Hello, I am 5th year medicine student from Lithuania. I’m 24 years old. I have been studying medicine for 5 years and still have one more year before I get masters degree and I can do residency programme. The thing is that I hate medicine…I realized it maybe in 2nd year but I was affraid to just quit. Now after 5 years I know that I will finish it but I cant think of myself working in hospital day after day my whole life.
Now I have an idea of starting everything from scratch and starting bachelor of finance next year when I’ll get my masters of medicine. I’m dreaming of undergraduate studies in USA. But cost (around 60 000$ a year) is too high, I cannot afford that.
So I just wanted to ask you guys, what do you think about my early life crisis and what options I can find. Is there a way for guy like me to find future in U.S.?
Finish.
Then apply for a degree (graduate) in bioengineering or such.
The thing is that I dont want anything to do with bio science. I will finish masters but during last year I will be able to improve my english and prepare for SATs. Finance is the thing for me now.
Is the problem that you don’t want to work in a hospital, that you don’t want anything at all to do with health care, or that you really want finance b/c you see it as a career that will make you more money?
There are a huge number of ways that you can use your medical degree and never see the inside of a hospital or deal with a patient.
Your ‘dreaming’ of starting over, of getting a nearly free second undergraduate degree in the US is even less likely than it would have been when you were 18. At 24, with a medical degree, why would a university use it’s precious financial aid dollars to support your dream, rather than an equally gifted student who is just starting out?
Finally, you say “Finance is the thing for me now”. What do you know about finance? do you know what area you want to work in? do you know what the requirements are to get those jobs? an undergrad degree won’t get you very far. Have you actually have done the homework, know about the industry, have more than a dream of an idea to say that you would be happier doing that work? Have you considered any of the many areas where the health care industry intersects with …wait for it… finance.
Imo, if you really have exhausted your options in the health care industry, a post-grad degree in Finance makes a LOT more sense than a second undergrad.
I work for a US government contractor that employs a number of MDs - some of them as analysts (who write code, run statistics, etc), some of them in a clinical advising role. We even train new analysts to code, no formal computer science education necessary. We work on healthcare policy-related questions like, How much money should the government expect to spend on health insurance subsidies in the next 10 years, and how does this number depend on different tax policies (such as giving tax credits to employers who offer affordable private health insurance to their employees)? How can we better detect providers that systematically submit fraudulent health insurance claims, based on their claims history? How can we reform the physician payment system to curb over-utilization of services? Even though healthcare-related, the questions are intrinsically statistics or economics questions.
I am telling you this to show you that there are ways to leverage your existing education into a consulting or finance career without starting back from scratch.
^^exactly…all of the above and many, many more, including how to evaluate the cost:benefit of a new procedure or medicine (on behalf of government, NGOs, pharma/medical device industry)? financing of medical infrastructure (bonds/borrowing)?
For me finance is all about investment. The perfect area of finance looks investent banking. I will dedicate this summer to learn as much as I can about economics and investment to make sure it not just sounds good but also can keep my interest during basic and principles. And I dont know how could my medical degree match or assist in investment studies.
Ah- so this is really just about going for the fame and fortune of Investment Banking. Well, another undergrad degree isn’t going to be what gets you there- you would be better off applying for the graduate schemes at the big name banks, who hire from all academic backgrounds. The usual route is the 10 week summer associate; the good ones get a job offer at the end of the summer.
you mean I can take graduate studies and get all knowlege about finance in two years?
P.S. It’s not about the fame and fortune. This is the thing I may like it. So that’s why I’m going to get in this this summer.
The graduate schemes are for people who are just about to graduate from university and they provide on the job training. You could also do a graduate degree in finance. Either way, doing a second undergrad is not the best path.
ps, my opinion about why you suddenly want only IB isn’t important, but fwiw your denial isn’t convincing.
You have de facto the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree. Therefore, you are no longer eligible for a bachelor’s degree unless you can finance it entirely yourself - and even if you can, many universities called 'targets ’ simply won’t accept anyone who already has a degree.
It’s also strange that you’d go from medicine, which is about caring and healing people, to ib, which is essentially not caring about people or the impact your actions may have, including destroying lives/companies .
You’ll have to get a Master’s degree at a target or semi - target and thus clarify your motivations. To get in, you’ll need to have perfect grades in your chosen path, as many quantitative classes as possible, and professional experience where you had a measurable impacts.
To learn more about your path, type WSO.
I think it’s more important to ask yourself whether you would like the day-to-day work than whether the textbook looks interesting. I hear that investment banking is among the most stressful jobs out there, with analysts working 80-100 hours per week. Is that something you could see yourself doing? I would be miserable in a job like that but I can only speak for myself.
Also ask yourself whether it’s worth it to you to go into IB, since the industry has changed dramatically over the last decade, and now many are facing layoffs, even in the biggest companies. Google investment banking layoffs and you’ll find plenty of alarming examples.