<p>How much do top residencies in internal medicine pay?
Also how much do top fellowships in cardiology pay?</p>
<p>even the "top" residences pay rather poorly, I'm afraid, especially considering the hours you have to put in. From what I've heard, when averaged over the hours worked the salary is not much more than minimum wage. Basically, medicine is a great profession but if you're only in it for the money (I'm not saying you are) you will be sorely disappointed.</p>
<p>maaaaaan.......</p>
<p>I want to be a cardiologist (I know you've heard that), but thing is my parents are not well of financially..I'm interested in medicine etc. but if I have to study for 12-14 years after high school for it then I expect to get paid well..And I'm not in it ONLY for the money, I know I can be dedicated to the coursework.</p>
<p>Anyways, can I get some figures...like per year?</p>
<p>$42K is about the average for residents in general, and my understanding is that the spread is not very large.</p>
<p>Don't forget, that comes out to less than $30K when you incorporate taxes.</p>
<p>Well, it's not quite as bad as minimum wage, not now at least since they instituted the 80 hours/week cap for house officers.</p>
<p>Most places I've found (just google medical resident salaries) are in the 41k - 44k range for first year residents (PG - 1). Even Harvard affiliated programs (since every one is always worried about prestige are only in the $46k range, which hardly makes up for the cost of living in Boston) Since 80 hours a week is 4160 hours a year (but you do get vacation time), it means most places are about $10/hour. But of course, if you were only working 40 hours a week, it would be the equivalent of a $20/hour job. </p>
<p>Where I would caution saying that medicine is not for the money is not in the pay a resident receives, but rather in the amount of work it takes to reach the 6 figure salaries that physicians make after completing their residencies. If you are looking to become a doctor b/c you like the idea of making 200k (which most general surgeons will) then I can assure you that there are about a million other ways to make that much in a year that are all a million times easier than medical school and residency and the life of a doctor.</p>
<p>From what I gathered Interventional-Invasive Cardiologists make about 300k+, I would rather have the financial security, good later life etc...</p>
<p>Anyways, is this the course for an Interventional-Invasive Cardiologist?
4 yrs undergrad
4 yrs med school
3 yrs internal med residency
3 yrs cardiology fellowship - sub-specialization
1 yr interventional-invasive cardiology training- super sub-specialization</p>
<p>edit: hey Bigredmed, do you know one of these other "million ways"?</p>
<p>Investment banking. Management consulting. Venture capital. Certain types of law. Airline pilots (okay, this one is a pretty big stretch). President of the United States. High-level computer programming (think stock options). Engineering followed by wise investment. Heck, garbage collecting straight out of high school followed by wise investment.</p>
<p>All of those (except pilot and President) make a lot MORE than $200K, at least at the upper end/after several years or working your way up.</p>
<p>And you're missing some years after that. You need to work with a private practice group for a few years before you make partner (just like in a law firm), even after all that training.</p>
<p>Medicine isn't just "Don't do it for the money". It's "Nobody sane would do it for the money."</p>
<p>Don't tell me that all you premeds aren't expecting to get paid...</p>
<p>If I didn't go into medicine, I know I'd feel like I'm missing a big part of myself or something but I know I'm doing it for both the medicine and the money..</p>
<p>Most students in my position are on track to have six figure compensation packages a year from now. I'm shelling out huge bucks for the foreseeable future, instead.</p>
<p>1.) I will make more money than most American families as a doctor.
2.) I will make less money as a doctor than I would have made doing the "natural" career path given my college major, etc.
3.) I will make less money as a doctor than doctors do now, thanks to the rise of controlled medical spending.</p>
<p>2.) I will make less money as a doctor than I would have made doing the "natural" career path given my college major, etc.</p>
<p>Can you please explain #2?
What is your college major?</p>
<p>I'm an economics major from Duke. Given my GPA, etc, had I been pursuing that career path (say management consulting), at any given point I'd be making more money along that track than I would as a doctor. I.e. fifteen years from now, my compensation in management would be greater than my salary as a physician. Twenty years from now, same, etc.</p>
<p>This sucks......anyways, this may be off the topic but: does your GPA play a role in getting you a job say in management or even engineering?
What I mean is that someone gets bachelors in EE then would going out and getting a job also consist of showing your GPA?</p>
<p>Speaking of economics, let's give our first lesson in money:</p>
<p>Economics 1: Discounting</p>
<p>Say a garbageman makes $50,000, works for one year, and retires. Say a medical student goes to college for four years, medical school for four years, residency for three years, works for one year, and then retires. Assume tuition and living expenses are zero, for simplicity. How much money does the now-doctor have to make in order to be EVEN with the garbageman?</p>
<p>Answer: Not $60,000. See, the thing about money is that because of interest, it's worth more if you can make it early. You take that money and invest it, and the extra year you've gained is worth quite a bit. Conservatively, let's give him 7% return on his stocks (a reasonable number, I think), and we see that our friend the medical student has to make $105,000 to be even with our friend the garbage collector.</p>
<p>Imagine how huge the gap would have to be if the garbage collector were working all through our medical student's career! Or imagine how much larger it would be if our medical student was accumulating debt, which doubles the interest differential!</p>
<p>Yes, your GPA matters in job hunting, at least somewhat.</p>
<p>The good news is that you are competing against other people in your field. In med school, engineers with their low GPAs compete, often, against Sociology majors with their relatively high GPAs.</p>
<p>At least in the job market, engineers compete (more or less) against other engineers.</p>
<p>So I've just used my econ major nonsense to calculate the "net present value" of the various careers. I assumed a 7% interest rate and used average salary computations from salary.com. They stopped working at 65 (the last few years matter nothing anyway), and bonuses were only included for corporate finance (since I don't think other jobs have huge bonuses).</p>
<p>A net present value is: take the money they'll earn over their lifetimes. How much of a present sum (say, a lottery) would they have to earn to have an equal value of money, when you take time into account?</p>
<p>Auto Mechanic: $720K
Chemical Engineer: $740K
Corporate Attorney: $1 M
Interventional Cardiologist: $1.12 M
Corporate Finance: $2.6M (<-- A slightly higher version of this number is where I think I would probably be, since I'd spend a few years in investment banking first.)</p>
<p>Don't forget, doctors work much longer hours than the others, so the fact that they make 10% more than a corporate attorney is a REALLY bad deal.</p>
<p>Finally, you should expect doctor salaries to continue to drop over time, possibly quite severely.</p>
<p>NPV Family Practioner: $900,000</p>
<p>All values from zip code 27708.</p>
<p>I've made a new thread about this, 'cause I think it's really that important.</p>