Switch To Accounting from Medicine

College Majors Business Major
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<p>MightyMouse, just because someone doesn’t have first-hand experience with a field doesn’t mean that one can’t fathom what it might entail. As for my sister-in-laws’s board scores, all I said is I don’t remember her taking them. Don’t make it to be something I don’t get because I do get it. I have learned a few things in my 55 years on this planet.</p>

<p>While you are correct that people change majors, there is a big difference between changing from accounting to finance because you find accounting boring or from engineering to pre-law because you don’t like calculus. The reason leaving medical school is different is because it doesn’t pass the smell test. Medical school is seen as a dream and you would be seen as giving up on a dream. And I don’t mean this to say that reasons may not be valid.</p>

<p>Now getting to a more personal level and why I answered your original post. I went to get a PhD in accounting because I enjoyed accounting but found the work boring. I passed half of my comprehensive exam and felt overwhelmed. I didn’t challenge myself enough to pick up the pieces and work through it. Had a family and found my subsequent accounting jobs boring and took some IT courses to augment my background and now am in software QA with an accounting-related product. It’s not a bad life but I still wonder what could have been.</p>

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<p>geo your sister went to med school in the dominican republic. using that justification is like telling someone who wants to transfer from duke to a state school, “you are running way because you are struggling”, yet that person who is saying that went to UW-Stout. You are comparing apples to oranges here.</p>

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<p>Thank you for missing the point, bschoolswag. The point was if a person from a state school can get a job, then someone from Duke can get a job.</p>

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<p>“just because someone doesn’t have first-hand experience with a field doesn’t mean that one can’t fathom what it might entail. As for my sister-in-laws’s board scores, all I said is I don’t remember her taking them. Don’t make it to be something I don’t get because I do get it. I have learned a few things in my 55 years on this planet.” </p>

<p>Geo - I apologize if you interpreted my statements as a personal attack as that was not my intention; it’s difficult to gauge someone’s understanding of a field if they are personally not in it. In regards to giving up on a dream, I do agree with you, but med school isn’t the only profession that is viewed as a dream. Many pre-law students hope to be hot-shot trial lawyers making 1 million + as partner; accounting majors hope of making partner at a big4 firm; software-engineering majors dream of creating the next google or facebook; finance majors hope to be billionaire founders of hedge-funds; artists dream of being the next picasso and staying alive long enough to reap the benefits; architects aspire to be the next Frank Gehry; organic chemists and pharmaceutical majors hope of curing cancer, etc. Most aspire to be the best and brightest only to eventually aspire to being able to put a roof over their head and food on the table. Rather than changing my major after struggling in say engineering 101, I gave an earnest effort towards pursuing a career. Perhaps I’m going through a quarter-life crisis, perhaps this isn’t for me, it’s something I am currently reflecting on. I truly appreciate your candid response as to why you responded to this thread, from my naive viewpoint, if you truly love your wife and kids, I’m sure the path that you followed was worth it. I too wonder if I choose an alternate path whether or not in 20 years I’ll constantly fantasize over what my life could have been. I don’t consider myself to be a quitter, I take slight solace in the fact that I was able to make it this far, but I am also a rational person and I have to weigh the pro’s and con’s of sinking myself into 300K worth of debt. The balance of rationalization and dreams is something I have not learned to manage yet, but hopefully within the next couple of weeks I will. I’m going to take greyhaired’s advice and ask myself if this is something my heart still truly wants and hopefully within a couple of weeks come to a conclusion, thanks for your input - MightyMouse</p>

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<p>Shannon-Entropy - My reasons were presented in subsequent posts, while your comment was clever, if you truly want to know why research the future of the field, the residency application process, the program director’s survey published by the NRMP, the number of residency programs available in the United States, the licensing requirements for being a board certified physician, etc. Just so you know, there are only 25,000 jobs for graduating MD’s and approximately 78,000+ graduates applying per year (DO’s can apply to MD positions increasing that number by a couple thousand at least). Every year the number of jobs increases by a couple hundred but the number of graduates increases by a couple thousand. The reason is that the number of jobs are capped by the US Government to ensure quality training.</p>

