<p>Im a college sophomore majoring in Public Health. Ive always really been interested in infectious disease so I thought I would maybe end up in epidemiology or something like that. I have an internship now at the department of health and Im starting to have second thoughts about this; it just seems like a lot of office work. I really like interacting with people and i dont know if i can spend the majority of my time in an office. However, I dont think I have the motivation or work ethic to do med school. Are there other paths to take in the medical field that involve interacting with patients?</p>
<p>nursing, physician’s asst, optometry, physical therapy, just to name a few. There are lots of careers that deal with patients besides being a physician. </p>
<p>FYI, I majored in public health and then went on to optometry school, which I like bc it is is partially preventive health and partially seeing disease after it occurs . . also I enjoy the relational aspects of optometry.</p>
<p>^I heard from Optometrist that it is much harder to get to Grad. School for Optometry (I do not know the proper name) than to Med. School, because there are fewer of them. I do not know any details or how true this statement is. I know that it is very hard to get to Med. School and anything harder than that would reguire some exceptional efforts.</p>
<p>Vet students make the same argument as well. The assumption is that percent of matriculants relative to applicants is the best descriptor of “competitiveness”. It’s like saying a 100 person race with 1 winner is harder than a 100 person race with 3 winners. The assumption is that it is the same 100 people when in all likelihood there is a difference in competitiveness between the two groups. If group A is high school track and group B is the Olympics, then clearly being a winner in the Olympics is harder to achieve for a given individual even if statistically more people win.</p>
<p>I am not, however, trying to imply that the difference between optometry and medical school is the difference between high school and the olympics.</p>
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Nice save ;)</p>
<p>well for me, one of the deciding factors was you don’t have to do a 3-4 year residency after optometry school (although there are residency options if you choose to do that) and you don’t have to be on call, unless you are a hospital based optometrist. </p>
<p>The MAJOR drawback for med, vet, dental, optometry, though, is the cost which is through the roof. 20 years ago, I came out of school with $65,000 in debt which is probably equiv to about $150,000 now. Since my hubby went to law school and also had $40,000 in school debt – we ate a LOT of top ramen and spaghetti in those early days after we graduated to pay off the loans. . .both loans together is probably equiv to about $250,000 now.</p>
<p>I think PA (physician’s asst) is supposed to be a very growing field. We have Kaiser Medical Insurance and I know the PA does a lot of the decisions Mds used to make.</p>
<p>Miami – hello, I think I “talked” to you before when dd3 (graduating high school senior) was considering Univ of Miami and Singer scholarship. . . she ended up choosing to be Presidential Scholar at Univ of Alabama instead.</p>
<p>One thing you might consider is an MSW (masters in social work). it is an extremely well respected and versatile degree. You can incorporate a lot of your public health background and interests and blend it with a focus on interacting with people and psychosocial issues. If you are a “hospital” kinda person you can work on a medicine floor, or you can go into the non-profit world, the public sector, or even go into private practice as a psychotherapist.</p>
<p>I would second the MSW option. If your interests tow the line between social work, and public health, it is really common to get an MSW/MPH dual degree from a university. If you can get into a combined program you can complete both degrees in three years. This is an excellent combination for someone with your interests.</p>