bigndude

There really are no personality traits. Medicine is not something you can decide one day that your going to do. If you really want to know read up on it, and do some soul searching. Think about if you want to put at least 11 years of your life into training to be a doc before practicing. Think about what you will do if you never have time for the fun things you like doing, and whether you can live of life of great sacrifice. A personality won't make a doctor, the persons mindset and drive to be a doc will make them be doc.
To be sure if you really want to do it, shadow a few doctors. But shadow ones in completely diff. fields of medicine. Like pathology, surgery, pediatrics, maybe some type of internal specialists, etc. If you follow them around see their life then you can decide.
Or another career path involving medicine and engineering that you might like is Biomedical Engineering. Look into it.

golubb_u

"You guys are disgusting the way you talk about money. I am in medical school and I've never had a discussion about salaries with any of my classmates. "

well, if you're soooop philanthropic, why didn't you try to get into and academic PhD program instead of the professional (i.e. money-oriented) med school? That way you could have served the public much better.

The only reason to get into med school is to earn $$$...simply because it is a **professional** grad school, not an academic one. Its like a law school, or MBA program.

audiophile

Students go to med school to be able to treat patients. A PhD program is for academics/research.

sciencenerd

Should I go into business or medicine?

What I'm basically worried about is would I have to pay a large amount of money for malpractice insurance? I wouldn't want to have to do that. Also I would maybe like being a doctor and examinig people and stuff, but I don't know.

Business would maybe be fun, but would it be boring all day. I would maybe get a lot of money, but I don't know. Please Help Thanks

Also could you tell me what each one would do? Like both summarizing it and telling the day to day activities. Thanks

vimalkpatel

The rates of malpractice premiums depends on your specialty. It's not high in every specialty, for ex for anethesiologists, the avg. rate of premium is 22k/year.

I would suggest you to shadow some doctors around and see what you think, you can't just think you would like being one without actually seeing how it's like.

Depends what type of career you are looking in business too. Medicine is a business also.

loganr

after all is said and done(insurance, tax...) can anyone ie. someone in the field tell me how much money u bring home per year.


to all the pple talking about money being the motovating factor. Its probably not for most. Like when I pull a week of all nighter to study chem I dont think of the money im gonna earn as an MD but how great it would be the wear the white coat and have a job where u help people.

But.. money Is a factor, after 10+ years of study and preparation, ahead of us I think we have the right to ask how much a doctor would make. this is a democracy and everyone has the right to question without pple going " omg all u care about is money therefore u cant be a doctor". of course pple care about money , how are u going to put food on the table, pay bills. sorry for being brash but if one is to enter a field of study especially as hard as medicine, we should want to know the financial side of it. it doesnt make u greedy but smart and well informed.

PSedrishMD

It's enough not to worry about it. It's about as good as an airline pilot, about twice as good as a plumber and (sadly) about four times as good as what a teacher makes.
You want numbers? Okay, roughly: You can go to work today for a large group (like a Cleveland Clinic or a Kaiser) as an Internist and make about $150,000 or as an Orthopedic Surgeon and make about $300,000. That's your gross pay; you have only to subtract your personal taxes. It's certainly a living.

myope6

y'know, when it's 3am and you've been at the hospital since 5am the previous day and you're trying to console a screaming kid and explain to him why he needs immediate surgery, it's not really about philanthropy OR money anymore. it's about doing a job that involves providing a service, same as working at a fast food drive thru or being a lawyer or a fireman. it just happens to be a more rewarding service job than most others, in the opinions of those who are in the field. so stop being so cynical, golubb_u, and lay off the sarcasm.

sakky

I said it before, I'll say it again. If all you care about is money, don't become a doctor. Go become an investment banker.

mr_sanguine

i was looking up info on neurosurgery (my prospective career choice) and found this:

http://www.physicianrecruiting.com/c...rgery-se.shtml

just fyi

mr_sanguine

the fact is that if you're already lacking the leadership skills, you will NOT be accepted to HBS. MBA is not about academic prowess.

All surgeons make at least 150k.
Some MBA's dont even make that.
Some surgeons make ALOT more than 150k.
Some MBA's make ALOT more than 150k too.
Some MBA's make more than the richest doctor.

Whether you want to throw the dice is up to you.

ForeverZero

Elaborating on what sakky posted, don't go into medicine if you're only in it for the money. Sure, you can make a lot, possibly even over $1 mil, but it's a long and tough road to get there. Specialties such as neurosurgery require at least 7 years of residency, meaning that you'll be around 33 before you actually start practicing. Before then, there's a good chance that you could accumulate a load of debt from 4 years of med school (keep in mind that residency doesn't pay very well). In a career such as i-banking, you can start at an associate level right after getting an MBA, which could be in one's mid-20's. By the age of 33, many are at the VP level, making $400k+ the first year, and pay skyrockets from there (sometimes into 8-figure bonuses). Of course, i-banking is also a tough road and many people burn out, but it's not like medicine is an easy career path either. So many ambitious high school/college students seem to want to pursue medicine because of its prestige and guaranteed salary. Sure, you'll make a lot of money once you get there. But it's a long road, and there are other ways to make money.

bigndude

mrsanguine. Where did you get the info that all surgeons make at least 150k? Some do, but most avg less, general surgeons at least. Most specialized surgeons make the 150k+ range

mr_sanguine

"Most specialized surgeons make the 150k+ range"

Take a look at:

http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/l...C07000026.html

This is the average salary for a general surgeon, not a specialized surgeon.

Specialized surgeons make considerably more. They complete the general surgery training (the site provides salary info for those that leave off at this) and pursue further detailed training.

It's impossible to provide a useful salary for "specialized surgeons", since the field itself is just so broad. Typically, I would expect these guys to be 300k+.

The range, however, is very wide. Some will make 300k, others mb up to 1M, depending on how agressively they pursue opportunities as they arrive.

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Even if you are entering medicine for the money (though later in life you will regret it), the idea that the MBA is a significantly better opportunity I don't buy. While some MBA's do make alot more than even the highest paid of doctors, many do not.

Going into medicine won't leave you strepped for cash or yearning for more money. If you make 400k, for most usual intents and purposes, your lifestyle is going to be highly similar to the lucky (emphasize lucky) businessman who makes 750k.

Don't enter business saying "I will make more money when I'm CEO". As has been mentioned, alot is dependent on inate characteristics and even more so on luck. Instead, take a breath of reality and look at those that aren't exactly as lucky as to make it to the top of a firm's ladder.

This might be some more useful info, and would probably show you that compared to the MBA's, the MD's dont exactly look like popper's.

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As another aside, I'm really glad that ppl are intelligently talking about this issue. While it goes without saying that nobody should enter medicine just for the money (not only is it wrong to do that to yourself, but it is also wrong for your patients whose lives are in your hands), many people always escape to some moral highground shunning any prospective doc talking about $. That's foolish. Nobody can argue that $ is not something that needs to be considered.

mr_sanguine

ForeverZero makes some good points.

The fact is that both professions are grueling, highly lucrative careers. If all you want is money, then compared to medicine, i-banking is the better bet both for your own sanity and for the welfare of your patients; it is not the better bet, however, b/c it is significantly better paid.

The high paying positions in both careers will always be around, no matter what. (An interesting aside is that in the link I provided earlier, a considerable number of those jobs had malpractice already covered for before the salary). But these positions will only be open to those who are agressive enough to go after them. There is no sense in comparing the best ibankers to the most average of docs.

If you enter i-banking, you will not have money thrown at you. The same goes for medicine. But if you work hard, stay strong, stay easy going and seize the right opportunities (easier said then done, I know) then the money is there in both professions.