very thoughtful... props.soundgardener wrote:I think you need to remove your rose tinted glasses. I have a ton a friends at various stages on the path to becoming a doctor (med school, residency, etc.), have witnessed their experience firsthand, and this is certainly not how I or they would characterize it.Rambiggler wrote:you may disagree with me, but med school is easy. i am thoroughly convinced of this, and willing to make life changes based on it. it's not a breeze, but it's not that hard. it's certainly less work than busting your ass as a new associate in a big firm and trying to get to the top... and all of us on this forum are ready to do that anyway.
-study hard for two years (or don't and you're still fine because GPA doesn't matter and med schools won't fail you out and you are guaranteed to at least get some 'undesirable' job like family medicine/psychiatry where you can work 30 hours a week and still make good money)
-then do rotations for two years which are not hard (the only hard part is a hard schedule, like lawyers have as well, and some studying for step1-3)
-then a couple years of residency (only challenge there is working long hours like, um, biglaw maybe) and then you are literally set for the rest of your life with no stress if you want it that way. My $.02
One thing you have that is flat out wrong is that med schools will not fail you out. They absolutely will fail you out. I know people this has happened to. If you do not bust your ass in med school, you will fail out. However, you then have the option of either giving up, or finishing in the Caribbean for a shitload of money and hoping you can hustle your way into some sort of residency.
Also, I don't know any doctors of any kind that have anything resembling no stress or work only thirty hours a week. That is fucking laughable. The best gig from what I can tell is dermatology which has the least hours for the most money, but it is the hardest to get (what a shocker). You have to be in the top handful of people in your class to land a Derm residency.
As far as sources of stress your ignoring off the top of my head, you have malpractice insurance, malpractice suits, being on call, hospital politics, and insurance companies telling you how to treat patients. This is all after you've actually become a practicing doctor which is much more difficult than how you've portrayed it.
The bottom line is that both medicine and law are demanding professions. They are well compensated for a reason. I think in the end one has to choose the work that is suited to them personally and accept all that entails. I don't think that a path exists where you can just skate through and rake in tons of money with no stress while having a beautiful and positive impact on the world. That is a pipe dream.
i don't disagree with you on most of what you posted. i realize that it is no cake walk. i realize that life is no cake walk. i oversimplified my explanation for a forum post, but I have genuinely looked into this and have reached the opposite conclusion.
the way i see it, we are all going to be working hard no matter what we do. in this world, anyone who wants to be successful (whatever that means to them personally) will have to work hard, whether it's working hard to make more money or working hard to be allowed to take time off for your family.
the only tints i have on my glasses are those of a person who would genuinely like to be a physician... this desire does shape my portrayal of things.
the only point i was trying to make with my posts above was the fact that as a young associate you will work very hard for a couple years in order to be in a better position later (senior associate/partner). for me it seems more desirable/beneficial to spend those same years working hard in med school. TO ME. I never claimed that this is the right conclusion for everyone... just saying this is the conclusion i came to based on some serious thought and investigation.
my point in starting this thread was not to convince people that med school is easy... i am only trying to learn from other people's experiences if they have any, regarding what a person might do with a JD/MD.
i will be perfectly happy practicing either profession exclusively, whatever i decide to do, but i want to cover all my bases and try to figure out if there is some value added by combining the two degrees.
thank you all for your input.