Pre-med to pre-law? Forum

[rman1201]

But seriously, who the fuck actually wants to be a dentist?

Call me picky, but I'd rather by a doc review monkey, or be just about anything else, than work with teeth all day. The only reason I'd consider something like that is for financial reasons, but no point in doing it if you're going to be miserable.

[Miracle]

But seriously, who the fuck actually wants to be a dentist?

Call me picky, but I'd rather by a doc review monkey, or be just about anything else, than work with teeth all day. The only reason I'd consider something like that is for financial reasons, but no point in doing it if you're going to be miserable.

whats wrong with dentistry?

[ResolutePear]

But seriously, who the fuck actually wants to be a dentist?

Call me picky, but I'd rather by a doc review monkey, or be just about anything else, than work with teeth all day. The only reason I'd consider something like that is for financial reasons, but no point in doing it if you're going to be miserable.

whats wrong with dentistry?

Dentistry is, dare I say, as if not more rewarding than a MD.

Why? Well, think back to your last tooth ache. Then, think bad to your last cold.

I mean, at the end of the day.. each to their own. Whether you're a DDS or a MD, you're still raping the patients' pockets when you go for a visit.

[Cal4future]

If I had to do it all over again I'd chose medicine.

[tourdeforcex]

If I had to do it all over again I'd chose medicine.

why?

[er doctor]

If I had to do it all over again I'd chose medicine.

I do have the chance to do it again and I'm choosing law.

[Borhas]

I'm a long-time lurker but this is my first post here. I'm wondering about going to law school over medical school. I came into a 3rd tier college (full-ride was the only reason) pre-law, but switched to pre-med my sophomore year due to my parents' pressuring me. They are both doctors and are scared about the job market for lawyers. I'm in my second semester junior year and have registered for the MCAT in May. However, I'm having serious second-thoughts about pursuing medicine. My main reasons are that I don't really like blood, guts, etc. I have a 3.9 as a biochemistry major and managed A's in all my science classes.

I took a diagnostic LSAT and got a 163, missing only 2 in the logic games section. So I guess my main question concerns the job prospects for a lawyer and how you would recommend me to switch to the law admissions process. Most of my extracurriculars involve volunteering at a free clinic and hospital, in addition to serving on the exec board for the pre-med club. Any and all advice is welcome!

study your ass off for the LSAT and you could probably go to a decent law school for free

aim for 173


[FWIW I switched from "pre-law" to pre-med w/ horrible results... I hated some of my classes and my GPA got fucked. I switched back to liberal arts and did really well... I think my brain just doesn't deal w/ spatial reasoning very well, so the sciences (not all of them just physics and Organic Chem were a really up hill battle)


The thing about Law v. Med as a career path is that if you are one of the lucky law students to land a decent legal job, you are WAY better off than the vast majority of med students. Law is the only career path where people w/ o any real world experience have a shot at making 100k+ out of school w/o any connections (the gravy train is gone, but you could have a shot at that if you go to the right school). If you go to medicine, you won't be making jack shit until you are 30+ years old. That's fucked up.

If you go to law school for free (which you have an excellent shot at) then you could be making decent money at 25 years old. By the time your med school friends have finished slaving away at their residency, you'll be 5 years into a career and saving up money for a house or whatever else.

On the other hand, you may also end up unemployed...

[mez06]

Since everyone is telling personal anecdotes...

I know a guy who is a neurosurgeon. He is 40. I often see him out on weekends popping bottles at the VIP. He drives a brand-new McLaren, own a condo here (Scottsdale) and a house in Laguna Beach. He tells girl that his net worth is 22 mil. Not sure if it is true but he is fairly loaded, can care less about his job, and half of the time is drunk out of his mind hitting on cocktail waitresses half of his age.

Im in awe and drooling at the same time. Some say its sad, I say its the DREAM!

[warandpeace]

It is somewhat less ethical, IMO, to be a doctor to make money than it is to be a lawyer to make money.

This isn't a Disney movie. We're all adults looking for successful careers where we can support ourselves. I'm having trouble thinking of any career where getting into it to make money would be a matter of ethics (excluding obviously illegal/unethical extensions of that concept like getting into politics to make money through kickbacks).

i haven't read much of this thread but the whole "somewhat less ethical" part is ethical relativism, you shouldn't go by standards of a specific field etc. it should be across the board. not sure if i'm making sense, but you can't compare two fields against each other through "ethics".

[vahopeful2012]

But seriously, who the fuck actually wants to be a dentist?

Call me picky, but I'd rather by a doc review monkey, or be just about anything else, than work with teeth all day. The only reason I'd consider something like that is for financial reasons, but no point in doing it if you're going to be miserable.

I don't think I could do this all day. I know people are offering alternatives but dentistry (and even pharmacy) just isn't that appealing. I don't see how someone could clean teeth/take care of cavities all day long and look in people's mouths...

