Yeah, so I’m having an early-life crisis right now…
I’m only 3 weeks into my pre-med “adventure” as a freshman at a small liberal arts university and I’m already questioning my true intentions for trying to become a doctor. I have the academic passion and mental capacity to pursue science and research but for most of my childhood, I’ve had a strong desire to study art and programming and to go into video game design and development (yeah, video games and medicine are on different sides of the spectrum…). It wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I told myself that I should go into medicine and this decision was heavily influenced by my family. Being a minority (I’m black and a female), my parents wants me to pursue a field where I could make an impact on the diversity of a workplace and where they can brag that their daughter has a prestigious career (art director or lead concept artist isn’t prestigious to many people). My route in medicine is to go into a MD/PhD program after undergrad, study biomedical engineering as my PhD, and to go into residency hopefully in orthopedic surgery. I sought a career where I could work with patients in a clinical setting while also devoting time in research in medical devices and artificial organs. I also would love to devote a good chunk of my medical career in medical mission trips in third-world countries. Becoming a doctor for disaster relief events is actually the main thing I want to accomplish in a medical career. After reviewing my intentions in medicine, I truly feel that they are very unrealistic.
Overall, my question is…
If I were to put a hold to my medicine passions and desires to pursue my lifelong art career at my dream art university, is it possible for me to still pursue medicine at a later age once I’m ready to? If so, what is the usual way that older prospective doctors go by doing so? I would truly love a job medicine, helping others and discovering breakthroughs in medical treatments and technology. It’s just that since I’ve devoted most of my career preparation and have developed this immense love and skill for video game concept art and development, it’s hard for to ignore it and postpone it to another time of my life. And I don’t want to continue studying medicine unhappy, because that’s setting myself up for failure. And at the same time, since schoolwork is starting to become more demanding, I don’t even have much time to really draw for pleasure or participate in any of my other hobbies anymore (which I expected before I started, I just didn’t know it’ll affect me emotionally this much). I would explain my intentions in my hopeful career in video game development but since this a pre-med forum, it would be irrelevant. But if you want me to disclose that info, let me know.
Long story short…
I want to stop my current pre-med ventures in order to pursue my art passion. But I am wondering if it’s possible for me to still embark for my love for medicine later in life. Sorry for such a long post…
There was 52 year old in the class ahead of D1 in med school. Both D1 and D2 had/have med school classmates int their mid/late 30s or early 40s. (Including a former pharmacist and a high school science teacher with older teenaged children.)
It’s definitely possible to go to med school as an older adult, just realize that the education & training to get to the actual clinical practice stage will take at least a decade and that the MD/PhD route will likely be closed to you.
BTW, family pressure is among the worst reasons to go into medicine. It won’t sustain you through the long grueling hours of study and training. Burn out is a very real phenomena among pre-meds, med students and physicians.
If you really want to make an impact on the diversity of the workplace, you’ll have much more impact if you pursue CS/video game design–which is almost exclusively male and almost universally white. Much more so than medicine.
How would one complete their pre-med classes requirement if they already possess a bachelor’s? Is there special programs that just allow a student to take the classes they need for admission to med school?
There are any number of ways to complete your pre-reqs after college graduation–
–you can earn a second bachelor’s degree
–you can take college classes as a non-degree seeking student and only enroll in pre-reqs
–there are specialized programs called career-changer post-baccalaureate programs which are 2 year long, full time, highly structure programs that include all the necessary science & math pre-reqs plus usually offer research and clinical volunteering opportunities
Thank you guys for your responses. I did read them fairly quickly after you posted them. I had another question.
“It’s definitely possible to go to med school as an older adult, just realize that the education & training to get to the actual clinical practice stage will take at least a decade and that the MD/PhD route will likely be closed to you.”
Could you explain, @WayOutWestMom , why the MD/PhD pathway would be closed to me? If I were to still pursue medicine, it will most likely be in my late twenties to mid-thirties. I understand it’ll take over a decade in order to actually get into clinical practice. Is it that I’ll be “too old” for a MD/PhD program? I know that 7-8 years is a long commitment but I’m very confident that I can focus and be success throughout the program. Although it would probably be nice to have one someday, I’m not really striving to have a family, if that could be a factor.
It will take longer than 7-8 years. The MD/PhD program lasts 7-9 years, but then you’ll have a required residency (another 3-6 years, depending on the specialty; Ortho residency is 5 years), plus a fellowship (subspecialty training), a research fellowship or a post-doc or some combination thereof (another 2-4 years for each). Fellowship/research fellowship/post-doc are optional, but very common among MD/PhDs.
Do you have any hands-on research experience?
Not everyone is suited for a research career. If you think you might seriously want to pursue a PhD, when you get to college, find a lab willing to take you on and start working in it. Stick with it for 2 or 3 years until you reach a point where you have primary responsibility for the success or failure of your project. If you still enjoy lab by this point--only then should you consider a MD/PhD or a PhD.
You’re young yet and have time to change your mind multiple times.
Don’t get so fixated on a particular goal that you don’t take the time to figure out what you enjoy (a career lasts an awfully long time) and what you’re good at.
Excellent advice, but keep in mind you’re talking about basic science to translational research. Plenty of good clinical research in the field of orthopedics can be done without a PhD.