LSE/Wharton business school vs Medical school
Hi all at WSO.
So I find myself in quite a predicament (a good one nonetheless). I am a 3rd year medical student in the UK and I'm really considering switching courses as I have found that medicine isn't really for me. I have an offer from THE LSE to study bsc management with perhaps an opportunity to spend a year at Wharton business school in the USA.
MBB heavily recruit from the LSE, whereas my current university where I do medicine it is a non-target and when I did apply for consulting internships, despite studying medicine I found that my university that I went to made it extremely difficult for me to break in. I am 22 years old at the moment, so I will be joining 18 year olds in the course. I'm just so unsure of what to do.
There is a potential for a scholarship at LSE but its a long shot. If I DID move to the LSE, will it kill my CV that i have such a gap? I mean how will it look to potential consulting firms? It's great that I got in but if the gap in my CV is so much than is it really worth it? should I just stick it out and wait till I finish?
Thanks for the help.
unless it is a degree from Wharton--i'd forget it. plenty of people study abroad on their degrees, but degree is what counts. also if you have maybe just a year left--it's better to grind it out unless you absolutely can't stand it--you'll find technical knowledge very favorable (e.g. M.D. or PhD) in the business world with some MBA type of biz degrees
Grind it out bro, my old Chief Medical Officer realized the same thing his last few years of med school, finished up to then went to get his MBA (Stanford). Like @shuang19" said, they appreciate the technical persistence.
I would get the medical degree and then go back for an MBA later if you decide medicine really isn't for you. I just graduated with a science degree and am pursuing banking before I dive into my mcat, and the more I see in the business world the more I'm leaning toward medical school.
after all you'll be placed to work in the fields that you studies in--unless you pull a ton of extra time to study a different field (say... aerospace engineering), you will find it hard to compete despite having the MBA--people who have MBA either started with BBA majors or Technical majors (even liberal arts), or both.
You didn't need to make two threads.
I've seen this route being taken three times, albeit for IB and only 1/3 made it.
It's a year abroad at Wharton which really means nothing as your degree will still be from LSE. That shouldn't be a factor so drop any ideas about this being Wharton vs medical school thing.
Stick it out with medicine. You have two more years left and will be graduating in 2017. Do your FY1 and FY2 training and apply to business schools for an MBA. Let's say you get into a good school after the two years so you'll start in 2019 and finish in 2021 to come in a post MBA associate - whatever title it is as I'm not familiar with MBB title structure. The assumption is that 2 years of work experience might be enough to convince some adcoms but not all so you can give or take a year.
If you take the LSE route however, you'll graduate in 2018 if LSE is for 2015 entry. IF you land a SA gig and then get a job, you'll start working in 2018 and from what I see on this forum is that you might have to do an MBA down the line to progress. Again not familiar with the world of MBB progession but for examples sake, let's say you do. You could end up in the same position of starting as an post MBA associate in 2022/3 but critically, you're in a heap of debt. Student finance can be used for a total of 4 years if it's degrees other than medicine and dentistry. So you'll find that you'll have to fund yourself for two years.
Im assuming you started your MBBS degree in 2012 so you're under the new fee structure. If you've taken student loans from the SLC, you're already £27k in debt + possibly another £10-14k if you took maintenence loans up to now. Add to that another £9k for your one year of funding left at LSE plus another ~£5k in maintenence loans for London universities and your piggy bank has a potential £55k hole. Now you have to fund your final two years at LSE. So that could total another £30k.
Ignore the above if your family has got you on the finance aspect. In that case money won't be an issue but it's still a lot of dosh to blow through.
Now consider the possibly that you take route two and don't end up with a job in management consultancy. All of a sudden the choice of dropping medicine becomes a mistake considering you only had two more years to finish a degree that would guarantee you a job for life.
Don't be stupid. Finish medicine.
If money is your biggest motivator, finish your degree and sit the USMLE for a job in the states. The private sector far eclipses the salary progression in the public sector.
I dont think it is stupid, dude. I think it is only more optimal from our standpoint--e.g. Bill Gates didn't take the grind and walked out of Harvard early; however, it was worthy in his opinion. Thus he was not stupid.
Did you think about what you said before you typed it? Please don't use the Bill Gates example that every other person uses when they think about cutting their degree short. It does not help anyone.
It's safe to assume, no offense OP, that you're not Bill Gates or 'insert some other billionaire who didn't finish college here'.
It's stupid, end of. He's basically banking on LSE opening up MBB doors. For every LSE kid that makes it there, a shit load don't make the cut. It's not worth tossing a coin up for fucks sake.
Thanks for the response! Edit I have 3 years left of medical school. I'm not banking on MBB, but when I applied for internships even for OW/LEK/parnethon I got rejected. The university that I will graduate from medicine is a non target. But your right 3 more years I could be a doctor. I'm not sure however if it's worth the grind if I don't even want to practise. It's a really tough choice, I mean LSE is great but is that worth more that throwing away a med degree im not sure.
there is a simple term called "sunken cost"---you have somewhat invested into it, and you'd feel that you should keep investing. However, often it can be false depending on circumstances.
just think hard about how far are you towards MBB stuff vs. Medical Degree. how you want your career trajectory be If you have had a lot of time or $$ investments, it just makes a difference (Is anyone going to give up a degree with 1 course left? how about someone who only finished one course? don't they think differently??)
Edit button is acting up. Forgot to mention that if you take the LSE option and you're confident you can break into the industry, don't let being 22 put you off. No one gives a shit because the Europeans do undergrads that are 19 years long and top it up with another 6 masters from 3 different countries so they go into the city at roughly the same age as you will.
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