Future doctors, is med school worth it?

[FreddyTaco]

Hey guys and girls,

I need your opinion on whether or not becoming a doctor is worth it..

I want to become a doctor, I am genuinely interested in medicine/sciences, but I don`t know if I want to spend 10+ years (the best years of my life) in school. The other alternative to becoming a doctor is Petroleum Engineering or something Business related, (I would get an MBA). But the problem with this is I am not really interested in any of those 2 fields, I just like being able to live abroad easily, the pay and the short education, so I would like the benefits, but not the actual work. (I think atleast)
Also, I want to become an internist or emergency room physician (both have 3 years residency, I think(?), maybe 4)

My questions are:

-What motivates you to study till you are 30+ years old?

-If I were to get admitted to undergrad medicine at an Australian uni (only 6 years, compared to 4 yrs undergrad, 4 yrs grad in the US) I would probably be able to persevere and become a doctor. But how big are my chances as an international student? What IB score would I need?

-Even if I did become a doctor, is it worth it? I know the working hours can be long, especially for surgeons, but even a internist/EM physician has to work at least 50hrs/week, while an engineer usually works only 40 hrs/week. Do young doctors have to work longer than old doctors? I know residents and interns have to work upwards of 80 hrs a week but as soon as you finish your residency, do you get normal 50hr weeks? Or do you have to work your way up to more manageable hours?

-Should I consider working part time, money certainly would not be a problem? Or would I only end up with ****ty jobs if I worked part-time?

-Is med school really as difficult as people make it out to be? How is it compared to engineering, business (i`ve heard business is an easy major), computer science or other sciences like chemistry or biology?

Thanks if you take your time to answer this

[Garrett !?]

You could get your nursing license, while not being an actual doctor and receiving that level of pay, you would only have to go to school for 4 years.

[flinquinnster]

I don't know all that much about medicine, but I am able to provide a bit of info about doing undergrad medicine in Australia.

As with medicine pretty much everywhere, admission is pretty competitive. However, if you look at it from the standpoint of IB/other requirements to be admitted when compared to domestic students, it may actually seem fairly easy. Whilst each university will of course have its own minimum requirements, generally it appears that you need to have at least a 38-40/45 to stand a chance as an international applicant - and of course preferably higher. Moreover, some universities will require additional tests like ISAT - and if necessary English language testing - and also interview(s). The good thing is that a lot of the universities don't have strict pre-requisites, so if you happen not to have done chemistry or something you can still get in.

However, bear in mind that doing medicine as an international undergraduate in Australia is quite difficult. Firstly, although standards for entry may not seem that high, places are generally very limited. Moreover, fees are quite steep for international students - expect to be paying at least AUD$50000/year for 5-6 years in tuition - and that's not including living costs etc. So at the very end of your degree you have to pay very much, and have quite limited access to any scholarships or government loans. Also, finding the necessary internships as an international student is pretty hard - I don't know very much about the detail, but I think demand outstrips supply. Also, if you want to practice outside of Australia, transferability is an issue.

Honestly, pretty much everything requires hard work. However, I think it is fair to say that medicine requires even more hard work than the norm. In the end, because it is such a huge time commitment, think really seriously about deciding to be a doctor!

[Sandwich]

The answer to most of your later questions depends on which country you want to work in. In my country (which also has a 5 or 6 year Undergraduate Medicine course) then you do start out working long hours and depending on the career path you take, these tend to decrease. The hours you work depends on the job you do. In A&E they work very long hours and due to the nature of the work, also at weekends and do night shifts. I doubt many people would hire you if you told them you refused to do any anti-social hours and only wanted to work part-time, because you'd be leaving all the horrible bits to everybody else! If you want to be a GP you can work 9-5 if you join the right practice and once you get senior enough in almost any role (although again, less likely in A&E) you can negotiate a part time contract. A&E is generally perceived as a fun and exciting job but also destructive of your life outside work, which is why it's very under-subscribed even though at medical school a lot of people want to do it. That's just the UK though, I don't know about work life balance in other countries.

Personally I think that it's really impossible to say you want to do X, Y or Z specialty in any subject without having been there and done a bit of it, but that's just my opinion. Also I don't think anybody can really tell you if anything is 'worth it'. What it's worth to you is different from what it's worth to me. As flinnquinster said, it's quite a bit commitment if your interest is only passing. On the other hand if it's the only thing out of your options that fires you up and engages you, then it's probably worth a bit more, if you get what I'm saying. Basically it depends on you.

Being motivated to study until you are 30+ obviously depends on where you study medicine and where you then work. In the UK you're done with the studying part by the age of 23/24 and you can start working. Obviously there are still exams and you have to advance through the career ladder, but that's not the same thing as being a full time student and literally JUST studying until the age of 30. The motivation also depends on you. If you're not enjoying what you're doing and it's not meeting your goals, obviously it's not going to motivate you and vice versa.

Medical school is a lot of work. Quantity wise it is very intense. If a person struggled with the IB I certainly wouldn't recommend it to them. Comparing it with other things is hard because obviously one person tends to do just one degree and you'd need experience of both degrees to compare difficulty. Also, say if I found Chemistry super hard (which I do haha) then that would doubtless be more taxing to me than my degree in Business or whatever! If you're academically sound and have a high capacity memory and are willing to put the work in, it's possible, but it's not the easiest degree you could undertake to do. There's a high drop-out/failure rate often in the first year or so as people get weeded out, depending on where you apply.

Really I think you need to think a lot more about yourself and what you want, and also just get more of an understanding of what the job actually is. Do some work experience. Find out what it's actually like. Because without that, your expectations will never be realistic or backed up by understanding and you may as well be a 5 year old saying you want to be an Astronaut - but not a general Astronaut, the guy who goes out and fixes the engines OR the communications guy, you haven't decided yet, is it worth it? Obviously it's much easier to become a doctor than an Astronaut! But you get the idea hopefully - you've got to base these big decisions on real thought processes, knowing yourself and real life experience to know if you're doing the right thing. Otherwise you're deciding to do something very specific which will take you many years - and on the basis of what? Nothing much!

If you really want to do Medicine I'm sure you can and I'm sure you could succeed if you're up for it and put the work in. But don't decide to do it for any reasons other than wanting to have it as a career. Prestige and all that stuff, or wanting to be like Dr House (not saying that's your motive, but it's a common perception!) is not a good way to begin. Make sure you've done your research, basically.

Also as an aside, if you're an EU citizen then assuming the UK remains part of the EU by the time you come to apply (who knows!) you should get domestic fee rates to study in the UK. Which would be about £9,000 a year for current intake, as it stands. Although you may want to double check that as I know Norway isn't in the EU, but I have a feeling it has some kind of alternative agreement.

[asar]

DEFINITELY WORTH IT !

 

if you really want it go for it! personally it is my dream to become a doctor, and hopefully I 'll do it,

you  mention ' wasting' the best 10 years of our life, don't look at it this way, think of it as more of studying on the side, and then you get to do whatever you want later on