[vahopeful2012]

I'm a long-time lurker but this is my first post here. I'm wondering about going to law school over medical school. I came into a 3rd tier college (full-ride was the only reason) pre-law, but switched to pre-med my sophomore year due to my parents' pressuring me. They are both doctors and are scared about the job market for lawyers. I'm in my second semester junior year and have registered for the MCAT in May. However, I'm having serious second-thoughts about pursuing medicine. My main reasons are that I don't really like blood, guts, etc. I have a 3.9 as a biochemistry major and managed A's in all my science classes.

I took a diagnostic LSAT and got a 163, missing only 2 in the logic games section. So I guess my main question concerns the job prospects for a lawyer and how you would recommend me to switch to the law admissions process. Most of my extracurriculars involve volunteering at a free clinic and hospital, in addition to serving on the exec board for the pre-med club. Any and all advice is welcome!

study your ass off for the LSAT and you could probably go to a decent law school for free

aim for 173


[FWIW I switched from "pre-law" to pre-med w/ horrible results... I hated some of my classes and my GPA got fucked. I switched back to liberal arts and did really well... I think my brain just doesn't deal w/ spatial reasoning very well, so the sciences (not all of them just physics and Organic Chem were a really up hill battle)


The thing about Law v. Med as a career path is that if you are one of the lucky law students to land a decent legal job, you are WAY better off than the vast majority of med students. Law is the only career path where people w/ o any real world experience have a shot at making 100k+ out of school w/o any connections (the gravy train is gone, but you could have a shot at that if you go to the right school). If you go to medicine, you won't be making jack shit until you are 30+ years old. That's fucked up.

If you go to law school for free (which you have an excellent shot at) then you could be making decent money at 25 years old. By the time your med school friends have finished slaving away at their residency, you'll be 5 years into a career and saving up money for a house or whatever else.

On the other hand, you may also end up unemployed...

I completely agree about physics. Someone else asked if I preferred physics-based problem solving and I hate physics. That class is terrible!

Anyway, I keep telling my parents that I don't want to be 30 years old and start enjoying my job (if I got into a really competitive specialty with little blood/nasty stuff). Plus, even though you will never be unemployed as a physician, an MD is very specialized and thus harder to get a different job if I hate it when I'm 30+. But yeah, I guess I'm just scared about the unemployment prospects but I guess if law is what I'm really passionate about and I turn out to be good at it, I'll hopefully always have a decent-paying job.

[tillie512]

I got into medical school and decided to apply to law school this year. BEST. DECISION. OF. MY. LIFE.

Do what feels right for you...what is going to make you happy? Not your parents.
Would you rather sit in Anatomy lab or Con law?

[ResolutePear]

People who have the option between law school or med school will most likely do well in life regardless.

[Miracle]

I'm a long-time lurker but this is my first post here. I'm wondering about going to law school over medical school. I came into a 3rd tier college (full-ride was the only reason) pre-law, but switched to pre-med my sophomore year due to my parents' pressuring me. They are both doctors and are scared about the job market for lawyers. I'm in my second semester junior year and have registered for the MCAT in May. However, I'm having serious second-thoughts about pursuing medicine. My main reasons are that I don't really like blood, guts, etc. I have a 3.9 as a biochemistry major and managed A's in all my science classes.

I took a diagnostic LSAT and got a 163, missing only 2 in the logic games section. So I guess my main question concerns the job prospects for a lawyer and how you would recommend me to switch to the law admissions process. Most of my extracurriculars involve volunteering at a free clinic and hospital, in addition to serving on the exec board for the pre-med club. Any and all advice is welcome!

study your ass off for the LSAT and you could probably go to a decent law school for free

aim for 173


[FWIW I switched from "pre-law" to pre-med w/ horrible results... I hated some of my classes and my GPA got fucked. I switched back to liberal arts and did really well... I think my brain just doesn't deal w/ spatial reasoning very well, so the sciences (not all of them just physics and Organic Chem were a really up hill battle)


The thing about Law v. Med as a career path is that if you are one of the lucky law students to land a decent legal job, you are WAY better off than the vast majority of med students. Law is the only career path where people w/ o any real world experience have a shot at making 100k+ out of school w/o any connections (the gravy train is gone, but you could have a shot at that if you go to the right school). If you go to medicine, you won't be making jack shit until you are 30+ years old. That's fucked up.

If you go to law school for free (which you have an excellent shot at) then you could be making decent money at 25 years old. By the time your med school friends have finished slaving away at their residency, you'll be 5 years into a career and saving up money for a house or whatever else.

On the other hand, you may also end up unemployed...

What makes you think he's 22?

[alexonfyre]

Since everyone is telling personal anecdotes...

I know a guy who is a neurosurgeon. He is 40. I often see him out on weekends popping bottles at the VIP. He drives a brand-new McLaren, own a condo here (Scottsdale) and a house in Laguna Beach. He tells girl that his net worth is 22 mil. Not sure if it is true but he is fairly loaded, can care less about his job, and half of the time is drunk out of his mind hitting on cocktail waitresses half of his age.

