What if I'm too old and dumb for med school

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
21

You are you.

Do you want to take your shot ?

You have to decide.

Not your friends settling down or others in a career.

Yes, you need to be able to afford to live just like you need to be able to afford school (undergrad and medical).

But only you can make your dreams come true…or not.

If you decide to pivot, that’s great too.
I have.

If you spend the next 60 years thinking you’re a failure, life is gonna suck.

And ps -.you didn’t not get into med school bcuz you went to a grade deflated school. That’s bs. Kids from there go to med school. You are 26 but own that. You never took the steps to do so.

You get to decide your future - not your cousins, not us.

Decide what you want and own it, love it. Or live a miserable life. Your choice.

I went to college with what are today some of the top sports journalists/play by play people in the world. Not only is that not me, I flamed out within a year. I was in production - never even made it on air. Now, I sell vehicles for a car manufacturer.

I earn a solid living. I’ve created a home, raised two kids (the first I had at 33). Life isn’t as I envisioned. But I got a job I had no interest in, did well, went to grad school (MBA) and have had a solid, but not spectacular career. Honestly, I don’t even have a career but a job.

But I’m housed, loved, created two worthy kids, and pay taxes. All in all, while I didn’t succeed, I’ve done well and know it.

So it’s up to you how the next 5, 10 20 and 40 years will play out.

Personally, I don’t think you have the maturity to be a Dr. A Dr wants to help. When you say, “I only want to be a doctor because I’ve worked too hard for anything else,” that tells me you feel entitled.

And what have you done. No MCAT. No clinical hours (or few)…. Why haven’t you ?

I had cancer last year. My heroes were the Radiation Therapists. They cared for me daily, ensuring I got wonderful treatment. While the Dr played a huge role because they prescribed radiation, they were 2%, not the 98%.

If you want to be a Dr, you should want to help and serve.

Yet you think any other patient serving role is beneath you or your efforts unless it comes with the fancy title and salary.

I find it hard to believe you are capable of following and believing in the Hippocratic Oath.

I wish you luck but you have a pretty piss poor attitude…to be honest.

You are your biggest obstacle.

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22

What did you do in the mental health field and did you enjoy your work / were you satisfied with the pay?

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Deleted due to response by OP

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What drew you to ob/gyn initially, and do you believe ob/gyns need to be “naturally” talented in spatial intuition and visualization and/or hand/eye coordination for the surgeries?

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If you get into medical school, I’ll answer this. I only gave a detailed answer to your previous question to highlight that my own journey was circuitous.

27

I wish you would stop fixating on the pay. I worked my whole career in an allied health profession (mine is clearly stated here). I loved my work, and that is what mattered. I was paid well, but not nearly what a doctor earns…but that was never my goal. My goal was to do a job I loved.

Let me put it this way. You will have 4 years of medical school that will cost you about $100,000 per year. You will then have likely 4 years of residency. You can ask any doctor…their hourly pay was less than minimum wage during residency. Then you might do a fellowship…pay isn’t terrific there either. So…10 years from when you start medical school…if you do…is when you might start seeing some income. But you will have tons of loans to repay unless you have $400,000 socked away someplace.

There are lots of medical careers. I would urge you to read this site.

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28

I appreciate your time, but I am not interested in other healthcare careers. I forced myself into many non-medical careers and jobs after college because I felt I was too stupid to become a doctor. I’ve talked myself out of many things in life - pursuing relationships, asking people I liked on a date, going to various social events, participating in sports teams, and competing in events because of low self-esteem, and I want to reach my potential for once.

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My profession Was very rewarding . I didn’t go into it for the money. It was a very rewarding career, professionally personally and financially. But times have changed. Healthcare has changed a lot. That’s a different conversation. Please focus on what it is that makes you happy, not unhappy.

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30

I know you don’t want to hear this- but with a BA in a social science– and strong quant skills- you could finish a Master’s in Epidemiology by the time you are ready to APPLY to med school. The work is fascinating- why heal one patient at a time when you can be healing entire populations? And if you are good at it- it’s a solid professionally paying career.

