HELP! Having a life/career crisis - switching to pre-med and the implications

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

I am sitting at a desk at a bank and having as close to a panic attack as I will ever have. I really need some solid advice. Please help. I just feel kind of stupid right now, because my parents warned me against being indecisive in college and how it can be a huge waste of time. Yet I still chose this path because I thought I wouldn’t change my mind, yet here I am, changing my mind (maybe (?)).

Background:

I am a current rising sophomore at a top 5 LAC (currently have 4.0 GPA but it’s only been one year) currently completing a summer finance internship. I was planning on double majoring in computer science and economics (computer science because I fell into it and fell in love; I’ve always loved math, economics because I was planning on pursuing a career in finance/actuary/consulting, but I didn’t have much background in it in HS).

The thing is, I went to a STEM-heavy high school and was set on being pre-med since middle school until an unfortunate almost-acceptance to a 7-year BA/MD program. I don’t even know what happened. I was really disappointed in myself, and then somewhere along the lines my parents brought up actuary just casually and then I looked more into it as well as other careers in finance and decided that I wanted to switch to this career path (the summer before college) because I was convinced I’m more of a math/quantitative person (which is true) and not a very bio-person (which, now I question whether that’s actually true. I got ONE B in high school in bio (super hard course where not a lot of people got As), which hit me hard at the time but now I look back and find it really dumb that I would use that as an indicator of whether I’m a bio person or not.

I’m really sorry for this ramble. I just feel really lost right now. Anyway, so basically that’s the direction I went freshman year of college. I took an intro to macroecon course and an intro to CS course. I LOVED CS; econ, not so much. I mean, it was INTERESTING and all, but I found myself really struggling to grasp the abstract concepts - so many indicators and variables connect to each other and it was hard to grasp all the relationships in my head. I still did well in the course, but it just didn’t flow as smoothly as academics usually do for me.

I also took statistics and calculus first year.

As for the career thing. Now that I’m at this bank, I’m REALLY questioning whether finance is for me. Like honestly, do I care if stocks go up or down? Do I care how much credit risk is involved with a particular client? Like, not really. The thing is, last year, I questioned whether I would find meaning in a career in finance the way I was sure a career in medicine would allow me to find meaning (I mean, I would be saving LIVES). But I comforted myself by telling myself that I would be helping the economy, etc. But now, the more I think about it, the more I see it as actually perpetuating the income inequality. I don’t know, it just seems like everyone who works in this industry is doing it for the money. I mean, most decent-paying jobs have CRAP hours, possibly even worse than a medical resident’s hours.

So yeah. So now I’m considering switching back to pre-med once AGAIN, and I keep feeling like it’s too late. I wasted a whole year going to finance info sessions/day programs at investment banks/business conferences and a soon-to-be entire SUMMER at a banking internship when I could be doing cancer research in a prestigious lab.

And now, I don’t even know how I’m going to fit in the prerequisites into my school and what I would even MAJOR in. I don’t know how I would proceed going forward if I still want to attend a prestigious medical school and do well on the MCAT. I just looked at the pre-med requirements on Baylor/UPenn/UTSW/Harvard’s sites, and they seem to have all changed slightly since I checked last year.

And even now, I’m not even positive if I want to make the switch! Since the economy isn’t exactly treating physicians well and I AM a more mathy person who loves CS. But I still love science and understand it much more easily than ECON, and I want to actually make a valuable contribution to society.

Please help. Is it too late? Should I even consider changing my mind AGAIN? I just feel so dumb. What should I do?

2

You don’t need to attend a prestigious medical school. Any old one gets you the MD degree.

3

@JustOneDad I know I don’t need to, but I believe that I would have had the ability to, if I had started on this path freshman year.

4

I wouldn’t worry about it.

5

So if I were to do this, what should I major in and how do I plan out the prerequisites? Will CS be too time-consuming? Should I stick to math? Ugh.

6

You do not pick a major because you want to get into a med school, you pick a major because you like it and want to learn it for a better future.

7

So, what are the reasonable possibilities (at this point)?
Econ?
CS?
Math?
…??

8

CS, econ, math, and I’m sure bio is a viable option since premed curriculum is like most of the bio major requirements. Although I don’t want to take unnecessary ecology courses. Which prereqs do you suggest I take first (and how many for next semester?)? I have math out of the way and that’s it LOL

Also, what do I do about ECs?? Since I don’t think I will have enough science coursework by next summer to apply for like MD Anderson or anything :frowning:

9

Whichever you like the best, everyone is reasonable and everyone you’ve identified majors has graduates got into med schools.

How can we pick the major FOR YOU?

10

I’m thinking Econ is sorta interesting here. Economics research often has to do with why people do what they do and that has a very definite tie-in to medicine. You indicated you had interest in it and, according to one of my roommates who is now an Econ professor, it was ridiculously easy which would allow you to do well in your pre-med requirements.

11

@JustOneDad Actually econ is one of most difficult and competitive majors at my school (econ is good at my school), and among the 20 summa cum laude graduates this year, there was only 1 econ major.

I’m actually leaning towards CS for pure interest reasons, but I am wondering whether that would be too much to handle as a premed, since debugging and what not takes literally forever. If so, math or physics for me would be the next best options. Math is a bit too theoretical at my school and I am definitely more applied, so that’s why I am considering physics. But then again, I haven’t even taken one physics class at my college yet!?!

I guess if I still want to attend a good med school I’ll just have to maintain my GPA and get extraordinary MCAT scores.

Honestly, what am I even doing at this bank.

12

Econ must have been good at my school, too as my roommate is a nationally known professor at a top school. He’d still be the first to tell you that it was easy. He finished the degree in his Junior year.

