Current med student, want to switch to law Forum

[NoSpecialSymbolsPlz]

I have a lot of friends who are doctors and they all say practicing medicine is not intellectually challenging. 98% of the time you are seeing the same garden variety problems. It's not "House." And the people you are dealing with are largely unhappy/stressed because they sick and loved ones are worried

This is exactly what I don't want for my career.

[Hornet2011]

First of all OP I really feel for you. My best friend who talks to me about things she never tells even her sister who is one of the coolest / most intelligent people I know and she struggled and I mean struggled emotionally through the grind of the first and second years of med school. We definitely talked about her dropping out on occasion and through weekly long talks got a good idea of what med school looks like. That being said, she just recently told me that even though she could never do years one and two over again, now that she did a year of rotations and is starting her "tryout" rotations (will get a spot as an OR doctor btw, has great connections) she is so thankful she stuck through it and really loves what she does day to day even though it still can be a grind being up at 5AM and working late etx. I'd say at least 10% of my inner circle is in med school and they have all said about the same thing.

This being said I would strongly consider if I were you sticking through with the MD program. You might also consider looking into if your university has a joint JD/MD program. Alternatively I feel like your goals could also be accomplished with a MD/MBA. At the end of the day your career in business or law will only be advanced by being a MD -- unless you truly don't want anything to do with medicine in the future.

Please feel free to PM if you want.

Best of luck on making your choice

[PoopyPants]

If you are really specialized (e.g. neuro, oncology, etc), you tend to just get the same case-mix, which makes the job repetitive and boring from my perspective; however, if you are not that specialized (i.e. family physician, trauma/ER) you never know what you will get which can help to make it more interesting. The field of medicine in general though is more hands on, and I would rather just sit back and think about stuff. I just finished first year and I hated it--it was exactly like studying for the MCAT--a ton of content and memorization--but without any need to critically think or engage higher reasoning skills.

Dude. The first two years are nothing like practicing medicine. It's just basic science bookwork shit. If you want something that you can sit back and think about stuff, there are definitely specialties like that, particularly the more cerebral fellowships off internal med.

I'm not a law student or a lawyer, but I know a ton of them, and I think you'll be pretty disappointed if you switch to law because you think it'll be more intellectually stimulating. For 99% of lawyers, just sitting back and thinking about stuff doesn't pay the bills. That said, I can understand the need to get out of something you are hating before you're crushed under a debt you can't escape from. Just think about it pretty long and hard before you just from an area where you can make really good money to a field where the average salary is significantly lower, but the debt coming out of school is comparable.

[juzam_djinn]

Everyone bashing on the level of intellectual excitement in law school clearly has no idea about the grind that is med school. In comparison, law school is a nice walk in the park with some interesting normative questions and idealistic concepts to think about.

Weird strawman.

not at all, just pointing out something that had gone uncorrected. you know what a strawman is right?

sure I didn't engage in a discussion about the actual practice of law, but that's b/c I didn't think there was anything else to add to that topic that hadn't already been said

[Cogburn87]

No one came anywhere near to claiming that med school was not a grind. Nor was anyone claiming that law school did not provide "interesting" stuff to "think about." but thanks for correcting these misconceptions that no one was actually operating under, though.

[jbagelboy]

Lol at law students talking about med school like they know shit

Lol at wanting to go to law school but only if its one of three law schools. Screams poorly researched and ill advised.

[Bigs]

Current 4th year medical student here. The advice here is mostly good. The first few years of med school are terrible and everyone goes a little crazy. A friend dropped out in first year and now has regrets.

Just hold out until 3rd year when you get out of the classroom and you'll remember why you went into medicine. If you still have regrets, then think about quitting. If you drop out after your second year, many schools give you a master's degree so it won't be wasted time.

Just wait until 3rd year. The first two years are nothing like the rest of your career. There are so many directions you can go in medicine that you can find what you're looking for. For example, Academic medicine is not boring and keeps you on your toes.

