Graduating from Medical School in May, LSAT=165ish Forum

[DoctorSurf]

Just out of curiosity, how well do you think you all will hold up when you take the hardest 15 credit hours you have taken in college and put them into one semester. When you thought there just wasn't enough time in the day to finish all of the work with this WHOPPING 15-18 hour schedule. I know, I remember taking Organic Chem, Cell Molec, and Microbiology together and being so happy that I had a filler like macro econ or a history class or both if I was feeling spunky. I thought this was the limit and that once I was in grad school, it was going to be cake because I tested out the hard way and succeeded except the hard way in undergrad is NOTHING COMPARED to medical school and/or law school. You sit down for lecture from 8-10 am and grab the prof's two 25 page packets, take notes on everything they say, and then the next guy walks in from 10-12. Your hand is cramping, you are losing concentration very quickly and the only thing you can think about is what is the chef's special at the grill today. Meanwhile another 50 pages of notes are sitting in front of you and whether you like it or not, they ain't going anywhere. Lunchtime comes and you BS with your friends about anything but the lecture knowing that at 1pm another 4 hours and 100 pages of notes is coming right your way, and whats the worst you say, the test is next monday. 1000 pages to read, study, and memorize to get that 70 or wherever the curve throws you over. We had 46 mondays in a row. That my friends is why passing medical school is worth more 1-2 points of an LSAT score.
And I will say that there are not that many wakeboarders that can maintain all of their sponsors for four years of less competing and less riding in general. Thankfully I am still as good on my board as the day I started med school.

[Grizz]

That my friends is why passing medical school is worth more 1-2 points of an LSAT score.

Yeah, too bad it won't really matter.

[r6_philly]

I came to this thread to post something similar.

OP, if you think you can be an expert witness without ever having practiced medicine, you're a fool. No one will hire you, and you are not an expert in anything.

Don't get a JD if you don't want to be a lawyer.

You also don't need a law degree to start a charity. You need to work for charities and get involved in the industry to show them you're not just some over-educated buffoon.

My wife was looking at a PsyD but she doesn't want to practice. We then realized that PsyD, MD, JD are all professional ENTRY-LEVEL degrees. Without practicing you really don't have anything to offer but a degree.

If you want to work for/with non-profits, there are many wonderful M.P.A. programs out there, and you will look more sincere to executive boards since you chose a public sector degree.

[CanadianWolf]

Why ? Afraid of the real world ? In love with being a perpetual student ?

Nobody can authoritatively state the boost accorded a medical degree & MD license because so few take this path but it should be substantial, in my opinion.

Regarding the impact of donations to law schools, it probably depends upon several factors including whether or not the law school is public or private. Lots of less-than-well-qualified politically connected students attend state flagship law schools.

Medical school can be exhausting, but law school requires more of an open & creative mind so that I think it is unfair to try to compare the two courses of study. I do know, however, that it is much easier to flunk out of law school & quite difficult to get dismissed from medical school.

[lshamlet]

ITT a clueless MD with a chip on his shoulder and a superiority complex contemplates getting into a top law school by using daddy's money

[DoctorSurf]

Planning to be a professional witness??
To spend your life reviewing other doctor's work in patient charts for hours?? (Always a bridesmaid never a bride)
To put yourself up as an "expert" without ever doing a residency or a fellowship??

In our adversarial system there are two attorneys at trial. One of them wants to make you look like a genius, but the other wants to make you out to be an idiot. Don't make it easy for him. The attorney with the stronger argument will have the witness with the thickest CV. You will be condemning yourself to giving specious testimony for which ever attorney will pay you.

This is absolutely correct. Physician + JD = interesting background for a med mal lawyer. MD + JD = person who regrets going to med school (at best) or person who couldn't match for a residency (at worst). I also doubt it will help that much with admissions. You are sort of quitting in the middle of a course of study. In the t14 you'll be competing against a sizable number of people with terminal degrees and work experience.

If you do not complete a residency before applying to law school, you are basically throwing away your MD. I am not saying you shouldn't do it. Maybe you hate medicine, maybe you love law, there could be a ton a reasons why this could be reasonable. Unfortunately, the plan you've outlined isn't.

