/06/03/the-pre-med-drop-out/
Nice post, Yongxin! Like you, I once thought about career in the medical field but over time the costs of being a doctor gloomed over me. For me, I gravitated towards the thought that time would be ticking away and I would be studying. I would also be in a tremendous about of debt. In my case, I thought the opportunity costs of being a doctor outweighed the benefits of being a doctor. In other cases, many medical students take out loans for undergraduate school and medical school. Not all of these aspiring doctors make it either, and they are left without the medical degree and crippling debt. The medical field is not a sure profession, but this goes for many professions. If one is genuinely passionate about their field and they have confidence in their ability, I think that should drive them to believe that their decision outweighs its costs and pursue their dreams.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.sgu.edu/blog/medical/unexpected-things-about-pursuing-a-career-in-medicine/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/20/opinion/medical-school-student-loans-tuition-debt-doctor.html