13

@JustOneDad Ahh I see. Well the fact that he became a famous econ professor probably explains why he thought econ was easy. :stuck_out_tongue: Actually, while I thought AP Microecon was extremely straight-forward, I found the macro at my college really difficult and hard to understand. I don’t think I’m cut out for econ the way your friend was.

14

That’s too bad. I thought it was a good plan.

15

If you don’t want to answer, feel free to ignore, but I’m curious how did you become set by age 12/13 on a career in medicine?

16

Why don’t you want to pursue a career in computer science (you definitely do NOT have to have a CS career related to finance)? You’ve said repeatedly that you love CS and are interested in it, but that you don’t think finance is for you. It sounds like a no brainer to be–go into CS, but not in a way that’s related to finance.

All you’ve said about medicine is that you wanted to do it in middle and high school, but that you changed your mind in college. It, to be honest, doesn’t really sound convincing to me. Lots of people think they want to be a doctor when they’re younger but then decide that it’s not for them. That’s perfectly okay. Becoming a doctor is a difficult path–what have you done to make sure that it’s what you really want? Volunteering, shadowing, talking to medical students, research? You can go to medical school if you want to no matter when you make the decision (now, later, after you graduate), but before you commit everything to it, make sure it’s what you actually want to do and not something you’re just holding onto from middle school. It says nothing about your abilities or drive or talent or even passions to decide that medicine is not for you. Some people decide that they don’t want to spend so many years in school or that they don’t want to work such ridiculously long hours during their rotations or residency. Some people decide that they don’t want to deal with patients everyday or that they don’t want to be on call or work long hours or that they don’t want to be in a job where they take their work home with them or that they don’t want to deal with insurance companies or a million of other reasons why someone might not want to be a doctor. You can help people in meaningful ways without being a doctor, and lots of people do so every day. Making a snap decision will waste a lot more time in the long run if it turns out to be the wrong one then spending a little time to figuring out what you really want.

17

I’d like to know where Econ is harder than Math or CS.

18

@Jugulator20 My mom (didn’t go to medical school in the US) is a physician, and my dad also does medicine/science/lab-related work, so I was groomed from a very young age. And my parents would tell me how stable/lucrative of a career it is, etc.

@baktrax I thought about CS as a career, but I don’t really like the idea of spending day and night in front of the computer screen. I like interpersonal communication. Also, I started in the CS game late. Although I managed to do well in the course (it was a close call), I definitely struggled and am not the best programmer in the world. Even if I were to go down this path, I don’t see myself being all that successful in it. I just really like it and see myself pursuing it for side projects, etc (maybe?).

I just like that doctors can affect people so directly. I guess the main reasons I went off the path in the first place was because I didn’t particularly like all that memorization in bio (although the subject matter was decently interesting). Definitely did NOT like chemistry all that much, but I find that to be the case for a lot of premeds. I like physics. I also didn’t like the long hours, but I now realize that finance people have it much worse… and they don’t make nearly as direct an impact as physicians (at least IMO).

I did bio research in high school, but didn’t like it, but I’m relatively sure that this is due to the empirical nature of my research and how repetitive/tedious it was. Now that I know I like technology, I can maybe do bioinformatics, etc? I’m sure that’d be much more interesting to me.

My mom has told me that the memorization/tedious medical school work is just a couple of years, and in the long run, you’re an actual PHYSICIAN for much longer. Also, I’ve always been pretty good at taking tests, so I don’t think all the coursework/the MCAT will be impossible for me.

Right now, I’m just really scared of competing with all the other people (for research positions, etc) who are further on the premed track than me…

Also, what would I tell medical schools about all the finance-related things on my resume LOL.

And, lol, if I was worried about being able to study abroad at Oxbridge with CS/econ double major, I definitely can’t do it now LOL. Oh well.

19

I think you are pressuring yourself unnecessarily. You’ve spent your freshman year exploring various options. That’s what freshman year is for. Don’t want to do finance? Great - now it’s off the table. Nothing to explain to medical schools or anyone else. Major in whatever you like because medical schools don’t care: You just have to complete the pre-reqs and take the MCAT and complete a major (any major) so you can graduate. 40% of med students graduated in non-STEM fields. Study what you enjoy.

The worst care scenario here is that you need to take a year between college and med school because you have to finish your pre-reqs in your senior year of college. Lots of people do that and use the extra year to do medical-related research or volunteering, which strengthens their applications. And they still have time for a semester abroad. And yes, any medical school is a good one. Academic medical centers are helpful if you want a career in academic medicine/research, but otherwise it doesn’t matter - and any medical school can provide research opportunities if you later decide to go that route.

In the meantime, the fact that you haven’t yet done anything medical-related isn’t important. You can start next year. With your parents’ and your school’s connections, you will have no problem finding people to shadow, medical volunteering opportunities and research opportunities. And having done them, you may find that you aren’t as keen on medicine as you thought, which is also fine. It’s not ‘too late’ to do anything and panic attacks should be saved for real crises.

20

If there’s one thing I’ve learned for sure from my friends in finance it’s that the field is just as diverse as science or medicine. It sounds like you don’t like this one banking internship but that doesn’t mean you don’t like “finance.” You talked about being an actuary. The actuaries I know are doing risk projections and aren’t really doing what most people call “banking” or “trading.” They are certainly very different personalities from my friends who went into i-banking. IB and consulting are the most prominent because they realized they’ll capture the most college kids by making their recruiting process mirror the college application process - and they’ve really changed the hiring landscape for their industry. Maybe you just need to look harder/deeper at the other ways to use the things you like?

The memorization doesn’t stop once you get out of school. Medicine is a constantly evolving field.