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<p>MightyMouse (Saturday morning 10:30 when I was a kid; great cartoon), thank you for the apology and I ask that you accept mine too for being too harsh. When I look back at my PhD program, I found myself looking for reasons not to continue rather than for reasons to continue. That is the reason I said “running away.” I didn’t see it as that at the time, but looking back, I let my frustrations get the best of me. But I did leave (quit) the program. I just want to make sure you don’t do the same.</p>

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<p>Geo - Apology accepted :slight_smile: </p>

<p>After reading the third paragraph of your last post I understood where you were coming from. Again, I appreciate it. Viewing our similar situations through your eyes provides a unique vantage point I may not have been able to see on my own. As for being “too harsh”…I could use a couple doses to develop some thicker skin! It’ll come in handy for either the wards or accounting interviews. Best of luck to you and your family - MightyMouse</p>

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<p>Thank you, MightyMouse. My first son starts college in less than two weeks. Even though he will be very close to home, it still gets me a little shaky at times.</p>

<p>Good luck with your decision. And it you need a 2x4 over the head, just ask…ha!!!</p>

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<p>This is a pretty tough situation. If you were in a PhD program and the question weren’t a financial one, I think everyone on this board would encourage you to rough it out at med school. However, because you are taking on a large amount of debt, your situation is much hairier. Crunch the numbers and figure out what your leverage and interest coverage would be coming out of med school (as an MD and as a healthcare consultant/whatever other job you could get) and as a CPA (1st bachelors + med school + 2nd bachelors + Macc). In a worst case scenario, you would find that even on the financially prudent CPA track, you would still have too much debt relative to your free cash flow. It’s unlikely that this is the case, but your only financially viable option might be finishing med school and becoming an MD.</p>

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<p>MightyMouse I read all of your thread and you’re so intelligent and you phrase your responses so beautifully…it’s heartbreaking reading you’re not going to do what you originally planned.</p>

<p>(lol, I can’t believe I missed the part where you said you’re a published poet, that explains the well formed responses.)</p>

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<p>Well well well…someone has a little crush on MightyMouse, eh</p>

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<p>I just wanted to say thanks to all who contributed to this thread and provided me with insights and opinions that helped me reflect on my situation at both a rational and aspirational level. I also truly appreciate all the positive, negative and sarcastic comments for lifting me up, thickening my skin and making me laugh. I have decided to continue pursuing my medical degree. Throughout the past month, I have researched the fields of accounting and finance and gained quite an appreciation for those who are pursuing such careers. The amount of work you must put into the classroom, organizations, applying for internships, networking, etc. is daunting to say the least. I commend you all for the effort you made or are currently making to become professionals in the accounting and finance industry. While there has been much talk this past decade about corporate greed and creative accounting, I have noticed the positive impact these careers have in our society and hope you will make a positive difference in whatever area speaks to you</p>

<p>Best of luck to all of you, both professionally and personally</p>

<p>Thanks again - MightyMouse</p>

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<p>Thank you MightyMouse. That was so beautiful :(</p>

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<p>MightyMouse, best wishes for your studies.</p>

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<p>I’ve read the entire thread, and I know that its 3 weeks+ old, and dead but I have to input here as I feel the beating heart of the discussion – and I can’t relate entirely, but I’m in a related predicament. </p>

<p>I always wanted to study chemistry (and then possibly medical school or a M.S in materials science ever since I started high school, but at the time, my study skills were very poor, so I almost always earned high grades, but I took the easy way out in college and majored in my second choice major which was English Education – teaching middle school/high school English and in my senior year I interned at an inner city school and the disrespect of the kids, their potty mouths, their rebelliousness, lack of respect for the teacher was atrocious. I was always the honors kid and revered my teachers, so I never knew or understood why anyone would disrespect a teacher. Hence, I could not relate to my students. I still had scholarship money left so I majored in accounting, and did well, but then I feel into a depression. During my last few classes, international business, advanced accounting, and cornerstone, I started getting Cs and Ds and I’d only once received a C in my HS/COllege life. I fell deeper into a depression, and I didn’t finish my accounting degree – here’s where I can relate mightyMouse! Except, I quit because of my ailing grades, and you didn’t…and plus it isn’t medical school I quit, just a B.S. in accounting :confused: But, I can see that we’re all glad for you!! keep us updated on your progress and your 80-90 hrs of studying :slight_smile: </p>