I’ve posted before about my neighbor with “just” a BS/RN who now recruits patients and manages clinical trials for oncology patients at a large, famous academic medical center. Heads of state come from all over the world to be treated there. Her patients (and their families) tell her that she is the MOST important and skilled professional out of the dozens and dozens of professionals they see during the course of their treatment. She is the canary in the coal mine for the very famous doctors who work at her hospital. She is the person who identifies a raspy throat as a side effect and not just “maybe I’m getting a cold”. She is the person who helps the family member figure out the right combination of sweet and salty to get a patient to eat, when they are taking a new, never tested on humans chemo compound who can’t taste ANYTHING.

She makes a lot more money than a bedside nurse- even at her own hospital which is known to pay top rate for oncology nurses.

But I’m not knocking med school. If that’s what you want, ignore your age. Put pedal to the metal and just get it done. Finish your courses, find a hospice or homeless shelter that will take you on as a volunteer, start to study for the MCAT’s.

But in my experience, if you set yourself up in life with no Plan B or an “All or nothing” attitude, you need to be prepared to end up unhappy with the outcome. The best laid plans and all that.

And yes, there are people in med school now, and in prestigious fellowships, and completing desirable residencies, who got a C in organic chemistry. But then they knocked it out of the park with everything else. And the ones I know- when it came time to interview and they were asked “why do you want to be a doctor?” the answer was NOT “because it’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted and I can’t stand the thought of being an underpaid PA or NP or clinical psychologist”. That’s not the way you get into med school.

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31

If you’re interested in psychiatry, perhaps a good thing for you and your current self perception, is to get into therapy and work on these issues. I mean that in a positive, supportive way. As my colleagues and I used to say, you can’t take care of others if you don’t take care of yourself first..

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32

HA. I’ve been to 12 therapists, 3 psychiatrists, and 2 career coaches.

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I saw all the above professionals since mid-2023, I may add.

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Why 12 therapists in two years?

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35

Unfortunately, I got a B+ in basic statistics (one of the B’s that I complained about in my post) and can’t figure out how to use R, so epidemiology is not for me. And I have never earned a C in any class in my life.

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A variety of modality/fit issues as well as scheduling/insurance hassles. It took me a long time to engineer a therapy style that worked for me.

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but you have. Good.

Back to the topic at hand - if you want to go to med school, you have to take the steps to go to med school.

Until you do that - shadowing, take the MCAT, etc, you can’t say you’re too dumb to do it.

You can say you didn’t take the minimal steps to qualify - and that’s a personal choice.

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38

I stated that I was too dumb to do it because I found college STEM difficult. As I stated, I earned some B’s in my classes even after working hard.

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If you want to be a doctor, begin/continue the process of being a doctor: take the mcats, volunteer etc.

Just make sure you are doing it for the right reasons….or you will not make it to, or through, medical school. Wanting to make a lot of money is not a reason.

Why so many therapists, psychiatrists, coaches in such a short period of time?

You appear to be under the impression that choosing a different career in health care somehow makes you “less than” a doctor. That is false, as there are highly successful, very smart people all over.

There are also unhappy doctors as well as people who drop out of med school. I know of 2 who decided it was not for them.

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40

The first two years of medical school are classes that are described as being like a fire hose of information being fed to you. And you need to master all of it. There are no electives, and no choices. Medical school is one huge STEM field…every specialty needs to graduate from medical school.

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41

College STEM IS difficult. I assume that one of the many “professional helpers” you’ve seen have asked you at some point “Why are you pushing a boulder up a hill because college STEM is difficult and Med school STEM is even MORE difficult?”.

It doesn’t mean you’re old or dumb. It means that at some point, some introspection might allow you to find a different path. Or find the right balance between challenging and satisfying, not challenging and frustrating.

Good luck.

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