Confessions of a Former Pre-Med

To all pre-med students thinking about going into finance:

During one of my undergraduate summers, I volunteered my time doing night shifts in the emergency department at a large hospital. My slightly deranged principal investigator wanted me to record the heart rate and urine output of level I trauma patients. So I obediently waited in a windowless room all night until my pager went off, where I would rush off to see what kind of carnage awaited me in the trauma bay.

There was only one thing keeping me awake during those long nights-- it was the red hot ambition of an overeager pre-med. I wanted that long white coat more than anything else in the world. In the morning, I'd bike back to the uni in the morning and see the hospital gleaming in the rising sun. I wanted in.

A few summers ago, I saw the gleaming of another edifice, more specifically the towers of 200 West Street in NYC. I've been chasing after that profession ever since.

My reasons for leaving the pre-medicine track and entering finance were perfectly logical. An overwhelming majority of physicians are dissatisfied with the growing influence of administrators, insurance companies, and opinionated patients who frequent "natural health" websites. Factoring in the cost of medical school, the sunk cost of losing 8 or so years of your youth in residency with below minimal wage, and the fallacy that all doctors are surgeons at Mass Gen, it was (in my opinion) a great risk-adjusted choice. To top it off, one afternoon, a pediatrician that I was shadowing took me by the shoulders and whispered to me "stay away from this field". I saw emptiness, and a little desperation in her eyes. That shit scared me so much.

Since then, I've seen my friends nail the MCATs and head off to Harvard and Stanford. I saw the elation of a girl who got a 41 on the test (an absolutely ridiculous score). It sent pangs of regret waving through my body. I felt like I made the wrong choice, even though I know logically I didn't.

To all those pre-meds working in finance. Don't ever let go of that ambition. Maybe a part of your youth is encapsulated in that period of your life. Don't forget those biology courses and any time you spent in the hospital. One day maybe, just maybe you can serve on the board of a major hospital. Maybe you could finance a scholarship for a ambitious young medical student.

In the meantime, get back to work reformatting that pitch book and updating models for that concrete company IPO. I want it by tomorrow morning.