<p>Okay, to condense/clarify/expand etc:</p>
<p>I went into engineering as a route to medical school. In a lot of ways, I did love engineering, but I'm not cut out to be a researcher. Never wanted to do research, never will. Standing around in a lab all day inhaling carcinogens is not the life for me. The money is nice, but not nearly as nice as some people on these boards think. Roughly $50k/year when you start, and, if you work hard, you'll max out at about $125k/year. It's great money for a 22-year-old with $600/month in rent and not much else, who can probably bank about $15k/year after all is said and done. Not great money for someone with a $2,500/month mortgage and a couple of kids.</p>
<p>I never wanted med school for the money, which is a good thing, because there is not much money to be had in medicine these days. They say that the "road" to happiness as a doctor is Radiology, Opthamology, Anaesthesiology, and Dermatology. I wanted to do surgery (and, on some level, I still do). Pretty sure that "road" is singular. ;)</p>
<p>The thing that stopped me is just money. I'm okay with not being rich, but I'm not okay with the kind of life that medicine would have me lead. There's a lot in between making big bucks and struggling to get by. Don't need the former, but the latter won't make me happy. After paying my way through med school, I would have been about $200k in debt. After residencies and internships, in which you make $15/hour (even at 80 hour weeks, that's $60k/year), the debt would have ballooned to over a quarter million. Eeek! Top that with what I wanted to do - something like brain surgery - and my malpractice premiums would have been well over 6 figures a year. </p>
<p>The other thing is that doctor's salaries are declining in terms of real money and adjusted for inflation. Malpractice goes up, salaries go down, HMOs keep requiring a doctor to see more and more patients (and keep dropping what they will reimburse for care) - it's a bad state. Many doctors told me not to go into the profession. Some will say to not go into it for money anymore; others will say to not go into it for status; and most of them will just say to not go into it because the quality of life is so bad. </p>
<p>So... I woke up and realized that it would make me miserable to practice medicine like that. Just my personality - I would want to give the best care to someone, not the care that some 22-year-old with a degree in poli sci tells me to give, based on the target spending of the HMO. All that to have a 75% chance of being sued during my career.</p>
<p>If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I'm in law school and contemplating either patent law or health law - could really see myself either defending malpractice or lobbying for malpractice reform. </p>
<p>About lawyer's salaries: y'all are all wrong. Pick up a copy of PR's guide to law schools or the USNews for graduate schools. The back of US News has a data section. As a part of that, they have the median 50% salary range of private practice attorneys from each law school, as they start out.</p>
<p>The highest of those numbers is $125k/year. The top 25 or so law schools will have their kids making that coming out of law school (or after a year of judicial clerkships; clerks tend to be very talented and can command the top jobs). Once you meander out of the top 10 or so law schools, you'll notice that the bottom 25% of private practice grads are making about $60k/year. Move on down through the ranks... and when you get to fourth-tier schools, the median 50% of private practice attorneys are making $30k-$60k/year.</p>
<p>You don't go from small firms to big firms. That's actually really hard to do; the reverse is easier. Mostly, you make the associate's salary coming out of school, which varies by firm size and location. Big NYC or Chicago firms pay their starting associates $125k/year; some specialities (tax LLMs, JD/MBAs, or patent) might get a bonus on top of that. Smaller firms pay maybe $60k/year. Rural firms will pay less, as the cost of living is less.</p>