I've done a lot of research into law school for a friend who is thinking of applying next year and often send them links to this site hoping to talk them out of it. Take a look around this site. The grass is often greener on the other side until you look a little closer.

To give up a medical career you would want to make sure you go to a top school to give yourself the best shot at paying off loans for med school and law school combined. That part I understand.

Send me a private message if you want to discuss it further.

[84651846190]

Stick with med school. You will have great long-term career prospects and will be respected and intellectually challenged. There is a level of job security that comes with med school that you will never have practicing law. Just look at the wait lists and long lines of people trying to see doctors. You have nothing like this in law. When you need legal advice, lawyers fight like hell to cut their own rates to get your business. Think carefully about the implications of this for your potential career in law. There are lawyers who do very well, but they have the people skills, the drive, and the emotional stability to do well in almost any business endeavor. The only reason to go to law school is if you want to be a lawyer and think you will enjoy being in court or doing whatever the hell it is corporate transactional lawyers label as practicing law.

One thing people haven't mentioned is how incredibly passive aggressive other lawyers are and how emotionally grating this can be. Every single little detail of everything is sometimes fought over, and it can get to you in a way that I don't think is paralleled in medical practice. All of the doctors I know seem super chilled out and collegial, playing a lot of golf and generally having a great quality of life. Most of the lawyers I know are unhappy, although some of my single friends with no lives outside of work seem to enjoy it well enough.

[PoopyPants]

One thing people haven't mentioned is how incredibly passive aggressive other lawyers are and how emotionally grating this can be. Every single little detail of everything is sometimes fought over, and it can get to you in a way that I don't think is paralleled in medical practice. All of the doctors I know seem super chilled out and collegial, playing a lot of golf and generally having a great quality of life. Most of the lawyers I know are unhappy, although some of my single friends with no lives outside of work seem to enjoy it well enough.

It's personality dependent. I worked with many physicians and surgeons who were miserable nearly all the time and quibbled with staff and other doctors over the dumbest shit.

But I agree with the rest of your post. OP definitely needs to stick with med school.

[071816]

itt op expresses a desire to become a stressed out paper pusher

[CanadianWolf]

OP: I haven't read the whole thread--just read your original post. Take a long cold shower, enjoy a few cups of black coffee & then come back. And please remember, friends don't let friends quit med school to go to law school.

[Medicine Man]

Guadalajara and St Georges Med Schools > YLS and HLS

[Eee666]

Guadalajara and St Georges Med Schools > YLS and HLS

Debt out of those schools is probably comparable to t14 sticker right?

[PoopyPants]

Guadalajara and St Georges Med Schools > YLS and HLS

Debt out of those schools is probably comparable to t14 sticker right?

Probably. But you'll get a residency if you work hard, and then you'll have an MD salary (post residency, of course).

[Eee666]

Guadalajara and St Georges Med Schools > YLS and HLS

Debt out of those schools is probably comparable to t14 sticker right?

Probably. But you'll get a residency if you work hard, and then you'll have an MD salary (post residency, of course).

What's the TLS equivalent for med students? I want to learn about this exciting world of not being a lawyer but still making a lot of money

[03152016]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/

[PoopyPants]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/

This is basically THE forum for med school. There are a couple others, but this is by far the most popular and has the most info.

That said, it is like TLS in the same way that a spoonbill is like an ibis.

[jaysnooginz]

Sorryy I have no idea how to reply to everyone separately or how to use this in general, so I'll just reply to all at once.

what was your undergrad GPA? (That;s the only GPA that counts.)

Yes, the one in the OP was my undergrad gpa.

Of course the real question, is why change?

I think the real question here is why do you want to go to law school in the first place, and why would you only settle for the top 3 schools?

I'm bored of med, it's not fulfilling anymore, and I want a challenge. I don't know much about the current law market but I have worked with some lawyers and on a bunch of health policy projects during undergrad, so I have some experience.

