<p>Ok, lets see if one of you guys can help me get rid of my doubts. First, Im not sure of what to become, I like medicine, and I thought becoming a molecular biologist and biochemist was for me, but I have now heard that there arent a lot of jobs for that, and if that there are, you dont make much. I also want to be like a cardiac surgeon but ive heard that thats like 14 years of college. Please someone tell me the details. How much money does a cardiac surgeon make per month? and a biochemist?</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure people who spend 14 years in college don’t become CT surgeons.</p>
<p>Cardiothoracic surgery is on its way down right now. I don’t know if it’ll fade away completely or recover but it definitely has to evolve if it wants to stay alive.</p>
<p>Right now the training is 4 years of college, 4 years of med school, 5 years of general surgery residency, and 2 years (?) of a CT surgery fellowship. Keep in mind, the average debt upon graduation from med school is roughly 160k and all this time interest is accruing (you won’t make enough during all this training to pay off the debt).</p>
<p>whats better? cardiologist or neurologist? surgeon i mean</p>
<p>It’s probably a bad idea, not to mention a pointless one, to try and pick a specialty at this point because you have absolutely no idea what they entail. I don’t think you’ll actually know what kind of doctor you want to become until you’ve actually gotten some experience through rotations and stuff in medical school.</p>
<p>If you’re still in high school, you don’t even need to be worrying about this. When you get to college, get research experience in a lab and get some clinical experience; shadow doctors, volunteer in a hospital, something like that. This way, you’ll actually have something to go on when figuring out what you want to do.</p>
<p>@RawCheat, what do you mean by “better”?</p>
<p>If you’re asking these questions, you can’t seriously even pretend like you know what medical specialty you want to go into, especially if you don’t even know if you want to be a doctor, or how long the schooling will be.</p>
<p>Did you know that both neurosurgeons and cardiac surgeons have like a 300% divorce rate over other specialties? That may not be the right number exactly, but I guarantee you it’s way higher. Unless you’re passionate for some reason about one of those fields, why work so much harder and work 80 hours a week, called in in the middle of the night, etc, when you can do orthopedics, work the hours you want to, and have time to spend with family? No middle of the night calls either for the most part, and even if you do get them, most of them can be done the next day as they are not usually life threatening. Not to mention being a CT surgeon you won’t get paid for a lot of the surgeries you do because they’re usually life threatening and you’re ethically obligated to save the patients life, even if they can’t pay you, don’t have insurance, or are from another country, whatever.</p>
<p>The best quote I’ve heard about being a CT surgeon is that you can buy your wife diamond encrusted lingerie, but she’ll be wearing it when she’s lying in bed with some other man.</p>
<p>And if you want to be a biochemist, you’d probably need to get a Ph.D. to do what it seems like you want to do. A Ph.D. takes just as long (if not longer) than getting an M.D. Med school is 4 years and you’re done. A Ph.D. can be anywhere from 3 to 7 years. I’ve heard horror stories of people that have been working on theirs for 9 or 10 years and are just now finishing up. Ok, you have a residency right out of medical school. Say you pick a 5 year ortho residency to make big bucks and have a life. Well, say it takes you 5 years (the average) to get your Ph.D. finished. The med student is 1 year out of school, and has 4 years left in your residency. You go and do your Post-Doc at some lab, which is pretty much like earning your Ph.D. again. 3 or 4 years of that and suddenly, you’re a full blown Ph.D, who will be struggling to get a name for himself and get a lab. About the same time, the resident is now graduating, and will find a job. There is no “I don’t know if I can get a job” for doctors (for the most part, especially in the coming years). You may not get a private practice, but you can go into the services, work for hospitals, etc. Not to mention you will make more as a surgeon.</p>
<p>You seriously have to do lots of research, talk to people in those fields, and think about it a lot before you can decide to be any type of specialty in medicine, or a Ph.D. I know for a fact you can’t make that decision right now as you don’t even know much about any of those career paths.</p>
<p>Do yourself a favor and do some reading. Neither profession in and of itself is better; the one that is better is the one that you will be happiest in.</p>