Med school to PE
For background, I'm a senior at an Ivy and have been accepted into a mid-tier med school, which is allowing me up to 2 gap years before enrolling. Moreover, I am fortunate enough to have the financial resources to cover tuition. I am passionate about medicine, but I am more inclined to get the MD to better leverage myself in the business world.
This past summer, I interned at a respected non-MBB consulting firm but did not receive a return offer. I did get an offer for FT to do corporate strategy at Capital One, which I'm considering doing during my 1-2 gap years. My other option is to work abroad in Seoul (I am not sure what exact work I'd be doing but this would be more for my enrichment and to learn the language).
I'm very interested in the business side of medicine/healthcare and am considering VC, PE, or even startup work. However, I'm unsure how I would best position myself for VC or PE post-med school. As such, I'm wondering:
-
Does the MD make sense for my goals?
-
Should I utilize the gap years before med school, and if so, what should I do?
-
Should I approach med school with a business lens and try to work part-time and/or during summers in these fields?
-
How important is residency for my goals?
-
How helpful would an MBA be for me? If I were to pursue one, when would be the best time to do so?
I am a doctor and post 3 yrs at MBB and do quite a bit of healthcare PE work (CDD consulting side) and toyed with buyside for a while.
An MD trains you to be a doctor. If you don’t want to practice as a doctor, it’s much more efficient to just go into finance/corporate and build your career if that’s where you want to be. If you want to be an investor, go do that. You can learn enough about the industry etc without an MD.
Thank you for your advice! What I've also thought about, though, is that it seems virtually impossible for me to enter the investing world at the moment (given the hiring environment and my grade at school). Moreover, it seems like having domain expertise would make it a bit easier to crack into investing (particularly VC and less so PE from my understanding, but nonetheless). I'd love to hear more of your thoughts!
First of all, congrats on getting accepted to med school it is no easy feat.
For context, I'm a physician and recently transitioned from surgery residency to biotech ER so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Going to med is not a walk in the park, but knowing you're not applying to residency takes most of the stress away. I think residency doesn't make sense for your goals, unless you find something along the way that you are passionate about. You can leverage med school to apply to the advanced degree programs at MBB, get an MBA, or both.
You're a legend. Congrats.
Med school is no easy feat so congrats on the acceptance, but if you want to work in finance you should just go there... yes you can do healthcare finance from med school, but it's not exactly a common or extremely easy path. You can go into healthcare coverage without it, and you're wasting a lot of money and time in school. The healthcare knowledge is useful, but not useful enough to waste years of additional schooling - importantly, VC/PE want finance knowledge and you will not pick that up from self-studying during your few bits of free time in med school.
Do ~2 years at Cap One (or find an offer at a HC firm, HC startup etc) and optimize yourself for an M7 MBA instead of spending so much on med school.
Thank you for your advice! The things holding me back from starting my career in finance right now are that I'm not 100% sure that's where I want to be long term and it does not seem like a good time to enter the financial world (recruitment has been brutal for everyone at my school). I get the sense that going to med school will give me more time to figure out what I want to do and perhaps enter finance at a better time. I would love to hear your thoughts!
Recruitment is tough, but I don't think tough enough that your alternate route of 4 years and $200k is a good alternative if you are set on not using that experience as a doctor. If you are just kind of interested in finance and might decide in a year or two that you do want to become a doctor, that is a different story.
You're not going to land IB or PE right now, but with your resume/school I don't think it'll be that difficult to get into a healthcare company, healthtech startup etc just to get some experience in the field. Either move up in that company or if you decide you want to do the IB/PE route, head to MBA. Or, depending on the money involved here - accept the med school offer, take two gap years working and then decide if you want to be in the corporate world or become a doctor. But MD -> IB/PE is just not a logical path if you're going in without any intention of using the MD.
What is the deadline to respond to med school, and how much deposit would you lose if you accepted and then decided not to go?
.
My 2 cents. Go to Seoul, use the opportunity to have some adventures in a foreign country. Have fun in the meantime before med school.
Qui numquam molestiae exercitationem. Assumenda consequuntur ipsam eum pariatur. Soluta qui id odit qui esse dolorum.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...