<p>My dad always wants me to become a doctor for the money, yet I don't want to deal with the pressure of being one. I don't think I can even get into medical school anyway. My desired major has always been computer science, but how can I convince him that I'll make enough money as a future software engineer?</p>
<p>This sounds so typical for someone growing in an asian family :|</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice</p>
<p>If you major in CS at a good university, and graduate at the top of your class, you can probably get a job with a starting salary 70-80k straight out of college.</p>
<p>If you go to medical school, you will spend another 200k on tuition alone. You will then have to complete a residency (3-4 years earning ~30k). So 8 years later you will start paying back your debt working in a field you don’t want to be in. This does not sound like a good plan.</p>
<p>This seems to be a broken record of a story unfortunately. </p>
<p>There have been thousands of software engineers who have become millionaires. Even if they don’t, they generally have among the highest starting salaries from colleges and opportunity to move up the ranks in companies into lead positions, management, and even to CEO. In addition plenty of software engineers have gone on to found their own successful companies. </p>
<p>You might also want to show him a typical timeline (relative to age) of the income levels of doctors. If you’re having to take out loans for your med school, weigh that against the timeline as well. Compare it to the timeline for the software engineer.</p>
<p>But all of that is just about the money. The most important thing is that if you don’t want to be a doctor you shouldn’t try to become one. On the one hand, there’s a very good chance you won’t succeed if you’re not interested in it. On the other hand I don’t want to go see any doctor whose not genuinely interested in what they do. On the third hand, being a software engineer can be a rewarding, interesting, mentally challenging, and fun career - as long as one is interested in it.</p>
<p>You might not be able to convince him or sway him from his ‘old country’ ideas but at least try to convince him to lend you some support to pursue what ‘you’ want to pursue. Once you’re happy and successful he’d probably get over the doctor idea or at least more accepting.</p>
<p>Convince him that given the nationalized medicine we are about to have, doctors will no longer being getting wealthy. They have not been for some time now given the power of the insurance industry, but with the government involved, it will get much worse. </p>
<p>They will probably make about as much as a typical software engineer in a few years.</p>
<p>Go to the video store and get a copy of Dead Poet’s Society and watch it with your dad. In the movie, a teen who is talented in theater is browbeaten by his father to go to medical school. The father’s focus becomes very destructive. Watch the movie with some popcorn and then have some heart to heart sharing. </p>
<p>Also, there is no reason why your undergraduate degree can’t be in CS. After all, medicine is more and more technical. You can agree to throw in a couple of biology courses so you are well rounded and then think/discuss/plan/avoid medical school once you have your bachelor’s degree. </p>
<p>Please tell your dad that many medical schools are wanting slightly older students. They can prefer a student who has finished a degree and worked a couple of years before applying to medical school. It gives them a better rounded, more mature student than the people that race through college and then dive into medical school. Just what does he want you to do with a biology degree? Zookeeper at minimum wage? (I did that and loved it, but it’s not for everyone).</p>
<p>Do doctors even MAKE as much money as everyone thinks? I mean, they have extra years of schooling (costing extra $$$) and then they have some pretty crazy malpractice insurance rates . . .</p>
<p>[WikiAnswers</a> - How much do doctors get paid](<a href=“http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_do_doctors_get_paid]WikiAnswers”>How much do doctors get paid during residency? - Answers)
[WikiAnswers</a> - How much does medical malpractice insurance cost](<a href=“http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_medical_malpractice_insurance_cost]WikiAnswers”>How much does medical malpractice insurance cost? - Answers)</p>
<p>The average starting salary for someone with a Doctorate in Computer Science (where I’m going) is about $104K/year, and according to this link: [url=<a href=“http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-Degrees_that_Pay_you_Back-sort.html]WSJ.com[/url”>WSJ.com]WSJ.com[/url</a>] people with Computer Science degrees can expect to make 70.8% more mid-career than starting salary (that’s for Bachelors degrees, but it’s the best I can find). So, say $178K/year. </p>
