<p>I really love helping people and kids so I was thinking of becoming a pediatrician but it is a lot of schooling and a huge commitment. I heard that is is very stressful and you work long hours during your residency years. Is becoming a doctor worth sacrificing your 20's? I've wanted to become a doctor ever since I was little but now, I'm getting put down from these factors. I want to enjoy/have fun in life and be financially stable but 11 years of schooling is a lot and you don't have much time for social life since you'll be studying soo much. Please help me! I'm sooo confused right now. Anyone have any advice? Thanks(:</p>
<p>To a certain extent – Yes. It is wonderful to be a caregiver who helps society. However, the downside is that prep for med school does drain away free time and relaxation – However, if you have good time management skills, there is no reason for you to not have fun during your pre-med path. Both emotionally and financially, being a doctor is a rewarding experience. You WILL have free time, just less than others will, and the rewards are huge. Ultimately, it’s worth it. We need more doctors in America’s society right now, and every pre-med counts! 
Work hard, have fun (it’s possible, just not as much as other majors will give you), and good luck!</p>
<p>Yes, you will be in your late 20’s when you finish medical training, but how old will you be in 11 years if you don’t do it?</p>
<p>As a woman, the real downside is that if you want to have children, it will be very hard. Your prime fertility years will be spent in school. After that, you will spend a lot of hours at work, you may be on call in the middle of the night, and all of that will conflict with raising children. It may be politically incorrect to say this, but it’s true.</p>
<p>Definitely not TatinG, I think it is a well understood fact that the reason most teachers are females is (grammatically correct referring back to “reason” I thought it sounded odd) because teaching is a job that allows for much leniency when one wants to raise a family as well. Anyone who denies your statement is really trying to underplay years of human development and destroy some vital underpinnings of societal roles. You don’t need to have a degree in anthropology to merely understand that woman have babies :p</p>
<p>I should add that I know many doctors who are also mothers. They have the financial luxury to work just four days a week. They can afford to hire nannies, take nice vacations and never have money worries. It can be done. I do not want to discourage the OP.</p>
<p>Definitely not, but she asked is it worth it. Just part of what should be in her assessment of worth. </p>
<p>There is definitely a lot of other concerns… because a doctor’s routine is not always filled with helping people (although that is the goal). But one must understand that some lives elude the grasp of doctors… something doctors must cope with every day of their lives. Doctors bear a lot of burden, the thread is thus a very good one.</p>
<p>It is a real concern. While not denying that other jobs have similar constraints, this has to be one of the toughest. Speaking as a old fella who wants to be a granddad before he takes his dirtnap (and has a daughter who is a MS2) I can certainly see looming “conflicts”. But I also see that it can happen. </p>
<p>Balanced life. Just keep pushing for a balanced life.</p>
<p>Any effort is worth it for anything that is your personal goal. MD or other profession, you need to decide where you heart is. Nobody can tell you if it is worth for you or not even if it is very much worth for somebody else who cannot see thmeselves doing anything but medicine</p>
<p>I’d just like to throw out there that, while medical school is a lot of work for everyone, it can be a positive experience. It’s been one of the best parts of my life, personally. A lot of it has to do with your own outlook, but it also depends on going to a school with what you need (social or family support nearby, etc).</p>
<p>It’s hard to answer this question, because you ask 100 different people, you’re going to get 100 different answers. </p>
<p>For me, I LOVE my job. Going to work is usually a joy, and I can’t wait to start my fellowship to do exactly what drives my passion. Is every day great? No, of course not. As someone who loves the ICU, days in the clinic are not my favorite. And because of where I choose to work, I do have to deal with death, which is never a good day. But on the whole, being a doctor would never not be worth it for me.</p>
<p>But as I say all this, I can promise you that my outlook on life is different than many people I know - for me, it’s important that I like my job. I feel like it’s a major portion of my time and being miserable at work is something I can’t live with…and yet I know a lot of people who will put up with a lot of BS at work so long as their free time is theirs and they’re able to do what they want when they want to. Even if I had had the scores in med school for dermatology, it would have never been an option for me.</p>
<p>The last point I need to make, know that “helping people” while admirable can be done in a great many number of fields. If you think that people are eternally grateful to their physicians or their children’s physicians, and that’s what is going to be a driving motivation for you to love your job, I can promise you’re going to be disappointed by becoming a doctor. Even if you become a neonatologist or a pediatric oncologist, fields you couldn’t imagine people being angry, rude or downright ugly to you for your efforts, it will happen with startling regularity. There has to be more driving you, there has to be personal interest, a mental curiosity you try to satiate, something else you can hang your hat on to tell you it was a job well done. </p>
<p>As far as your concerns for fun and a social life. I promise you, there’s time. In undergrad you may not go out every night your business school friends go out, but if you do it right, you can go out almost as often as they do. In med school, when all your friends are going to work each morning, you’re still in control of your time for the first 2 years. Third year is different, but not impossible. And in residency, there’s time. It’s not the same, but you’re older. There’s also time in med school and residency to have a family. Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn’t know what they’re talking about. What it comes down to is priorities. If you’re someone who has to go to a absolutely ball-busting surgery residency because of prestige and reputation, well, you’re choosing that over other options that would have given you different time commitments. </p>
<p>My advice to you as HS student, is to keep your eyes open to all the different careers that are out there. If you were to look at what HS seniors list as their career choices as they graduate, you’d think the world was nothing more than doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, the occasional architect, and nebulous “business” people. There are so many other options out there. While you’ve always wanted to be a doctor, remember that just because you can’t think of anything else, it doesn’t mean that it’s the right choice for you (although it might be). So keep an open mind.</p>
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Yup. Don’t know if it will be solely , or even mainly, for prestige and reputation. Sometimes mine seems to do things just because they are ball-busting hard , but …yeah. That is what worries me. 
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<p>Balanced life. Balanced life.</p>
<p>^Mountains were meant to be climbed ;)</p>
<p>As a med school faculty, I know very few students who say it is hard. Takes a lot of time = YES. I am a trauma surgeon (8 years of training AFTER medical school). My partner is a woman who has three kids. Over half of our residents are women.</p>
<p>Medicine is changing. The days of 200 hour work weeks are gone (not sure if for the better). The days of private practice are going. By the time you get there, your residency hours will be 60 hours / week. You will be in a large practice where you will take call no more than once or twice a week (and paid extra for hospital on call).</p>
<p>You will make < $100,000 as a pediatrician but you will love it.</p>
<p>ps My wife is an executive at a fortune 500 form who pays more in taxes than I make and works twice the hours</p>