<p>So, I took the next few years to find myself spiritually, worked in bookeeping for 9 months and with my Dad’s small tax business for a few months, and realized how accounting and taxes BORED ME TO TEARS!!! I’d be completing compilations and tax returns for LLCs and I’d had to struggle to stay awake as though I was sitting in at some boring, irrelevant religious sermon. </p>

<p>Anyway, one summer when I was thinking about leaving bookeeping and not finishing my accounting degree, one of my friends called me up and told me that a small private school was hiring teachers, and it was a religious school so I thought the kids would be well-behaved and I had no other options so I took it on a whim. Long story short – I’ve been there for 4 years teaching middle school, and I really dont know how – those teen-angst kids, although they’re good kids,they’re still teenagers, and I can’t stand it when they get into their teen agnst moods and scream “I’m ruining their life” because I asked them to take a seat while in class. Lol. I don’t know what it is with teenagers, but anyway, I’m thinking of going to medical school. Sadly, because I work at private school, I make a little more than what the poverty line is for a family of 4 – I live with my family, but I also help support them. No complaints, I love my family, but I don’t see how I can financially make it to medical school at this point since I’ll probably be supporting them until my younger brother has graduated college – he’s turns 18 this month :confused: </p>

<p>Sooooo, I can either finish off my accounting degree, while working at the school or start studying pre-med. </p>

<p>However, I don’t see myself studying pre-med while working at the school. Frankly, the school demands too much of my time. I start work at 7:30, my normal quitting time is 3:45, but I often don’t leave until 4 or 5, plus we have conferences 2 Saturdays out of the year, and parent conferences before or after school 4x a year. With 19 kids – that 19 times four conferences!!! </p>

<p>Or…I could get a job in accounting where I’ll make a lot more, and save up enough to support my family in medical school. But that means I’ll have to spent the next year (2-3 semesters) finishing my B.S. in accounting and then get a job in the field. But I don’t like accounting, that’s why I remained in teaching for so long, on bad days, I often thought of taking up a bookkeeping job, but I couldn’t fathom sitting in front of a computer and basically bean counting all day. I like math, I aced all my math classes, except for 1 or 2 where I received Bs – I really enjoyed trigonometry, algebra, pre-calc in high school, and statistics in college… but I agree with what people have been saying on this forum – accounting is not really math, it’s more arithmetic, it’s about formulas and solving problems, it’s more like physics. So I get bored with accounting. </p>

<p>I really want medical school to be in my future, and although I have other issues to resolve like making my study skills stronger, which I can work on, I think my biggest problem at the moment is finances. How can I support my family while I’m studying? I’d really appreciate your suggestions, thoughts, and insight, or any things I missed along my thought process of resolving my problem. I’m glad I found these boards! I’m looking forward to your responses :)</p>

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<p>EmeraldPen - I hope you are still checking this thread periodically and this message find you well. As you have stated, it appears that funding medical school is your biggest concern. If that’s the case, it’s not a problem. Financial aid, both federal and private, are more than willing to give loans to medical students because its a relatively safe bet that they will be able to pay you back. Loans will account for dependents, etc, however I think they will only cover necessities of dependents, not tuition money for children or something similarly egregious. Gaining acceptance into medical school will prove to be the most difficult step, especially as a non-traditional student. If accounting makes you incredibly bored as you stated multiple times, I’m not sure doing it for a few years to save up money will be a good route to pursue. Also, I’m not sure if you have taken a look at the rest of this forum, but obtaining an accounting job to make your plan feasible seems difficult to accomplish in just a couple of years, especially since the highest paying jobs seem to be at the big4 firms that recruit mostly younger applicants.</p>

