Dad wants a practical major

NeoDymium
Sun, 17 Jul 2016 01:16:24 +0000

Well everybody, I talked to my parents about the issue. I want to go into medicine but have an international twist to it- Take the bare minimum courses for med school but do IR internships and even the Peace Corps in the meantime. During med school, I would focus on public health so after working in developing countries I could come back to the USA and get $100K/year.

I’ll say that international medicine and public health are perfectly fine choices for a career path, and that it could certainly work out well. However, I would also like to say that you should take the opportunity to evaluate yourself and your capabilities to determine whether or not medical school is a good option.

The first issue is that it will definitely take a long time. Medicine is quite a few years of schooling - four years after the Bachelors, plus whatever time it takes for your residency program, plus the Peace Corps if you want to do it. You have to be absolutely certain that that’s a good path for you.

The second issue is to evaluate your capabilities and decide whether or not you have an honest shot to get into med school. This isn’t a slight on your abilities - it’s just an acknowledgment that the admissions are highly competitive and it takes a lot to get in. If you really have a blanket aversion to STEM, then the prerequisites and the med school itself are going to be tough. Biology and medicine may be cut from a different cloth than the physical sciences and mathematics, but they incorporate a lot of the same science that make the latter difficult. If your skills really do lie in the soft sciences, then medicine might not be your strong suit. I know a lot of people who were really not med school caliber who insisted that they wanted to go to med school (often for the money). It didn’t work out.

Third, think about backup options. Things might not ultimately work out for any number of reasons - what then?

If medicine is your ultimate choice, it’s a good one. Just make sure it’s one you actually want, not one that you’re pressured into by your parents’ desire for you to have a profitable specialization.