Which was the purpose of my post... My other option is orthopedic surgery, that has been my other goal since I've been little. In order to get your DEA # the only thing you have to do is pass step 1 and step 2, graduate, and then pass step 3. You are then a fully functioning doctor. Each state then has their own rules on how many years of intership/residency you need to have full privileges ie see your patients in the hospital. This varies from either 1-3 years with the majority just being one year of internship. Which is why I will take the LSAT in February and apply if I really do well, or just do my one year internship and start the following fall. I've either wanted to be a Dr/Lawyer or an orthopod my whole life so this is no new realization for me. The problem is with how the healthcare system is going, there is no way to predict where medicine will be in the next 20 years. Will I have done 5 years of residency plus another year of fellowship to have my salary regulated, or will I be better off being a person with a very rare specialty that won't be under the governments control. With Orthopedics, if you want to make the big bucks, which I do, you are working about an 80 hour a week job. You are on call until the day you retire and you will likely miss every single one of your sons baseball or soccer games. If he plays football, then you may lucky enough to be the team doc. They are really pushing us to work for the hospital trying to slowly squeeze out the private practices, and that is not what I want.

[lshamlet]

.

[CanadianWolf]

There is a surplus of lawyers & a shortage of doctors. Insurance companies & medicare pay doctors the same whether among the best or worst practitioners of a reimbursable medical specialty.
I know two orthopedic surgeons--they both love their chosen field & appear to be doing very well financially.

[DoctorSurf]

ITT a clueless MD with a chip on his shoulder and a superiority complex contemplates getting into a top law school by using daddy's money

ITT Ishamlet just another one of the 2000 people that did nothing in college but study and is no more than a bad poker hand away from not getting into the law school of his choice. Where 4.0 - his GPA is the amount of times he got laid in college if .2 still counts as an hj. Come on buddy, you want to be a lawyer, you know you never want to let your case get to trial if you can make a deal beforehand.

[r6_philly]

There is a surplus of lawyers & a shortage of doctors. Insurance companies & medicare pay doctors the same whether among the best or worst practitioners of a reimbursable medical specialty.
I know two orthopedic surgeons--they both love their chosen field & appear to be doing very well financially.

I visited a lot of ortho docs due to my previous profession. They charge the most and do the least. I never paid so much to be seen and touched for 3-5 minutes at a time. Good gig.

[masochist]

Just out of curiosity, how well do you think you all will hold up when you take the hardest 15 credit hours you have taken in college and put them into one semester. When you thought there just wasn't enough time in the day to finish all of the work with this WHOPPING 15-18 hour schedule. I know, I remember taking Organic Chem, Cell Molec, and Microbiology together and being so happy that I had a filler like macro econ or a history class or both if I was feeling spunky. I thought this was the limit and that once I was in grad school, it was going to be cake because I tested out the hard way and succeeded except the hard way in undergrad is NOTHING COMPARED to medical school and/or law school. You sit down for lecture from 8-10 am and grab the prof's two 25 page packets, take notes on everything they say, and then the next guy walks in from 10-12. Your hand is cramping, you are losing concentration very quickly and the only thing you can think about is what is the chef's special at the grill today. Meanwhile another 50 pages of notes are sitting in front of you and whether you like it or not, they ain't going anywhere. Lunchtime comes and you BS with your friends about anything but the lecture knowing that at 1pm another 4 hours and 100 pages of notes is coming right your way, and whats the worst you say, the test is next monday. 1000 pages to read, study, and memorize to get that 70 or wherever the curve throws you over. We had 46 mondays in a row. That my friends is why passing medical school is worth more 1-2 points of an LSAT score.
And I will say that there are not that many wakeboarders that can maintain all of their sponsors for four years of less competing and less riding in general. Thankfully I am still as good on my board as the day I started med school.

Wow. Let me guess, you were going into surgery.

Given this tirade, I've changed my mind. Not only is your plan perfectly reasonable, but you have a moral obligation to make sure it happens. Society needs expert witnesses who can comment upon what it is like to study really hard and suffer from hand cramps. I am sure you will be in high demand since no lawyer will be able to find an experienced physician willing to testify in exchange for hundreds of dollars an hour.

