Let's Be Serious: Are Medical Professions really as Lucrative as the appear?

<p>Yes, MS2 is looking good so far, but everything could change any day, that is why we are filing FASFA religiously every single year, even when D. was on full Merit in UG. It is just a habit anymore and a very easy thing according to my H., hey I do not need to do this one. I personally despise debt, I have no tolerance for it. </p>

<p>But many have no choice, actually majority and if D was not on full Merit in UG, I do not know if we would be paying for her Med. School, so I am saying that it is not just 2 of us, but actually 3 of us who “earned” her Med. School tuition, not only with hard work but also with smart choice. Yes, I love to brag about her, sorry about that, don’t we all love our kids, in thier 20s, in their 40s…</p>

<p>But think about it, if it was no Med. School loans, maybe medicine in the USA was cheaper? Just a wild guess, but then, maybe we did not have this thread at all…wold be nothing to discuss…</p>

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<p>Here’s an idea: they could apply to the [Uniformed</a> Services of the Health Sciences School of Medicine](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniformed_Services_University_of_the_Health_Sciences]Uniformed”>Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences - Wikipedia), which not only charges zero tuition and fees, but also is paid a salary. That’s right - rather than paying to go to medical school, you get paid over $30k a year to go to medical school. On the other hand, the military service commitment is lengthy. But that is an undeniably effective way to avoid debt. </p>

<p>Another way is to enter a MD/PhD program under the auspices of the MSTP, which generally also provides free tuition and stipend, and hence is effectively another way to get paid for going to med-school. But of course that’s contingent upon completing a qualifying PhD program (or at least being admitted to one).</p>

<p>Yes, there are the ways to go to Med. School for free, but they are very hard to get into:
-Free Med. Schools - Cleveland Clinic, Mayo - just couple examples
-Merit awards- very very few
-Army - very hard to get into programs (not for everybody. D. would not consider)

  • Acadmies - Air Force, West Point,…etc (again not for everybody, D. was invited to apply but she did not consider)
    -Choose UG that give you full ride or full tuition Merit and negotiate with parents paying for Med. School. That also means applying ONLY to UGs that are known (thru research) for very good financial packages to top kids. That also means that you have to be cream of the crop, ranked #1 or close with top scores and tons of ECs in HS.
    -Choose cheaper in-state public Med. School. This one is not free, but cheaper
    -Yes, MD/PhD - very hard to get into and they are 8 years long. Huge focus on research. Again not for everybody.</p>

<p>After listing all of these, I can only admit, that there is practically no way to have Med. School covered and graduate without loans. Vast majority will have huge loans which is one of reasons for all Money talk. There are others reasons, malpractice insurance is another biggy. And I do not know much anyway. There is no way to escape money talk though discussing the field of medicine.
Helping people is very costly business. But there are people who still want to do it despite of very long and hard way and all the cost. Society is very lucky to have them.</p>

<p>wait, those army/navy/air force programs are hard to get into? I was under the impression that pretty much anyone who could get into med school could easily get into one of those programs as the military always needs physicians and the competition for those programs is (compared to getting into medical school) pretty light since the majority of med students don’t want their specialty chosen for them and don’t want to commit to a few years on some random military base.</p>

<p>I never did much research on these so my conceptions of the program may be completely off base. I certainly don’t know anyone who wanted to do it and didn’t get it.</p>

<p>I read at the time that for West Point you even need some elected (representative? or Senator?) LOR. I was under impression that even though somebody is really pusued by them to apply, they still would not just take anybody in.
I know one person who entered Med. School thru army and I was told that it was about 2 spots like this in our entire state.
I do not know any more than that, as my own D. was not interested, so we did not investigate further.
She was right though, as the person who I know almost got into sent to Iraq, certainly not for everybody…</p>

<p>The entry into a military academy (Army, Navy or Air Force) is not the same process as getting accepted in the military’s medical training program. (Either the Uniformed Health Services University Medical School or the Armed Services Health Professions Scholarship Program) Two separate processes with entirely different requirements.</p>

<p>One need not attend a military academy to enter into either of military medical services programs.</p>

<p>does Cleveland Clinic cover their students living costs?</p>

<p>^ You really prefer to repeat your “living costs also covered” experience as an UG, right? LOL. Go tell your parents to open up their wallet. You have already saved them a bundle at the UG level (like MiamiDAP’s D and curm’s D.)</p>

<p>Somehow I have the impression that they also pay for the living costs, Sort of ike “Deep Springs” School of Medicine, or “Olin” School of Medicine, or “Morehead” School of Medicine (or your college’s version. But I forgot its name.)</p>

<p>"does Cleveland Clinic cover their students living costs? " - NO.</p>

<p>Also, keep in mind Cleveland Clinic has only 30 spots.
One advantage - you do not apply separately. When you apply to Case, you just tick another box (as far as I rmember).</p>

<p>I’m aware that “top-school-top-grades” is a small-and-shrinking proportion of law grads. It was a single example used to try to make a broader point. I should probably have used plumbers instead, but the math was easier this way.</p>

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<p>The point is that many posters are very prone to using “maximum annual salary” as their measure for “lucrative,” and this is just plain wrong. You need to pay attention to “lifetime total income.”</p>

<p>(In fact, what you NEED to do is pay attention to lifetime total income weighted for time – money is more valuable when it is earned earlier – and for taxes, but we can get to that later.)</p>

<p>^I would like to add, that doing something that you hate doing is not worth any money. I have done it, I know, I have swithced in my mid 30s. If you are palnning doing something strictly for money, you will feel very sorry for yourself. It is not a good place to be. We are spending most of our wake hours at our jobs. You better enjoy it, and it is nice to have paid well for it as well, but sorry for beat up phrase, no money will make you happy if you are miserable doing something for many hours / week. “Lucrative” is not only money.</p>

<p>Is it worth it to pursue a medical degree if someone already has a PhD. in let’s say Physics or Engineering?</p>

<p>^Well, there are lawyers in D’s Med. School class as well as at least one PhD from Harvard and few Masters in various sciences. It seems to be worth it if person desires to do so and not worth it if one has no desire. What else? Would you like to have financial analysis? I am not sure if it is possible as there are too many unknown variables. Although you might google it and find some program on internet that would perform financial analysis for you.</p>