Dropping Out of Medical School
I am a first year medical student. Graduated from a mid-tier college in May 2020. To be completely honest I entered medicine for the pay and job security, not because it is my passion.
I majored in finance in college and really enjoyed it. I also interned at a healthcare focused hedge-fund one summer. They tried to sway me from going to medical school with a job offer straight out of college, but I declined.
Medical school has been monotonous and this same fund has extended a $100k base + bonus offer to me if I drop out and go to work for them. From a purely financial perspective, what do you think is the better move here? I'm torn.
Screw med school. If you're in it for the money (as you said you are), then the answer is obvious already.
Also, if you're feeling doubt and it's only your first year… it's going to be a painful journey ahead of you then. 3 more years of graduate school not to mention 3-7 years of residency afterwards depending on your specialization. During that entire time you'll incur massive debts from school loans and living expenses.
Is this a serious question? Please reread your post and you’ll find your answer.
Can you do some sort of leave of absence from your med school to check out the hedge fund and still have an option to go back?
go to the fund.. you will have plenty of solid exit options by the sound of it, and can always get an MBA if you want to go into consulting or IBanking etc etc.
Lol people on this forum are way too risk averse. Absurd.
I don't know very many happy doctors. Most work terrible hours, don't like the work, are absolutely buried in debt, and want out but can't because they need the salary to pay down the debt.
I know lots of happy doctors making serious coin post fellowships and love their jobs. Of my 5+ immediate friends from HS/college that are doctors I can't name one that doesn't like it. I'm sure there are of course, but your bleak picture isn't necessarily the norm.
Could not agree with this statement more. Most of my friends and family are in medicine and they all hate it. Pay goes down every year across all of their specialities. Limited upward mobility. Decreased bargaining powers with insurers. Massive debt needed to even enter the field. Overall, would not recommend the field to anyone. Finance is not great, and as an analyst WFH, my WLB has been trash, but the pay is better than many mu family friends who are practicing physicians and we work fairly similar hours.
This is not an easy answer. As a doctor, if you play your cards right and find the right locale and specialty you can make $500k+ consistently with no stress which is basically what the average HF analyst makes with a lot more stress.
You need to ask yourself what you want in life and then make that decision.
This is gravely false. Have close connections at multiple top healthcare systems and even at the largest hospitals, there are generally only a handful of physicians making 500k+ these days. Most individuals making that much are hospital administrators with no medical background.
I am from an area in the country that is a metropolitan area (although a low tier one) and I personally know many doctors making over half a million. They all have private practices and are likely billing aggressively etc. but it is by no means an outlier story (compared to some comp numbers you hear on this site)
If you want to replicate that from scratch you’d definitely need to put in some elbow grease but it’s very doable
Always interesting to hear the misconceptions about physician comp on this forum - for reference basically everyone important in my life is an MD, but me. A couple of general rules:
If you want to be a doctor, and you are smart, hardworking and personable you can make 1mm+ at 35 with pretty tight variance if that is the one item you optimize for. You won't do it in NYC, Boston or San Fran but it absolutely can be done and replicated somewhat formulaically.
Two doctors who make good money I know. Worked their arse off during the pandemic, and 1 basically risked his life for weeks. Being a specialist physician is a very stressful job. Based on your attitude towards medicine I truly doubt you would stuck it out to get paid well goto the hedge fund.
Grad school sucks and being a licensed professional sucks even more. Good on you OP. Don’t look back.
Let’s see. 8 year of no income (so say $1M of lost income from a $125k job) and $200k+ of debt if you go the med school route. If you join the fund, I assume you won’t have much debt and you will be making at least $150k off the bat, and even more if you/the fund does well. I think you know the answer to this.
Also forgot to mention: Med school is fucking awful in terms of experience. You’re going against type A assholes who are peers in name, but competitors really for residency. This isn’t like college where you hang out with ur buddies and join clubs and go to parties all the time. You study 24/7 with no fun really. It fucking sucks. At least if you join your fund, Ull be making $$$ and can have fun too in the prime of your life the 20s
I would say follow what you'd like more. You'll be rich either way. FYI I know someone who finished med school and switched to HF so... this is pretty rare but perhaps not unheard of.
You must love medicine. Otherwise, you will not be able to succeed in this specialty. So I think you should drop out of medical school and go to college to study economics if you like it that much. I believe that this will be the right decision, and most importantly, I'd correctly explain my departure from medical school to my parents so that they would not worry so much. I love medicine, and I was able to enroll in medical school for the second time. The first time I could not enroll in medical school because I had no experience in research -- I learned that I needed it after the first attempt, I read about it on https://www.trinityschoolofmedicine.org/blog/is-research-required-for-medical-school.
Drop out. Now.
Shoot for stars aim for perceptive!
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