[Lwoods]

There is a surplus of lawyers & a shortage of doctors. Insurance companies & medicare pay doctors the same whether among the best or worst practitioners of a reimbursable medical specialty.
I know two orthopedic surgeons--they both love their chosen field & appear to be doing very well financially.

I visited a lot of ortho docs due to my previous profession. They charge the most and do the least. I never paid so much to be seen and touched for 3-5 minutes at a time. Good gig.

Married to one.

They might do the least in terms of patient interaction, but they do have longer hours than a few other high-paid specialties (Derm, Radiology, Ophthalmology...). Still, nice work if you can get it.

[Shooter]

Sorry, but this post HAS to be a flame. A very clever one, mind you. But a flame nonetheless.

[kkklick]

My sister had someone in her law class last year who graduated med school and was going into law "for fun". The guy didn't show up to hclass half the time and looked clueless but somehow aced the class. Some people are just gifted in that they can excel at whatever they put their mind to. If OP wants to go to law school, he should.

[kkklick]

Sorry, but this post HAS to be a flame. A very clever one, mind you. But a flame nonetheless.

I thought about that but why would he post such long in-depth responses. If this is a flame, he is one dedicated hard working troll.

[r6_philly]

Married to one.

They might do the least in terms of patient interaction, but they do have longer hours than a few other high-paid specialties (Derm, Radiology, Ophthalmology...). Still, nice work if you can get it.

Lucky you! If I could only convince my wife to be one we'd be set... lol

The best part about ortho is the usual advice is to "let it heal on its own"... As many visits I had, I never got surgery for the large number of ligament tears and retears.

[r6_philly]

My sister had someone in her law class last year who graduated med school and was going into law "for fun". The guy didn't show up to hclass half the time and looked clueless but somehow aced the class. Some people are just gifted in that they can excel at whatever they put their mind to. If OP wants to go to law school, he should.

Why didn't he go make some money and have some fun. I read a fail in that story.

[krad]

In order to get your DEA # the only thing you have to do is pass step 1 and step 2, graduate, and then pass step 3. You are then a fully functioning doctor. Each state then has their own rules on how many years of intership/residency you need to have full privileges ie see your patients in the hospital. This varies from either 1-3 years with the majority just being one year of internship.

Uhhh no residency to practice ortho? 1 year internship? Ortho is a 5 year residency bro... Not to mention being matched to an ortho residency is UBER competitive.

Bologna sandwiches up in here!

[Lwoods]

In order to get your DEA # the only thing you have to do is pass step 1 and step 2, graduate, and then pass step 3. You are then a fully functioning doctor. Each state then has their own rules on how many years of intership/residency you need to have full privileges ie see your patients in the hospital. This varies from either 1-3 years with the majority just being one year of internship.

Uhhh no residency to practice ortho? 1 year internship? Ortho is a 5 year residency bro... Not to mention being matched to an ortho residency is UBER competitive.

Bologna sandwiches up in here!

Uh, yeah. The shortest residencies I know of (IM, peds, Family Medicine) are all 3 years. Now, DH will be able to moonlight (see his own patients) his 2nd year after passing Step 3 (he takes it tomorrow/thurs!) and the Orthopedic In-Training Exam (OITE), but he won't really be done until his 5 year residency is up.

[Sentry]

There is a surplus of lawyers & a shortage of doctors. Insurance companies & medicare pay doctors the same whether among the best or worst practitioners of a reimbursable medical specialty.
I know two orthopedic surgeons--they both love their chosen field & appear to be doing very well financially.

I visited a lot of ortho docs due to my previous profession. They charge the most and do the least. I never paid so much to be seen and touched for 3-5 minutes at a time. Good gig.

It's because doctors don't do anything.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/world- ... cent,1670/

[r6_philly]

It's because doctors don't do anything.

My ortho docs did absolutely nothing.

[krad]

It's because doctors don't do anything.

My ortho docs did absolutely nothing.

FTW: Getting paid bucu bucks to do nothing

[kkklick]

Notice that after we called him out on his flame he didn't defend himself. Bad bad troll.

[krad]

Notice that after we called him out on his flame he didn't defend himself. Bad bad troll.

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