Im in awe and drooling at the same time. Some say its sad, I say its the DREAM!

That may be true of some surgeons, but VERY far from the norm. A surgeon can not make 22 million dollars by the time they are 40 without working 16 hour days for the entirety of their career. His personality fits the bill though. I can count on one hand the number of surgeons I have met that are not (or were not in their younger years) playboys. I could probably count them on one finger, and I'm not 100% sure on that one either.

In my line of work, I have to meet many, many doctors (mainly surgeons) and lawyers (mainly small or mid size civil firms). On the whole, I would say the doctors seem happier than the lawyers. The lawyers I know run the gamut from overworked and overstressed while not making near what people think (many sole practitioners,) to breezy work schedules with very comfortable salaries, while the doctors seem uniformly busy and stressed out, but very financially stable at the upper threshold of the lawyers salaries, and on the top end make WAY above. I would imagine that a lawyer working in biglaw would be a pretty close analog to most surgeons in terms of quality of life and salary.
However, and more to the point, I have seen some of the big gun surgeons be miserable while a 75k a year, 70-hour-work-week solo lawyer is very happy.

The moral is that you should really do whichever one you have the most fun doing. If you are an unhappy doctor or lawyer, not only will you suffer, but so will your patients/clients.

[SoupIsGoodFood]

Since everyone is telling personal anecdotes...

I know a guy who is a neurosurgeon. He is 40. I often see him out on weekends popping bottles at the VIP. He drives a brand-new McLaren, own a condo here (Scottsdale) and a house in Laguna Beach. He tells girl that his net worth is 22 mil. Not sure if it is true but he is fairly loaded, can care less about his job, and half of the time is drunk out of his mind hitting on cocktail waitresses half of his age.

A neurosurgeon with a drinking problem and a propensity to force himself on younger women? Think of the legal fees this man could generate.

[Borhas]

What makes you think he's 22?

well I figured that was the most likely scenario, but still med school requires a much greater time commitment so perhaps even older applicants aren't necessarily better off...

If the fella's 30 then 30+4(med school) +2-4 residency means 36-38 before he has a stable life

[whymeohgodno]

Become a dermatologist. Avoid most blood/gore and you make one of the highest $/hour.

[er doctor]

Become a dermatologist. Avoid most blood/gore and you make one of the highest $/hour.

And get to look at rashes all day. Ick.

[99.9luft]

you will get used to the blood. medicine is a real profession. don't do this.

[er doctor]

you will get used to the blood. medicine is a real profession. don't do this.

Blood is surprisingly easy to get used to. Vomit not so much. Still not used to pus after 14 years.

[99.9luft]

you will get used to the blood. medicine is a real profession. don't do this.

Blood is surprisingly easy to get used to. Vomit not so much. Still not used to pus after 14 years.

I'm fine with blood and vomit and even pus. Used to watch open surgeries on science channels with fascination in my teens.

Sometimes i wish i were going to med school, after all it is a more of a creative (do it with your hands) trade (surgery mostly). I suppose one can make the argument that Law is intellectually creative...but it isn't the same. *laments life*

[Alex-Trof]

you will get used to the blood. medicine is a real profession. don't do this.

Blood is surprisingly easy to get used to. Vomit not so much. Still not used to pus after 14 years.

I'm fine with blood and vomit and even pus. Used to watch open surgeries on science channels with fascination in my teens.

Sometimes i wish i were going to med school, after all it is a more of a creative (do it with your hands) trade (surgery mostly). I suppose one can make the argument that Law is intellectually creative...but it isn't the same. *laments life*

As long as your hands don't shake. LOL

[fltanglab]

you will get used to the blood. medicine is a real profession. don't do this.

Blood is surprisingly easy to get used to. Vomit not so much. Still not used to pus after 14 years.

I'm fine with blood and vomit and even pus. Used to watch open surgeries on science channels with fascination in my teens.

Sometimes i wish i were going to med school, after all it is a more of a creative (do it with your hands) trade (surgery mostly). I suppose one can make the argument that Law is intellectually creative...but it isn't the same. *laments life*

Are you talking about being the room with those bodily fluids or just watching it on tv? The problem with blood is the smell. Like I said, it's common for people's bodies to give up even if they're mentally okay. I had no idea I had a natural reaction to blood until I was watching a decapitation for the first time and suddenly wanted to pass out.

[notanumber]

I'm a bit surprised that everybody here is encouraging this guy tho jump right into med school or law school when it's clear that he's only narrowed things down to those two professions because of overbearing parents. That shit is a recipe for becoming a miserable self-loathing alcoholic at the age of 35.

OP: Spend a year or two after graduation working a job in a big city or volunteer for the peace corps or something of that sort - you'll never have the chance to do this again and when you go back to school you'll have a better idea about what you want out of life and you'll appreciate being there. In the long run, you'll be more successful.