Do you really know what lawyers do, have specific goals etc, or are you just trying to appease Asian parents or something?

I don't really care about appeasing my parents--I'm bored with med and want something more intellectually challenging (I'm assuming law will provide this challenge but I also acknowledge that my knowledge is limited about the field, so I could be completely wrong).

Not sure if this is a serious post. How can you be bored of medicine in med school?? The real shit doesn't start until you get into residency and your specialty. Medicine is such a varied field that "I want a challenge" is kind of an odd thing to say.

[krads153]

Medicine sounds like a terrible field (all memorizing, no thinking, rote procedures, etc.), but wtf - there are other jobs besides the ones that require you to go to professional school.

Honestly, it sounds like you are just degree collecting. Why not work for awhile doing anything full time and figure out what you want to do?
As an example, if you do finance, you might not be intellectually stimulated, but you would be making more money than doctors and lawyers on average, without the opportunity cost/student loans.

And you could also go back and study a quant field (engineering, hard science, math, etc). if you want to think all the time.

If you really want to THINK, and not just do rote stuff all the time, go get a PhD in a hard science and do academia. Pursuing medicine/law is not for those who want to be intellectually stimulated.

[Bigs]

Medicine sounds like a terrible field (all memorizing, no thinking, rote procedures, etc.)

OP this is the furthest thing from the truth.
Please don't judge medicine after only experiencing the first few years of med school. Those years are nothing like the rest of your career.

Medicine is a broad field and even if you only do average on step 1, most specialties are still open to you. This is not like law where only the top students or the students at top schools can pick where they go. You can go still go anywhere in the broad field of medicine. You sound like someone who would value academic medicine. Look into it before you make any rash decisions.

[PoopyPants]

Medicine sounds like a terrible field (all memorizing, no thinking, rote procedures, etc.)

OP this is the furthest thing from the truth.
Please don't judge medicine after only experiencing the first few years of med school. Those years are nothing like the rest of your career.

Medicine is a broad field and even if you only do average on step 1, most specialties are still open to you. This is not like law where only the top students or the students at top schools can pick where they go. You can go still go anywhere in the broad field of medicine. You sound like someone who would value academic medicine. Look into it before you make any rash decisions.

+1. Definitely listen to this, OP.

[krads153]

Medicine sounds like a terrible field (all memorizing, no thinking, rote procedures, etc.)

OP this is the furthest thing from the truth.

Just my opinion, albeit I don't practice medicine. Pretty much all of my high school friends are now doctors though. The practice of medicine sounds awful, to me.

And the study of medicine (so the first two years, mainly) is pure rote memorization according to my friends (very little critical thinking/analysis). It's nothing like the hard sciences/engineering, etc.

I agree that there's more open to you in medicine than in law, but if you're footing med school on your own with loans, and you're not sure you want to do medicine, sticking it out for another 3 years plus 4 years of residency sounds dumb to me. Doctors don't get paid enough on average to pay back that kind of loans, IMO, for it to be worth it if you're not 100% committed to being a doctor. If you're not paying for med school on your own, then it might be worth it to stick it out, until at least third year to see if you like it.

[PoopyPants]

Just my opinion, albeit I don't practice medicine.

Should have just stopped there.

[krads153]

Just my opinion, albeit I don't practice medicine.

Should have just stopped there.

Are you the nurse? Why aren't you going to med school instead?

[PoopyPants]

Just my opinion, albeit I don't practice medicine.

Should have just stopped there.

Are you the nurse? Why aren't you going to med school instead?

I was an OR nurse for 8 years and also a private first assist/nurse for 2 of them. I intended on joining the Navy and using the STA-21 program to go to medical school. Without getting too into it, I had a personal experience with a JAG attorney that got me looking more into law, and I eventually decided I would go in that direction instead, JAG or otherwise.

ETA: if I had already started medical school, I wouldn't have switched paths.