Medical Student here looking to jump ship... Forum

[Marionberry]

I guess my concern now is if my science-related grades and scores and such would confer me any advantage or disadvantage as a law school applicant.

Not really. It would be considered a soft.

[DoctorNo]

I guess my concern now is if my science-related grades and scores and such would confer me any advantage or disadvantage as a law school applicant.

Not really. It would be considered a soft.

Sorry if this is stupid, but what does that mean?

[Marionberry]

Sorry, I forgot you're new to this. A "soft" is a "soft factor" in your application. Basically, the law school admissions process is largely(read:almost entirely) driven by your ug GPA and LSAT score. Softs rarely make a significant difference, unless you cured cancer or went back in time and killed Hitler. Normally the only purpose they have is to distinguish you from applicants with similar numbers.

[calvmpv]

Now I'm bored of it, bored with science, hospitals and patients.

You might get bored of law school, firms, and clients even faster.

[DreamShake]

Fair enough, but by that point I'll be thirty-some years old, $200,000 in debt, probably with a kid or two.

Dont become a baby daddy.

This made me lol. Cuz it's the right thing to say.


Seriously, though...OP, you said earlier that money wasn't an issue. Now you're citing it as a limiting factor. Curious contradiction.

[canuck]

This thread is hilarious. You all want to go to law school, yet all seem to think it is a terrible choice that will lead to boredom and crap job prospects.

This is highly anecdotal, but I just had dinner with a friend in 1L and she is loving it. She loves what she is learning and who she is learning it with.

Maybe be a little more optimistic folks. We aren't all marching through the gates of hell!

[floppymex]

This thread is hilarious. You all want to go to law school, yet all seem to think it is a terrible choice that will lead to boredom and crap job prospects.

This is highly anecdotal, but I just had dinner with a friend in 1L and she is loving it. She loves what she is learning and who she is learning it with.

Maybe be a little more optimistic folks. We aren't all marching through the gates of hell!

Hell doesn't have a grade curve.

[rinkrat19]

Memorization of copious useless detail is not interesting in any way.

And you think law school will be better in that regard?

[buckilaw]

Oh I didn't mean by quantity, but by quality. To me, they are far more interesting. Be it as a lawyer, a lobbyist or working in public service. The prospect of being in a hospital all day for the rest of my life has turned out to be a very depressing thought.

I've worked in politics. I can tell you from first hand experience that lobbyists with M.D's are highly regarded, at least in regard to insurance reform / healthcare. If you want to lobby seriously consider going this route; IMHO it's probably much easier to lobby with a M.D than a J.D.

[JazzOne]

This thread is hilarious. You all want to go to law school, yet all seem to think it is a terrible choice that will lead to boredom and crap job prospects.

This is highly anecdotal, but I just had dinner with a friend in 1L and she is loving it. She loves what she is learning and who she is learning it with.

Maybe be a little more optimistic folks. We aren't all marching through the gates of hell!

Hell doesn't have a grade curve.

+1

[buckilaw]

This thread is hilarious. You all want to go to law school, yet all seem to think it is a terrible choice that will lead to boredom and crap job prospects.

This is highly anecdotal, but I just had dinner with a friend in 1L and she is loving it. She loves what she is learning and who she is learning it with.

Maybe be a little more optimistic folks. We aren't all marching through the gates of hell!

Take a survey of your friend's class right after 2L OCI.

[IAFG]

My girlfriend is a 1L at a T14 school

lol bait and switch. coming back to this next time someone tells me to date a med student.

also, get your MD and THEN go to LS. a partial degree is worthless.

[JazzOne]

This thread is hilarious. You all want to go to law school, yet all seem to think it is a terrible choice that will lead to boredom and crap job prospects.

This is highly anecdotal, but I just had dinner with a friend in 1L and she is loving it. She loves what she is learning and who she is learning it with.

Maybe be a little more optimistic folks. We aren't all marching through the gates of hell!

Take a survey of your friend's class right after 2L OCI.

lol

Even the ones who did well are pissed at that point!

[JazzOne]

get your MD and THEN go to LS. a partial degree is worthless.