<p>I do not intend to be discouraging, but if medical school is something you truly want, you are going to have to make time to study for the additional classes while working; you are going to be putting in that much time and energy just in med school alone so to be able to do it successfully as an applicant is something you can use to your advantage during an interview or secondary application. </p>

<p>Finally, I would strongly think about whether you wanted to attend medical school at this stage of your life, especially with obligation with your family. If finances are your greatest concern, this may not be the best path for you. While medicine does offer a high salary, it is not attained for quite some time. After you finish your bachelors degree and gain acceptance to medical school, you will have to go to school for 4 years and take out 200K+ for tuition/living expenses/etc. After you graduate, you will apply for an internship and residency; based upon what specialty you chose to practice, you are looking at a minimum of 3 years and a maximum of 8 years. During this internship/residency you will be paid, however the average starting salary as a rookie doctor is about 50K with 1-2K increase per year. You won’t actually start to earn a doctors salary of 150K+ a year until at least 7 years after you start med school; and with all of that interest accruing and the needs of your family, it’s going to be very tight financially. </p>

<p>If it’s something you truly want, start scheming for ways to make it possible, best of luck to you and your family - MightyMouse</p>

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<p>Funny, the last time I was on the site was the last message I sent to you and then I load up the business section and there you are. Hope everything is going well for you.</p>

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<p>@mightymouse thanks for ure response! Uve been very helpful :slight_smile: sry for the shortened words but I’m typing on my smart phone:/ </p>

<p>Just an update I’m currently studying for a teacher certification test for biology grades 6 to 12 since I took two semesters of bio in college - I’m hoping I can get a job teaching biology (a high need area) while, as u suggested start taking one or two premed classes like chem or physics and – meanwhile saving some money for my family. So that’s good enough for now I guess besides I like biology and at least I’m heading one step closer to my goals in doing what I love to do :)</p>

<p>And ure right I don’t see myself in accting so it doesn’t really. Make sense for me to finish my degree :confused: </p>

<p>How’s med school going for u?</p>

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<p>Oh and btw, I just reread ure post – the reason I want to go to medical school is not because I want a drs salary - its because I’ve always liked science and want to study something challenging - from the beginning it wasn’t my intention to stay in teaching. </p>

<p>When I found these boards and found ppl competing for accceptance into ivy league schools and I was so glad and so jealous lol :slight_smile: it was always my intention to attend grad school and I can’t think of anything if like to do more than medicine -i figure - ull do it if u love it and I really like scientific problem solving and inquiry – so I will def be scheming!! Thx for ure advice!</p>

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<p>The posts are fairly far along but I’ll add my 2 cents. You are having academic difficulties and once they start its hard to make them up because so much of medical education is cumulative. To be honest, the grades in the first year or two of medical school are not nearly as important as the grades in the last two years, so not all is lost. If you do well clinically you will be fine!</p>

<p>Some people take a year off or repeat a year- sure, you’re not going to get into a derm residency at the Brigham if you go that route but there are still plenty of options. One of my classmates nearly flunked out his first year and now he’s the head of cardiology at a well known midwestern hospital.</p>

<p>They aren’t your only choices, but why be negative about family medicine or pediatrics? Some of the finest people are know work in each field, and you are completely mistaken about the job market- this country is facing a huge shortage that is currently being filled by international medical school grads. Primary care residency slots go unfilled regularly.</p>

<p>Bottom line: if you still want to do medicine, you can. If you don’t want to do it, give it up and do something else, whether its accounting or whatever. But don’t stay in medicine unless you really want it, not because its going to be some $$ burden (the mean salary for primary care MDs last year was about $185,000), because that will work itself out. The reason to get out now is that its grueling and emotionally demanding training and lifestyle and if you don’t have the desire, its not worth those “costs,”</p>