Becoming a doctor

WayOutWestMom
Wed, 24 Sep 2014 21:21:38 +0000

1) First $180K is the median debt for medical students (and does not include any undergrad debt)

https://www.aamc.org/download/152968/data/debtfactcard.pdf

The median is skewed because ~15% of all med students graduate with ZERO debt (thanks to the Bank of Mom and Dad or service for education programs like HPSP or NHSC). Between 5% (public schools) and 15% (private schools) of med grads have over $300K in debt at the time of graduation.

Doctor incomes vary widely depending upon things like specialty, type of medical practice, location of practice and hours worked.

Consider also when you do your calculations that engineers start earning immediately upon graduation from undergrad whereas doctors don’t starting earning “doctor’s salaries” until 7-14 years later. Also engineers typically have their graduate education paid for by their employers.

(There is at least economic analysis that argues an individual who went to work for FedEx immediately upon graduation from high school, took every promotion offered and stayed with company for 25 years would have higher lifetime earnings that almost all physicians.)

2) Newly graduated doctors do not start out making “doctor’s salaries”, but earn modest salaries during residency ($40-60K/year) and fellowship ($70-90K/year). Your base debt can balloon quickly due to interest capitalization. (There are no subsidized loans for medical school so you start accruing interest the minute your loan is disbursed.)

Debt is payable provided you --a) don’t try to live the “doctor lifestyle” until your debt has been paid off; b) minimize loan amounts and minimize loan capitalization by making interest payments during residency & fellowship.

3) You don’t need to " intensely care about every human on earth ", but you do need to be a humanist. (Humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively.) I personally don’t see how you can be a doctor without being a humanist at the core.

You don’t necessarily need to be a “good person” (however you define that), but you do need an excellent work ethic.