Need help choosing a major...

Hey guys, I am still in HS but i need help deciding what to major in. I am top 5 in my class, got decent PSAT scores (signed up to take SAT soon) and really love the sciences. That being said, I need to decide what to do. I love labs in school and I love discovering new things, which lead me toward research. However, I work at a pharmacy and I see that the pharmacists love the job, make good money, and have families. But I am also interested in being a doctor (MD) because I like helping people and the money is huge.

Basically, I need help deciding whether to be a doctor, pharmacist, or do research (phD and teach college as well). Is being a doctor worth all the schooling? Do pharmacists have a stressful life or college education? Is research a secure job? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!

You’re absolutely right that it’s very hard for a high school student to make a decision that may impact them for next 40-50 years. Fortunately, you don’t have to. Enjoy your time remaining in high school. I can’t speak to pharmacy or PhD pathways, but med schools simply do not care what you major in. Psych, art history, humanities, take your pick. Med schools care a great deal how you do in GEs, premed reqs and your major(s) and/or minor courses. So if you decide on medicine, when you get to college, talk to counselor, pick a major you are interested in as you’re more likely to do well (GPAwise) if you actually like material.

You don’t need to decide this right now. In fact, you don’t have nearly enough experience to figure this out. Major in some sort of science major that interests you the most (you can always change it later). Narrowing it done to what science you like (biology, chemistry, or physics) will also be helpful. All of these paths lend themselves well to any sort of science major. For medical and pharmacy school, you can major in whatever you like as long as you complete the required courses. For grad school, you’ll likely want to major in the field that you want to do research in, but you won’t know what this is without more experience. Since you’re considering medical or pharmacy school, look into the prerequisite courses when you get to college so you can make sure to take those classes to keep your options open.

Get some experience in college that relate to what you think you might want to do. Get involved with a research lab to see how you like it. Volunteer in a hospital or shadow a doctor. You’re already working in a pharmacy, which is great. See if you can ask some of the pharmacists your questions about the career.

I loved science at your age, too, and went into college Pre-Med basically because I thought that’s what smart girls who liked science did. Long story short, I went on to get a PhD. Grad students in my program (through the School of Medicine) had to take a class with the med students. It was at that point that I realized a stark difference between the two groups of students. The graduate students (including myself) found the info fascinating and kept wanting to know WHY. The med students didn’t care-they needed to learn the material and know the facts. I realized at that point that I was in exactly the right place for me. This was supported by a cool test that is unfortunately no longer administered-the old GRE used to have an additional section called “analytical”, made up of word puzzles. I obtained a perfect score. So, yeah, I’m pretty analytical which fits right in with liking research! Contrast that with a test question in my med school class that confused me, about whether a sound level could be heard across a “yard”. I asked the prof whether that was a (back)“yard” distance or three feet yard. He said “what did the notes say?” (Because everyone bought a copy of notes and memorized them word for word, not understanding) Why do I still remember this? Because it was three feet yard, and science is metric, so I’d felt doubly wronged since I’d understood the concept lol.

If you love science, labs and discovery, go research. Medicine and maybe, Pharm can lead to those things, but they are a small part of the fields and generally, a terrible waste of time and effort if you do.

As soon as you start college and feel secure with your coursework, go find a lab that will give you a start. You don’t have to give up the pre-med notion, either. Just follow the pre-med advising track to make sure you are taking the appropriate required courses and you will have some years before you have to make a pathway decision.

Just in case you are wondering, robotic pharmacists are closer than robotic physicians and the robotic researcher is not really in sight…unless you have a sense of humor, and I’d definitely entertain pertinent jokes.

I met a former pharmacist on an airplane years ago, and he told me he’d left pharmacy to become an oncology nurse, and he was very happy with the change. He said that he’d become a pharmacist with the idea that he would help people and do something scientific, but so much of his actual work was really running a business – ringing up sales on the cash register, processing receipts, stocking the place, etc. Consider that a pharmacist is also standing all day long. Both pharmacists and doctors can work weekends and some odd hours, with doctors potentially being on call 24/7 depending on their specialty. A research scientist (assuming you’re able to get such a competitive job) is going to have more regular work days and hours, and if you’re also a professor you might have summers off. The people environment is very different also. Start observing the kinds of people who are pharmacists, doctors and research scientists to the extent you are able to meet them. As Pbrain mentioned, different fields attract very different kinds of people. They all love science, but in different ways. You might also want to get an MD-PhD and become a research doctor, and combine your interests (and doctors prescribe medicine, so it really would combine all three interests). Here is more information on becoming a research doctor: https://www.aamc.org/students/research/mdphd/

Thank you all for your help!