<p>Why is it that just about everyone I know that thinks they're at least a tad bit smart thinks they should go into medicine. Most overrated first career choice. There's only a few of these "MUST DO MEDICINE" people that may actually be useful to society lol</p>
<p><em>cough</em> they do it for the alleged $300k salary <em>cough</em></p>
<p>Don’t worry the salaries are going to be slashed so you can get the last laugh if that’s what you want.</p>
<p>Although it’s probably the group of people you’re surrounded with that makes you think that~</p>
<p>So. Many. Premeds.</p>
<p>Literally like 1/10 of my entire University.</p>
<p>When you graduate from high school you don’t know too many career paths. So usually people who are good in science decide to go into medicine.</p>
<p>Also if they were truly after the money wouldn’t they go into finance or engineering where all you need is a bachelors to make good money instead of the 11+ years it takes to be a doctor?</p>
<p>True, but lifetime earnings for doctors are much more. Say engineering for example:</p>
<p>Eng - $3,000,000 ish vs
Med- $6,000,000 - $10,000,000</p>
<p>terrible estimates haha</p>
<p>But you have to pay off that 300k and you’ll retire at around 60</p>
<p>Excavalier, why do you say that their earnings will be slashed?</p>
<p>There are many people at my high school who say their dream is to become a doctor, but they can’t make it through our honors physics course with above a C and often complain about their amount of homework (which isn’t that much). Makes me wonder how they’ll make it to, let alone through, med school.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>tl;dr answer: The new Affordable Care Act will affect the salaries of the doctors. </p>
<p>I don’t think there are exact numbers on how much the cuts will be but specialists will most likely have their salaries cut because of changes in reimbursements. I’ve heard things of how primary care doctors may see a pay increase because of the increased number of patients.</p>
<p>Either way, attending doctors often start out with boatloads of debt - I’m talking around 200K BEFORE interest, and when you consider other factors such as working hours, malpractice insurance, etc, it’s a lot that pre-meds have to consider. Either way after a while, assuming their debt eventually clears up and family situations don’t cause trouble, doctors will enjoy a relatively nice lifestyle (not lobster-every-day levels) .</p>
<p>I know a doctor who recently told us he has seen the same number of patients for the past 3 years, but his income has decreased each year due to lowering reimbursements. He expects it to get much worse.</p>
<p>Well there you go.</p>
<p>Doctors don’t have the hollywood lifestyle that’s portrayed in films and TV. There’s a ton of sacrifice involved and a lot of pre-meds don’t see that.</p>