If medical school is just as hard as they say it is, what happens to people if they don’t get accepted or achieve being a doctor?
You become one of the 60,000 biology major undergrads who graduated that year looking for an alternative. I’ve known people who landed low level lab positions, gotten teaching credentials to be middle or HS science teachers, applied to masters or PhD programs, and one who went to work in a fitness club. A few may move into some kind of scientific writing job. Maybe a science museum might employ a few. Many go into other health care related professions (some requiring more education) or go to work for companies that are vendors for health care products. Some people just strike out in completely unrelated directions and look for entry level jobs in any industry.
Every pre-med need a Plan B.
Plan B is another career you would OK doing if you don’t accepted into med school. Plan B is different for every individual. It might be in another healthcare filed, or it could be something completely unrelated to medicine.
If you’re a rising senior in high schoo or a rising freshman in college, with the intention of going to med school, your odds of actually making it to med school are about 10%. So you need a plan B since odds are clearly indicating you’re going to need it.
About 75% would-be premeds are weeded out or give up or find other tracks they like better. Out of the 25% remaining, some may be blocked if their school doesn’t write them a committee letter and all in all 60% won’t get into any med school. 60% of 25% I round up to 10%.
A whole lot of these students are biology majors, which is why there’s a glut of them on the job market. Other majors may not have intrinsically better professional prospects but since there are fewer of them, they may have better odds of standing out and aren’t necessarily applying for the same positions. (In addition, if you’re a history or anthropology or biochemistry major, the assumption isn’t that you’re applying for a job because you didn’t get into med school.)
If what you’re passionate about and really good at is biology, then major in biology. BUT don’t major in biology because it seems like the “logical” track toward something else that’s unlikely to materialize.
From those I’ve seen (meaning students from my high school who head pre-med but don’t get there), most actually realize it earlier on (even if they apply) and start looking around for other things they want to do while in college. Some end up in medical fields (technicians, PA, pharmacy, PT, etc) and others head a totally different direction (chef, geology, business, law, etc).
Those who are truly driven use the time after graduating to see what was wrong with their application (asking frank questions), fix it if possible (usually by adding things to it), and reapply, often successfully.