Med school or Economics

Hey everyone,

Let me start off by saying that I'm a swedish high school student and I'm considering either pursuing a career in medicine or economics/finance.
I can't decide whether I want to be a doctor or managament consultant/investment banker.

Here are some reasons why I'd like to study medicine:
I find it interesting, prestige, stimulating, decent pay and both my parents are doctors so I kind of feel some pressure to study medicine.

Reasons why I don't want to study medicine:
Long education, expensive education, long hours, takes long time to advance, pretty much stuck to one country and system

Reasons why I'd prefer studying economics:
Can study abroad (London), short education, many possibilites (managament consulting, banking etc.), I can work all over the world (travelling is important for me), much better salary, bigger diversity and variety of tasks and fields.

Can you please help me out to get my thoughts straight. Money is important for me, but I think medicine might be more rewarding (note: I don't want to study medicine to help people, but rather that I find it interesting). I also feel pressure from my parents.

 
Best Response

You should try to get as much exposure to both fields as you can. I was premed for a while until I worked an overnight shift at the ER and realized, I can't deal with people in that kind of setting. Don't rely on prestige, money, or your parents to make a choice on what you want to do. Do your research, talk to everyone you can get in contact with, learn as much as you can about every field and if possible shadow a doctor or go interview someone working in the finance industry. Also, you don't have to be a bio/chem major to be premed, you can do business and choose to take just the prerequisites and apply to medical school, which is just fine. If I were you, I would major in Econ with a minor in biochem or something and take just the prereq's. Good luck!

 

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