Becoming a lawyer or a doctor....advice! please help!

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>I'm going to be a freshman this year in the UGA Honors program....I know it's fairly early for me to say this, especially considering that I haven't taken any classes yet, but I think I want to either be a doctor or a lawyer. Here's my dilemma though:</p>

<p>I think I would be much better at being a lawyer--I feel like my ability to critically think in terms of politics, law, and philosophy is much stronger than my ability to think critically in the field of science. I'm also much more interested in politics and constitutional law/theory than science (I'm currently a poli-sci major).</p>

<p>I, however, don't really like the idea of being a lawyer, even though I'm interested in it and I think I would be good at it--I feel as though lawyers don't really "help" the world (I know this is a law forum--please don't get angry at this! This is just a generalization. Please prove me wrong!). My dad is a tax lawyer (a.k.a. he helps rich people get away with evading taxes) and I hate it.</p>

<p>I really like the idea of being a doctor, but as I said before, I feel like I'm better at the humanities than the sciences (although I consider myself to be fairly well-rounded). In high school, I always felt so bored in my science classes (even the higher level IB Chemistry Class). Does this change in college? I really just want to help people, and I feel like I could do this more directly by becoming a doctor. I especially like working with kids and am thinking about becoming a pediatrician. All of the pre-med courses for freshman have already been taken up, so I would have to wait until next semester to start on the pre-med track, but I may be able to exempt a semester of freshman chem with my IB scores and a placement test. Is there any way I could combine poli-sci and pre-med in a RELEVANT way and would med schools like this? Also, is there a way to do study abroad during the school year (fall/spring) for pre-meds? Most study abroad courses are for political science. Help! I'm just really confused right now.</p>

2

<p>Your father might say that he’s helping people organize their affairs in ways that the government has chosen to incentivize.</p>

<p>It may not be immediately obvious to you that lawyers “help” the world. But they’re a necessary part of a well functioning legal system. Countries that do not have well functioning legal systems tend to be frightening, dangerous places.</p>

<p>Medicine isn’t generally a promising career path for people who aren’r interested in science.</p>

3

<p>read up on jurisprudence and artistotles politics, hobbes leviathan, etc if you do not think the law helps… there are many areas of the law… and trust me, I have met MANY very egotistical self righteous doctors as well.</p>

<p>As greybeard said however, if you are taking anything to the professional doctorate level, you should probably like it a bit… being good at something doesn’t mean you have interest in it. Possibly especially hard for students that tend to get A’s in about everything which you may or may not be in that situation.</p>

4

<p>Thanks, both of those were helpful!</p>

5

<p>Being a doctor is a lot more stable career field right now than law.</p>

6

<p>Depending on what ends up happening with health reform. The reform bill’s exact provisions have yet to be determined, and its effects are still very uncertain.</p>