target undergrad to medical school to healthcare consulting or IB, which med school?

I'm currently a senior at MIT and will be graduating with BS in Physics (minor in biology) this year. I've been accepted to two medical schools: Emory and Albert Einstein of Yeshiva University (in Bronx, NY). Since like sophomore year I've wanted to be a doctor but I'm starting to change my mind after learning more about the medical field and realizing how hard it is to get into high-paying specialties (plastic surgery, anesthesiology, etc) and also how little money doctors will be making in the future. However I'm interested in going into healthcare consulting or banking or even venture capital after medical school. Any input on which school would be better? Emory has a better reputation than Einstein in the medical field (ranked #20 vs 40).However Einstein is in New York which is a better location for finance and consulting.
I'm actually learning towards Emory because it has a better national reputation, but I'm wondering if I would be sacrificing much by living in the deep south, although Einstein is not that prestigious of a medical school and also they do not have a well-regarded business school either.

Also, how much will my MIT degree (in a highly quantitative major) help me if I go to a less well-known medical school?

 

I would think extremely carefully about my career desires before making a decision like this. Personally, I would be asking myself the "do I want to be a doctor or consultant/banker" question before the "which med school should I go to" question. This is especially true if you are asking yourself which med school would look better to get into consulting/banking.

You could be saving yourself a lot of time (not to mention constantly explaining in banking interviews why you chose medicine) if you decided which path you think you'll be happiest in now. A highly quant MIT undergrad will likely give you decent footing for consulting/banking.

Best of luck whichever path you choose.

Proboscis
 

what a tool. everything is based on money. how about you do something that actually interests you or that you like.

"Look, you're my best friend, so don't take this the wrong way. In twenty years, if you're still livin' here, comin' over to my house to watch the Patriots games, still workin' construction, I'll fuckin' kill you. That's not a threat, that's a fact.
 
Will Hunting:
what a tool. everything is based on money. how about you do something that actually interests you or that you like.

Agreed, and to be honest we need more practitioners in fields like medicine than we need bankers.

http://ayainsight.co/ Curating the best advice and making it actionable.
 

Med school is insanely expensive, takes a very long time, and is not that great a path to banking. I used to work in a healthcare group, and I think we had maybe three to four doctors in the whole group (out of about 80 bankers globally). If you have a good enough resume for med school, you probably have a good enough resume for banking somewhere

Status_Quo:
Will Hunting:
what a tool. everything is based on money. how about you do something that actually interests you or that you like.

Agreed, and to be honest we need more practitioners in fields like medicine than we need bankers.

Then why don't you do it?

 
Status_Quo:
Will Hunting:
what a tool. everything is based on money. how about you do something that actually interests you or that you like.

Agreed, and to be honest we need more practitioners in fields like medicine than we need bankers.

That and That.
Valor is of no service, chance rules all, and the bravest often fall by the hands of cowards. - Tacitus Dr. Nick Riviera: Hey, don't worry. You don't have to make up stories here. Save that for court!
 

Well, given that you are about to graduate, I don't see how the heck you are going to get a banking job now (like some of the others were suggesting).

Going to med school and then banking is a HORRIBLE decision, but I guess there's nothing else you can do at this point. Go to the better of the two med schools and just do as well as you can. Also, I sense that there is a high likelihood you will change your mind about not wanting to go into medicine, not to mention that you can try to get into a good residency before ditching.

 
absinthe:
Well, given that you are about to graduate, I don't see how the heck you are going to get a banking job now (like some of the others were suggesting).

Going to med school and then banking is a HORRIBLE decision, but I guess there's nothing else you can do at this point. Go to the better of the two med schools and just do as well as you can. Also, I sense that there is a high likelihood you will change your mind about not wanting to go into medicine, not to mention that you can try to get into a good residency before ditching.

Are you kidding? That is a retarded attitude. "Oh well, you can't get a banking job immediately, so I guess that means you need to go to med school." Seriously, talk about being scared to take a chance.

Dude, maybe you won't be able to get in to IBD right now, but you have a good background, and if you get a little work experience it won't be that difficult to get in. Go and work in corp dev or something for a bit, see if you actually like finance, and then move over. Positive verse negative EV, and you'll be able to do that a lot faster than med school. Or, just take the $200k+ you're saving by not going to med school, and party in South America for a decade. That's what I'd do.

 
Best Response

Do not go to med school to go into finance! In both opportunity and real cost, it is like 2 MBAs...with basically no recruiting...and instead of partying/networking, you are dissecting bodies.

There is no shame in not becoming a doctor. I dropped out of premed 2 years in because all this insurance reform shit started popping into the news. I figured (like you) getting stuck with 200k+ debt and possibly a European doctor's pay scale (~120k) was a bad financial decision.

I'd recommend deferring admission for a year or two, if you can, to try out one of these other careers. Do you have any work experience in consulting or finance? It will also give you time to see if Obamacare is sticking around, and what effect it will have on physician comp.

 

Let me offer my $.02. There is no point of going to medicine for money. Simply, you will not survive it, you really have to love the field in order to be successful. If you like to do anything for money Finance is a better choice. My wife is in her last year of training to be a cardiac surgeon. She's 34 and has not made any real money yet in her life, and she has been working for 80-100 hours a week over the last 6 years. If you are not sure you want to be a doctor ( not for the sake of making money, but to help people ) you should forget med school and allow someone else take your spot. Work in life science -> MBA -> consulting is a better path

 

Medical school to healthcare consulting? Are you serious? Medical school has nothing, and I mean nothing, to do with healthcare. Medical school prepares people for medical residencies. Look up the curriculum for medical school and you will see my point.

If you want to break into healthcare consulting, get a job in healthcare consulting. What were you doing in the fall when there were countless employers on campus?

I am not cocky, I am confident, and when you tell me I am the best it is a compliment. -Styles P
 

If your only goal is to break into IB/Consulting/VC, then know that it is MUCH easier to do this as an undergrad from MIT than as an MD from Emory/Yeshiva.

Delay graduation for a semester --> participate in fall recruiting at MIT --> land a job at a top consulting/IB firm because you obviously have a pretty good resume --> enjoy your life.

BTW no one will think less of you for spending another semester or two at MIT.

 

Going to med school to get into IB or consulting is one of the stupidest ideas you could have. Go get your masters in something applicable if that is what you want. Spending all your time on medical classes, doing rotations, etc all to go into something other than medicine is probably one of dumbest things I have read on this board.

 

Go to Emory, a higher ranked school will help a lot.

Contrary to what the WSO crowd thinks, there are many, many doctors doing healthcare finance and consulting and many often maintain a clinical appointment on the side. Within finance, most are in the VC/PE space, with a few in banking.

I'll be starting at HBS soon and know many doctors who are there too. It's a bit unusual and outside the box, so ppl in places like WSO will always throw shit at you for thinking different. But there will be plenty of opportunities. Go for it

 
interestedguy:
Go to Emory, a higher ranked school will help a lot.

Contrary to what the WSO crowd thinks, there are many, many doctors doing healthcare finance and consulting and many often maintain a clinical appointment on the side. Within finance, most are in the VC/PE space, with a few in banking.

I'll be starting at HBS soon and know many doctors who are there too. It's a bit unusual and outside the box, so ppl in places like WSO will always throw shit at you for thinking different. But there will be plenty of opportunities. Go for it

It's not that MD's cannot work in finance and consulting, it's that going to med school in order to do banking/consulting is an overly circuitous route to go if you know you want to do banking/consulting right now.

Proboscis
 

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