So I have a conundrum, I am a high-school freshman, and I have two ideal career choices for my future. They are similar but vastly different. I either want to be a trauma surgeon or a physical therapist. The problem is my mom is not truly a fan of either, she believes I should be a neurosurgeon-so I can make money, but that is not what I want. I don’t care about being filthy rich and honestly, I want to see immediate effects, and be in the gore and rush of trauma surgery, or be physically active and helping people become more physically able. She also thinks that being a physical therapist isn’t that good of a job, and not worthy of my intelligence. I truly like both ideas, and can’t decide which is more for me and I worry that what if she’s right, and becoming a physical therapist is a waste of my and everybody else’s time and that being a trauma surgeon isn’t as good as being a neurosurgeon.
You have a very long way to go before you’re ready to make any career decisions. You need to finish high school & get into college first. After 2 or 3 years of college–and some job shadowing and clinical volunteering in both PT and medicine–only then will you be in a position to decide which path you want to pursue.
For now, I suggest that you take challenging coursework in high school and get a strong foundation in science & mathmeatics since you’ll need good skills in both to pursue medicine or physical therapy
Physical therapy now requires a doctoral degree (DPT) to become licensed therapist. I doubt that a doctoral degree is a challenge that’s below your intellect.
P.S. There’s no way you should be picking out medical specialities until you actually get accepted into med school. (The odds of getting accepted into med school are long even for strong students.)
P.P.S Trauma surgery isn’t all gore and bleeding out patients. You’ve been watching way too many bad TV doctor dramas. Surgery is painstaking, tedious work requiring intense concentration. (And good bladder control…) Pretty much the exact opposite of a rush. FYI, trauma surgery is a side gig, even at Level 1 trauma centers. All trauma surgeons are first and foremost general surgeons which means most of their caseload is bread & butter (routine) scheduled surgeries. (appendectomies, hernias, bowel repairs, gallbladder removals, etc)
Also, tell your mom, it’s takes more than 15 years to become a neurosurgeon. So it’ll be a very long time before you will be pulling down that sweet six figure doctor’s salary. (And a huge hunk of it will be going to repay about half million $$ in student loans…)
Thanks for the advice. I want to also note that I am super aware that trauma surgery isn’t all blood and gore. I know how hard it is to be a surgeon and the workload of the emergency room. I just like trauma surgery, because you are doing everything and helping people immediately and constantly working to better peoples lives. I love medicine and I know I want to get into that field.
Also, I don’t really watch TV much less Doctor dramas because the infuriate me with the inaccuracy of the procedures and life of a doctor.
I agree - it’s way too early for you to be focusing on a medical specialty. Just focus on challenging yourself in school, and when possible seek out opportunities to volunteer or shadow in different medical areas if you are convinced some form of medicine is your goal. There are years before you need to sweat the details.
It’s unfortunate your mother is so focused on neuroscience and money. Thinking that anything less than that is “below your intellect” is discouraging. There are many ways to challenge your mind. I can’t see how physical therapy could ever be “a waste of time” if it’s truly what you want to do. There are many rewards to being a physical therapist, and a lot of cutting edge research happening in the field.
It’s also possible you might find something else along the way that sparks your passion. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to earn good money, but it’s less rewarding if you are doing something you dislike. Many of us ended up majoring in areas we really didn’t know about until we got to college - and then not everyone goes on in life to work in the field in which they majored.
I’m sorry for being flip in my previous answer to you but it was late and night and your post focused on all the wrong reasons for going into medicine. (Money, prestige, excitement.)
No surgeon works alone. Trauma surgeons are just one part of a much larger team and everyone on the team has role in helping to heal the patient.
I will also point out that there are many, many ways to help people, and 99% of them do not involve medicine. Teachers have a far more lasting and meaningful impact on someone’s life than a doctor ever will. So do mental health counselors and leaders of faith communities. And EMS personnel save far more lives than any trauma surgeon.
If you’re interested in a fairly realistic portrayal of the life in trauma surgery, read Tengo Sed by James Fleming–who is a trauma surgeon at a Level 1 trauma center. The protagonist, Hovercraft, is based on real person who my older D (a physician) knows & worked with.
Physical therapists are highly educated and really help a lot of people. However, it’s a very different job from surgery, and a very different stress level . As others said, you don’t have to decide right now. Your mom shouldn’t be pushing you towards any specific career, let alone specific medical area, especially at this early point.
Yeah, I don’t want to go into medicine for excitement, prestige, or money, I could care less about money. My mom is the one that is focusing on money, mostly because we have lived in poverty for a long time, and she wants me to be able to take care of her, and take care of myself. I have known what I have wanted to do since I was a little kid. I wanted to be in medicine. I also want to work for places like war zones or impoverished communities. I really just wanted to know if I should follow my mom and disappoint her or follow my heart and wishes for the future.
Follow your heart. @Berniedog
No US physician is ever going to starve. Even primary care physicians lead very comfortable lives.
The issue is that physician training takes a very long time–4 years of college, 4 years of medical school followed by 3-8 years (or more) of residency & fellowship training before a young physician starts earning an income. You won’t be able to help care for your family any time soon. Also you will not be able to choose where you live for your medical training. You go where you’re accepted for med school and you go where you’re assigned by a computer program for residency/fellowship. There are no guarantees any of those sites will be near your family.
You can work in impoverished communities and war zones without being a physician. Aid workers and other people who working for NGOs do the brunt of work in those areas, not doctors.
Some things to think about:
- You may not be the one in a position to choose a health profession career. Admission to medical school is highly selective, and most high school seniors or college frosh with pre-med dreams do not apply to medical school (GPA or MCAT too low, or lost interest after taking pre-med courses or doing pre-med ECs), and more than half who do apply do not get admitted to any. Some specialties for residency after medical school can also be highly competitive.
- Medical school is extremely expensive. You may not be in it for the money, but if you do not choose carefully (if you even have a choice in the matter), you could end up with $300,000 or more of debt after medical school. That amount of debt will be a heavy burden, even at physician pay levels, and can restrict your career and life choices, possibly forcing you to chase the money even if it is not what you really want to do.
About 8 years ago, an adcom at Johns Hopkins told us a story about her good friend who she met while recruiting 5-6 years before that. This person had graduated, working somewhere and she had dinner with him the previous month because she was visiting that town recruiting.
She recruited him from highschool and he always wanted to be a physician with a very particular focus. He wanted to be a premed at Johns Hopkins since it was considered one of the best. He had his entire life mapped out, by the time he showed up on campus, he had decided his 4 year degree plan with every course for each semester. After spending one semester at JHU, he came to her office and said he needed a new career path because he did not want to be a doctor anymore.
You have all of high school, college, and medical school to figure all that stuff out. You’re 15. Go do teenager stuff! Just don’t blow anything up 
If you like physical therapy but want a role that is a bit more complex, don’t forget about PM&R!
Your focus right now should be getting great grades, and do some ECs you really like. Period. Study for your standardized tests starting summer before junior year. Completely stop talking to your mom about careers. There is zero point in it right now. If you do the things I suggested, you will have good college options. Get to that point, then worry about the next steps.