<p>You’ll make more being a brain surgeon than you will with a doctorate in computer science. Possibly the same with being an anesthesiologist. Other than that, you’ll likely be better off with computer science.</p>
<p>First, see whether your four-year schedule would allow you to complete the computer science major AND complete the pre-med requirements. It might be tough – computer science is a relatively structured major – but perhaps it can be done, especially if you can place out of some things with AP credit. If you do that, you can hold your options open.</p>
<p>If not – or if you want to save your few precious electives for something more exciting than Organic Chemistry – you can tell your father not to worry. My son has a degree in computer science from a school that is good but not top of the heap. He chose to go on to graduate school, where he is working toward a Ph.D. (and they pay him, not the other way around), but his classmates who chose to go straight into the job market (just before the recession hit) got starting salaries in the 60s and 70s, in jobs with plenty of potential for promotion.</p>
<p>Also tell your dad that the employment potential for computer science majors is way better than that for people who didn’t have the grades to get into medical school and are seeking jobs with only a bachelor’s degree in biology or chemistry.</p>
<p>^I agree with Marian. I am sure if you explain you want a CS undergrad and then go to medical school that way you have a fall back with good income potential it will appeal to your dad. I just had dinner with a doctor friend with an undergrad in EE so it is not that unusual. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>All these posts about what doctors make completely miss the point. This young person doesn’t want to be a doctor, so he / she shouldn’t have to be. Too bad for the culture that says that students have to go into what fields their parents pre-select for them. Guess what. This is America.</p>
<p>I echo the comment about Dead Poets Society.</p>
<p>Nothing wrong with suggesting career fields and making biases / prejudices known, but forcing a child to become a doctor who doesn’t want to be is nothing short of child abuse.</p>
<p>There is no such thing as a “pre-med major”. That means you can major in whatever you want and claim to be gunning for medical school. (It wouldn’t hurt to throw in a few chemistry and biology classes to back up your claim.) Or you could claim to be interested in developing medical software, or something that similarly ties in medicine with your real interests.</p>
<p>Then, after the last tuition bill is paid, you say, “Screw you, Dad! I’m going to be a software engineer! No med school for me! Woo-hoo!”</p>
<p>I’m serious. He has no right to tell you what to do with the rest of your life. I have no moral problem with practicing a little deception with someone who is making unreasonable demands or trying to lord their power over you, which I assume is what’s going on, or else you wouldn’t care what he thinks.</p>
<p>I totally agree with mantori suzuki.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Since his father’s sole reasoning is the money, he will probably have to fight him on that basis.</p>
<p>I think most of us agree no student should have a parent choose what he studies, but the unfortunate fact is it happens all the time, especially in some cultures.</p>
<p>“There is no such thing as a ‘pre-med major’.”</p>
<p>Some schools indeed offer Pre-Medicine as a major.</p>
<p>Would people agree it’s better for her to convience her father that Computer Science is a good field to go into, than to completely **** him off?</p>
<p>Show him the facts, Computer Science majors will make a lot of money.</p>
<p>It’s not like you want to major in Italian poetry! [Not that there’s anything wrong with Italian poetry…]</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>As the mother of one who’s done the research, I wouldn’t go that far, but most make a solid middle/upper middle class income.</p>
<p>^Well, where I’m going it’s the 2nd highest paying major after Computer Engineering.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No, because it presupposes that the father needs to “approve” in the first place. It still frames in in the context of “student’s career choices need to be vetted and approved by father.” What if this kid does decide to study Italian poetry? Ok, maybe he can get dad to vet Computer Science, but he won’t be able to get dad to vet Italian poetry. Then what? All bets are off unless dad approves?</p>
<p>Sorry, that may fly elsewhere, but I think it has no place in America 2009.</p>
<p>
It obviously has a place, since many of the parents who are paying for college in America 2009 come from variety of countries and cultures, and have their opinions on what they are willing to fund. I think it is much wiser for their kids to try and find some common ground, rather then cut all ties and try to fund their own education.</p>