Medicine vs Business---why did you choose business?
I'm at that point.
May 1st is when I need to decide what college I commit too.
I do not know if I should go into pre-med or pursue business.
Let me say this: I would be lying if I said that I would be pursuing medical school to be financially stable.
With that being said, (and YES, I know I will be getting biased answers)- can someone convince me that in business there is more flexibility with your life and a better chance of being well off financially? I just don't know if the oppurtunity cost of 4 years of med school, 4-7 years of residency, and 2-3 years of specilization/fellowship is worth it. Why did you choose business? As broad as a term, do you find the work you do satiating? Or is money always a motivating factor?
My entire family consists of doctors, surgeons, nurses, GPs, psychologists, and so on. you get what I mean, a "medical family" on all sides.
I decided to go for finance eventually and most family members and friends didn't understand why I would want to miss out on a stable earning, the "prestige" of a medical degree, and the relatively high income.
Why? - I wanted to live and work in different countries. This is more difficult with medicine due to courses or exams you might have to take again abroad. - I wanted to see different companies throughout my life. Again, once you are in medicine you (shall) eventually specialize in a few areas or even become narrower than that. I wanted something else. - Languages, cultures, countries; similar to what I said above I grew up in many countries and also liked languages. It's not like you can't use that in medicine but I thought business was a better fit. - Adventure, challenges: business is more general and also more of an adventure because your path isn't set when you start. If I look back at the opportunities, jobs, teams, clients and projects I had encountered over the years I can only say... it was a wild ride! Medicine in contrast sounded "boring" to me (i.e. same hospital, same field, same city, ...) - length of study, finance was simply faster for me. Medicine takes longer IMO.
The issues? - Well, let's put it this way: When is the last time you have seen a great doctor being laid off? Job security isn't particularly high in business or finance while good medical professionals can have a job for years without the fear of being redundant. - "Prestige", how society looks at you; if you are into that kind of thing, everyone likes doctors or professionals who help the sick or can cure a medical condition. I doubt people will ever look at an IBD excel pro the same way they look at a pediatrician who helps a sick child. Why would they? - Individual reasons: I am actually very good with my hands, had biology and STEM subjects as my major during HS and I really like science. Medicine would've been a great fit and whenever I was laid off or was uncertain about banking (come on, who isn't?) I reconsidered why I didn't become a surgeon or doctor. There is a tiny bit of regret that I didn't pick medicine but eventually it all worked out. edit: - Another issue is that my family can't help me with my career. They can't coach/mentor me in finance or business, can't put my resume forward, can't understand what people do inside an office building. Several of them have literally never seen an office from the inside. When I have a decision to make within the finance industry I have to do it all by myself.
I have a feeling you could make just as much in med device sales with a lot less school.
personally, I'd rather not be around sick/dying people all the time...
Sorry to keep posting on your threads, but I feel like you have a lot of questions that I used to have (I am assuming you are also from TX). To your question, I would definitely recommend going into finance if you would solely go into medicine for the money. My girlfriend is a medical student at a very good school (top 7) in the country and she loves what she does - she and her friends think of money as a factor in their process; however, they genuinely have a love for what they study and what they want to do in the future. Medical school takes too many years (4 years + residency as you stated) to start earning sizable money for one to simply enter because they want to make money. Not to prop medical students up too much, but a majority of them could have done IB out of college given their grades and general intelligence - they chose medicine because they have a genuine interest in it. This is not to say you won't find a few doctors here and there that are solely interested in money, but I would argue you can find outliers in any professional field. Also, as a FYI, my gf thinks finance is completely boring so I honestly think it depends on where your interests lie... which brings me to the below.
As cliche as it sounds, at the end of the day I would examine what really interests you and if you think you could have a career in that profession. Both finance and medicine have smart people in it, but I would recommend finance if you aren't sure what you want to do AND would only enter medicine to make money. I would be lying if I told you I didn't think of money as a determining factor when I choose IB out of college; however, I also had a general (albeit rudimentary interest as a freshman/sophomore) interest in finance in college - I was able to get comfortable with the fact I'd be doing this long-term (or at least medium term). Things can change as you get older, but I would advise against picking something where you have no genuine interest in the subject matter.
Thank you for commenting on my threads. I actually appreciate it so much. Could I PM you and ask you some certain questions?
Yeah, for sure. Always happy to help.
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