Advice Needed: Daughter Torn Between AI Master's and Pre-Med
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Anonymous
These are very different fields. Generally, a good doctor has always wanted to be a good doctor, and there's not much that can dissuade them. So I'd be mindful of this kid not having that sense of mission. Also, if she's going into junior year and hasn't done any of the pre-reqs for a pre-med track, she's probably looking at another year of undergrad. As for CS, the current employment market is a little bleak. I don't think a Master's changes things too much in this environment. However, AI is the THING right now. If she can easily pick up a concurrent Masters in AI, it will be ka-ching for her. Right now, FAANG is poaching everyone they can in AI with absolutely ludicrous offers. Start Ups are humming. Venture capital has their wallets open. It is an incredibly lucrative field at this moment in time. |
Anonymous
| Does she want kids? Banking a bunch of money for the next 8 years or so sounds amazing. Whereas if she does medicine she’s going to be underwater for the next 8. The two paths put her in a really different spot as a 28 or 30 year wanting to have 3 kids. |
Anonymous
DP with a daughter. This is a really good point. Unfortunately it's really hard to get young people (or at least my young person) to think long term about family plans when they are only fixated on careers. |
Anonymous
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Maybe use AI do design platforms to help doctors analyze data.
Medicine is a calling- you really have to love it and love to talk about it all the time. If this is her, the, those extra 8 years don't feel like you're underwater, but are amazingly fun and fulfilling and you love the people you are learning with because they also talk about medicine all the time. Career wise, it's great for going part time and still raising your own kids. |
Anonymous
Not OP, but this was nice and reassuring to read. Thank you. |
Anonymous
Thanks for the advice. Just to clarify — the concurrent Master’s program would mean she completes her 4-year undergrad with both a BA and a Master’s degree in Computer Science, with a focus on AI. So the real choice she’s facing is: Finish with a BA + Master’s in CS (AI concentration) or Finish with a BA in CS + complete the Pre-Med requirements The latter, so she doesn't need to do a postbacc if she chooses medicine later on. Not much benefit to a combined master's in CS - she has the job offer in either case, after all. |
Anonymous
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Does she really want to be a physician? Treat patients?
How about bioinformatics? https://eit.org/scholars/graduate |
Anonymous
| I would have her do some gritty clinical work and see what she thinks of patient care, seems to me the fastest way to discern whether this or internship is a more attractive path. |
Anonymous
| My kid just graduated medical school and started residency and based on my kid's experience "if she doesn't like it, try a different path" suggestions are not realistic when it comes to medicine. It is incredibly difficult to become a doctor. |
Anonymous
This. |
Anonymous
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If medicine is a calling:
First, that Master degree really means very very little. Everyone knows it. So she can forget about it. Do whatever it’s needed for premed, clinical, research, publications, etc., while she is still on campus. Don’t take MCAT, she won’t have time. Go work for FANNG upon graduation. Take the MCAT while working for FANNG. Get it done. Then she can consider this one more time at that point. Do I really want to give up all this? She will probably get 200-300k package at FANNG. If she still wants to be a doctor, then go. At least that’s a well informed decision. |
Anonymous
She needs to talk to her ivy they will have detailed stats. Mine is premed at an ivy and they do very well but it is late to change course. 3.7 from an ivy leaves med school well in play but if she has not done genchem, orgo, or physics yet she will need a gap year because she needs biochem after those and then will be ready to take the mcat. Medicine, even low-paid primary care, makes 275k+, many specialty areas over 400k some are 600k+. The max salary is reached about 3 years into private or hospital-based practice, which of course follows 3-4 yrs Residency at 80k after 4 yrs med school (top ones have both need based and merit fellowships, and top ones are much more likely coming from an ivy). For fiscally disciplined individuals living off 80k is possible as well as starting some loan pay-back, then "max" salary 250-400-or more will be reached around age 33 and the odds of ever being out of a job are extremely rare as a physician. There is no guarantee tech/AI masters will lead to a job that makes over 275k and it may not ever make over 150k, and tech jobs are certainly not guaranteed for life. |
Anonymous
seconding. half of my mulitspecialty practice has been or is "part-time" (35-40 hrs as three 10 hr weekdays and half of one weekend day of rounds; fulltime is four 10 hr days and rotating half-weekend day rounds) for some part of their career. |
Anonymous
Residents have kids all the time now. Yes female residents. It became more common when I did it about 20 yrs ago. Quickly thinking of the first 8 females I know in medicine and still keep up with who are not in my practice or field but are in various fields either in my area or across the country, one is me. 1. one baby in residency, 2 after 2. one baby med school one in residency 3. one baby end of med school never could have more 4. three babies in residency (twins last) 5. one baby residency other 3 babies private practice 6. one baby med school 2 babies residency 2 babies once in private practice 7. 2 babies residency, one was her chief year 8. one baby residency 2 in private practice. All have 16-25yr olds now. A higher percentage of female residents have babies these days than back then. |
Anonymous
| ^keep in mind we made $30k as residents in the early 00s |