Medical School or Finance?
Hello! I am in need of some serious help making this life decision. I have always been intrigued with medicine. I love it for the complexities and problem-solving that go with it. I was a chemistry major at a HYP school. I loved chemistry for the same reason I think I would love medicine: curiosity, problem-solving, on my feet/not sitting at a cubicle. However, summer after my junior year, I completed an internship at JP Morgan Chase in NYC doing corporate finance. The internship was fun in the way I was problem-solving in a great, collaborative environment. However, I was filling out medical school applications while working and always considered JPM as a fall back to medicine. At the end of the summer, I was offered a full-time position making good money in their Manhattan office. Fast forward through the majority of senior year, I hadn't been accepted anywhere and got comfortable with the idea of working a corporate job in the city. However, I was just accepted off the waitlist to medical school and now I don't know what to do. The school is in my home state so I would be closer to home, which would be nice (and thinking in the future I would have eventually liked to move back home anyway). I know I have loved medicine in the past, but I have been imagining my life as an analyst in the city the last few months and am confused on what decision to make.
Medical School
Pros
- Back in home state, nice city, good quality of life location-wise
- If I were to practice, I would like to be in home state
- I am curious about science/medicine
- I enjoy the thought of making a daily difference in my work and helping patients
- Have worked for this goal for a long time
- I could see myself happy as a physician
- Debt won't be bad because my parents have offered to help with tuition
- I did intense shadowing the summer after my freshman year of college and loved being in the hospital, it was invigorating
Cons
- High stress in school
- Lack of income during training
- Low pay as a resident
- Concerned about prospects of having a family as a physician
- Concerns about if the stress/reward ratio is worth it
- Heard stories of how the medical field is changing for the worse
- Haven't been in a health care setting in a couple years due to COVID and I wonder if I will still love it just as much as I did previously
JP Morgan Chase
Pros
- Good pay
- Stable job for the next few years
- Ability to start saving and building a 401k
- Allows me some flexibility with my career path (could stay in finance, pivot to corporate America, go to law school, etc.)
- Great benefits of working for a major company
- I have always been interested in business/entrepreneurship
- I am an extrovert and I really loved the office setting and working with my team to achieve success during my internship
Cons
- Not entirely "in love" with finance; Wasn't a huge Econ fan in undergrad
- Prospect of getting bored with my life in a few years?
- Although Manhattan is cool, could see myself hating the subway a few weeks in
Summary: Overall, I have two good options for career paths and I need some wisdom to help me make this decision. I understand they are vastly different and I feel like this has made the decision counterintuitively more difficult :/
well you are asking in a forum dedidated to wallstreet and finance so I feel like this isnt the place to ask. Maybe try networking with people who initially were in medicine and shifted into a big pharma finance role and get their opinion? Ultimately it would come down to your preference on what is more rewarding personally.
Hey! Thanks for replying! I totally understand this is more biased to finance, which is why I wanted to ask it here. How do people like their decisions? Do they regret finance? Do they really enjoy it? etc.
seems like everyone hates their life as an analyst/associate in IB but other places may have better WLB and culture. Id check out the anonymous surverys that went around these past few years
Reading your post makes me think you will find medicine more interesting and satisfying.
Like another commenter mentioned, everyone here is biased towards finance. Have you considered doing healthcare coverage in investment banking? That would probably be a lot more interesting to you.
My advice is to go to trade school.
If you don't go to med school you will always wonder what could have been. Your future prospects of getting a corporate job don't deteriorate at all if you hold off on it and try out med school
I feel somewhat qualified to answer this since I'm married to a doctor, but there's a few other variables to consider. It depends on what you want to do in finance vs. what kind of doctor you want to be. This is a corporate finance forum and you mentioned JP Morgan corporate finance - is this more of their FP&A side or are you going into IB? Either way starting in finance wherever that may be does give you flexibility, so what you do now could look drastically different than what you do in 5 years depending on what you want. That being said megafund PE is totally different from FP&A.
Also, do you have any idea what kind of doctor you might want to be? A pediatrician and an OB are both doctors, but very different in terms of pay, WLB, training requirements, etc. Also, once you choose you're kind of stuck there - it's not as flexible.
Anyway, here's an example between my wife and I. As background I started off in IB for a few years out of college then transitioned to corporate development while my wife is finishing residency now to become a family medicine doctor. We both live in a MCOL area.
Pay
WLB
Career Progression
Fulfillment?
I think we ended up filing into areas that we're both happy with. Ultimately, my take is if you want money go into finance - I think it's far easier to make $200k+ in finance (IB, FP&A, etc.) than being a doctor.
That being said if you value intellectual stimulation and finding fulfillment at work (especially being hands on helping people) then do medicine. Either way congratulations - you have great options to choose from!
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