Need Help Graduated High schooler asking for help about medical school

  1. Medicine is as much as calling as the ministry or a religious vocation. If you can see yourself being happy in any other career–do that other career.

  2. Pre-med requires jumping thru a very large number of hoops with no guarantee of success. If you hate that kind of “crap”, being a pre-med will make you miserable.

  3. Medicine requires a decade or more of intense study, taking on a great deal of debt and working within a very hierarchical structure for the rest of your career. If any of that makes your teeth itch–medicine is not the right career for you.

  4. The ROI for physicians is diminishing. Yes, most physicians earn >$150K/year, but they also have an average of $185+K in loans from med school they need to pay off (not including interest which accrues at an annual rate of ~6% from the day you set foot into med school and any undergrad loans).

  5. Additionally for that $150+K/year, you will be working an average of 60-80 hours/week. You will be on call or working in the clinic or hospital on nights, weekends and holidays.