I’m in the junior year of my undergrad pursing a pharmacy concentration degree and thinking of going to med school instead. I know its kind of late and I might have to take an extra year to prepare. And if I go into med school the only field I want to go into is dermatology. I know its super competitive. But i’m determined and I feel will enjoy it compared to pharmacy in the long run. I worked as a pharm tech and hated the experience. People were rude when you didn’t have the medications ready and it I hated the timed environment.
You might explore hospital pharmacy as a career. It’s a totally different experience than retail. The nice thing about pharmacy is the wide range of places you can find work and in different settings.
Dermatology is a great specialty and is very competitive. But before you get there you’ll experience other parts of medicine and you might find another specialty that you like.
Yes, derm is insanely competitive. Are you sure you understand just how competitive derm is? There were 19,553 allopathic medical grads in 2017, but there are only fewer than 400 dermatology residency positions available. So only ~ 2% of US allopathic med student match into derm. Among those who have the grades, standardized test scores and research for a strong derm application, only 78% matched.
if you wouldn’t be happy doing primary care (which is what most medical grads end up doing), don’t go to med school.
Have you completed the expected pre-med ECs? These include: long term clinical volunteering, long term community service, physician shadowing, leadership and basic or clinical research? Without those any med school application is DOA.
BTW, people treat doctors rudely too. And physicians work under time constraints and have productivity goals set for them by healthcare management.
Pretty accurate description of life as a physician.