+1

[canuck]

If you guys and girls are going to hate your life in law school and afterwards then don't go! Quit b*tching about how hard it all is. Most jobs suck. People dig holes, crunch numbers and serve food to arrogant customers all day. You have the chance to learn a new language, do interesting and meaningful work, and make way more $$$ than the average person doing it.

It's going to be awesome.

OP: if you hate med school, drop out and look into whether you might be interested in law. Even if you go a different direction, it's not worth wasting your life doing something you don't like because there is a general shortage of ppl doing that job in the US.

[IAFG]

It's going to be awesome.

i would lol if my legal writing prof had not sucked out my soul. i seem to have lost my ability to laugh.

[JazzOne]

If you guys and girls are going to hate your life in law school and afterwards then don't go! Quit b*tching about how hard it all is. Most jobs suck. People dig holes, crunch numbers and serve food to arrogant customers all day. You have the chance to learn a new language, do interesting and meaningful work, and make way more $$$ than the average person doing it.

It's going to be awesome.

OP: if you hate med school, drop out and look into whether you might be interested in law. Even if you go a different direction, it's not worth wasting your life doing something you don't like because there is a general shortage of ppl doing that job in the US.

^ has not been through OCI

[DoctorNo]

Fair enough, but by that point I'll be thirty-some years old, $200,000 in debt, probably with a kid or two.

Dont become a baby daddy.

This made me lol. Cuz it's the right thing to say.


Seriously, though...OP, you said earlier that money wasn't an issue. Now you're citing it as a limiting factor. Curious contradiction.

True, true. But 200,000 in debt for a degree I wouldn't use is what I consider a misuse of my family's money whereas I wouldn't have trouble rationalizing using it to supplement potential poverty as an unemployed lawyer. Sounds convoluted, eh?

[DoctorNo]

Oh I didn't mean by quantity, but by quality. To me, they are far more interesting. Be it as a lawyer, a lobbyist or working in public service. The prospect of being in a hospital all day for the rest of my life has turned out to be a very depressing thought.

I've worked in politics. I can tell you from first hand experience that lobbyists with M.D's are highly regarded, at least in regard to insurance reform / healthcare. If you want to lobby seriously consider going this route; IMHO it's probably much easier to lobby with a M.D than a J.D.

Thank you for this! I suppose this makes sense. What if I don't want to lobby for anything science or medical-related?

[DoctorNo]

Memorization of copious useless detail is not interesting in any way.

And you think law school will be better in that regard?

Trust me when I say medical school memorization blows the shit out of anything law school memorization requires. This isn't a cockiness thing, fuck, I can barely get by. I mean memorizing every sentence on a slide, including footnotes that are test material occasionally.

Motherfucking COPII vesicles and CTFR mutations...pissed me off.

[BaiAilian2013]

FWIW I met an alum of my school who quit a prestigious medical job (head of a surgery dept. I think) to go to law school because he missed thinking. He said he loves being a lawyer because it's a different intellectual challenge every day. So you might not be nuts.

[DoctorNo]

Now I'm bored of it, bored with science, hospitals and patients.

You might get bored of law school, firms, and clients even faster.

This could very well be true, I suppose. I've just come to realize that 90% of patients have some combination of the same 5 ailments, same 10 treatments. Especially if you're a GP/IM/FP. Everyone else goes to specialists (they do more interesting shit) to get fixed. I doubt I have the grades or ability to become anything besides those, so I know the boredom that lies ahead.

[DoctorNo]

FWIW I met an alum of my school who quit a prestigious medical job (head of a surgery dept. I think) to go to law school because he missed thinking. He said he loves being a lawyer because it's a different intellectual challenge every day. So you might not be nuts.

This is worth a lot to me, thanks!

[lshamlet]

Don't do it. I'm begging you for your sake. Don't.

[canuck]

FWIW I met an alum of my school who quit a prestigious medical job (head of a surgery dept. I think) to go to law school because he missed thinking. He said he loves being a lawyer because it's a different intellectual challenge every day. So you might not be nuts.

Boom