“Is medical school right for me?” This is an important question to ask considering the long journey to becoming a physician. You’ll be looking at 7 years of training at a minimum after you graduate from college, tuition of $55,000 a year if you’re out-of-state, 8-12 hour study days, and 80 hour work weeks during residency.
I’ve heard of people dropping out of medical school after realizing too late that it was not for them. I’ve also heard of people changing careers from an entirely different field to medicine.
Here are some of my thoughts on this! Keep in mind this is written from the perspective of an aspiring internist/primary care physician who applied as a first-generation college student from a low-income family.
Medical school is for you if:
You are not doing it for status, wealth, and/or prestige. Friends. There are easier ways to achieve this without involving human lives, a mountain of debt, and a decade of training. A common occurrence that results from this mindset is burnout. If status, money, and prestige is motivating you, you will find yourself burning out quickly because these elements are simply not enough to carry you through the rigor of medical school and beyond. Most importantly, patients deserve better. Would you want a physician who only cares about status, wealth, and prestige?
You care about people and your goal is to maintain their well-being. Compassion is a quality that many medical schools are paying more and more attention to. Most of us are in the field because we care, however not all medical students understand the concept of well-being. What do I mean? Being a physician is not simply about saving lives and prolonging it. It’s about well-being, also known as quality of life. The other quality that medical schools traditionally sought, intelligence, is still valued, however intelligence alone is no longer enough to make good physicians.
You have thoroughly explored other career paths. Have you looked into nursing, physician-assistant, physical therapy, occupational therapy? Many other healthcare fields may be able to give you what you are looking for without going through medical school. If your goal is to help people, many other professions do that! You’ll have to weigh the pros and cons and figure out what your non-negotiables are. Is leadership non-negotiable? Is knowledge non-negotiable? Exploring other career paths including the physician profession will require you to do your research, network, and reflect deeply!
You are willing to serve. Becoming a physician is a privilege! Patients entrust you with their lives. The profession is rooted in service. Whether that is viewed as so today is debatable, but I know that the greatest physicians are service-oriented. At the end of the day, what the patient says goes. Enter the concept of patient autonomy. Patients are free to make their own decisions and we are only here to guide them. We are here to serve.
You are willing to lead. One of the primary differences between the physician profession and other healthcare professions. However, leading is so much more than having followers. Good leadership comes from learning how to follow and adapting a service-oriented mindset. If your motivation for becoming a doctor is to lead without learning how to follow first or serve, then you will not be well received in the healthcare field and the profession may not be for you!
You are willing to put in the work. Applying to medical school is a long, challenging process that should not be taken lightly. It costs about $2000-5000 to apply for medical school (includes application fees, secondary application fees, flights, hotels). It requires time (personal statements, tons of secondary essays, interview preparation). Once in medical school, studying becomes your job. You study 8-12 hours daily, more or less. The amount of information you’re expected to learn in such a short period of time is immense with exams every 1-2 weeks. After medical school you will have to apply and match into a residency, where you will then be working up to 80 hours a week making $60,000 or less. If you want to sub-specialize you will be applying to fellowships after residency. If after all this you are still determined, then medical school is definitely for you! Often times, I find that students who are the most motivated and passionate do not fear the length of training.
You are interested in lifelong learning. Even after you are a full-fledged doctor, you are still going to need to stay on top of your knowledge as technology, healthcare, and pharmaceutical companies are constantly advancing. You will need to take a board exam every 10 years or so. You will need to keep up with new management algorithms. Your patient population will constantly be changing! A thirst for constant learning is essential!
Discipline and dedication. Medical school is rigorous! Taking gap years is often a good idea if you need a break between college and medical school. I’ve found that students going straight from college to medical school often struggle with discipline and the demands of medical school. But those who have taken gap years have had time to develop maturity and discipline, depending on what they did during those gap years. Keep in mind medical school is hard, but so is residency and so is the life of a physician (depending on specialty).
Dedication is key not just for medical school, but beyond! You are basically dedicating your life to serving others, to serving patients. If you are confident that you can maintain this mindset throughout medical school and your entire career, you are definitely in the right place.
Discipline and dedication is especially important if you have a disadvantaged background. The medical education institution was not built for individuals like us. It was built for the intelligent, powerful, prestigious, and wealthy, however this is changing! The application process is more holistic, but that doesn’t mean GPA and MCAT doesn’t matter. It means you will have to work so much harder to compensate for it! In medical school, hard work goes a long way. Intelligence is no longer enough to become a successful physician! For those with disadvantaged backgrounds, you may be faced with self-doubt often and that’s okay. Dedication is what will set you apart and discipline is what will keep you going. The journey is long and tough, but from what I’ve heard it is quite rewarding!
Last, but not least, this path is for you if you cannot imagine yourself doing anything else. I was preparing to apply for pharmacy school when I suddenly realized what a mistake I was making by not pursuing my dream of becoming a physician. I’ve never looked back since, never regretted it, and enjoyed every moment of my journey so far. Some things you just know. If there is doubt, figure out where it’s coming from! If you’re worried about materialistic factors (GPA, MCAT), don’t! Where there is a will, there is a way albeit a tougher one. If it’s because you don’t know if you want to spend the rest of your life caring for others, then I’d explore other career options. Ultimately, it comes down to how you answer this question: will I be spending the rest of my life wondering what if? What if I had pursued medicine? You don’t want to be left wondering “what if” your entire life.
I hope that helps! Thanks for reading!
With lobe,
Kelly
