Am I crazy to want to become a doctor?

[Anonymous]

You may want to talk to an admissions offcer at a medical school about your background and your desire to attend medical school and get their impression of your ability to get in. Med schools want to ensure their investment in you will pay off.

[Anonymous]

Married to a doctor. He would say don't do it. Not enough time to really be with patients, a crazy amount of loans to repay unless you are wealthy to begin with.

What about nurse practitioner?

[Anonymous]

Hell no.

[Anonymous]

Take an MCAT practice test - a real one, not one of the online ones, to see if you still really want to go to medical school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Married to a doctor. He would say don't do it. Not enough time to really be with patients, a crazy amount of loans to repay unless you are wealthy to begin with.

What about nurse practitioner?

I would think something like this would be more practical.

[Anonymous]

You've still got 30 years of work ahead of you so you are not totally crazy. Not at all. But since you also already have kids just realize that once you start down this road you might not have much time for them. Something to think about.

Med schools are competitive. Talk to one and see what you would have to do to qualify for admission. You'll have to see if this is even doable.

[Anonymous]

Could you become a PA or a nurse?

[Anonymous]

How about becoming and EMT or EMR? If you currently like your career you could do EMT work on a volunteer or part-time basis.
I had a friend who tried to go to medical school in his mid-30's. He did not get accepted. Maybe he applied to schools that were too selective or maybe his age was a deciding factor for the schools. I don't know.

[Anonymous]

We have a friend who did this. He was 37 and had 2 kids in elementary school. He had a supporting wife who was able to support the family while the dad went to public med school. I am guessing they used up much of their savings to pay for this. He is now 40 and in 2nd year of med school. It took a while to take pre-reqs and study for MCATS and apply for med school. He will be minimum 45 years old when he finishes residency, most likely 46 or 47 if he specializes. I think they figure he will make a very good living after he is done and he will be able to pay for kids' colleges and save for retirement.

I do think you need money to do this, whether it is family money, savings or a spouse who is a high earner. I don't know exactly how much his wife makes but I'm guessing 200k or so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Could you become a PA or a nurse?

+1. My sister is a general surgery PA and made the career switch to go back to school at 32. She LOVES it and feels incredibly fulfilled. All she does is talk about colons all day.

If that's your thing, it's doable.

[Anonymous]

You'll want to do one of the post bacc programs that does all of the classes in one year and also helps you place into med school - goucher has one in Baltimore. I have thought about it too - I'm 39 - went into business instead and regret it - I have thought being a speech language pathologist might scratch the itch with less schooling

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are crazy.

Don't do it unless you want to do a very lucrative speciality.

And even then you probably shouldn't do it.

I was thinking "maybe if you want to do plastics?" but even then, probably not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You'll want to do one of the post bacc programs that does all of the classes in one year and also helps you place into med school - goucher has one in Baltimore. I have thought about it too - I'm 39 - went into business instead and regret it - I have thought being a speech language pathologist might scratch the itch with less schooling

This program is $38K (tuition only). Plus the loss of income and living expenses and retirement savings. Then tuition at any area private medical school in the US is about $75K-85K/year x 4 years (again plus living expenses and loss of income and loss of retirement savings).
State schools are cheaper but they are often more difficult to get in to as a result.

My husband is a doctor (15 years out of residency) and makes around $300K at age 44. Contrary to popular belief which states that physicians makes a ton of money, this is typical (in fact high) salary for all but the highest paying fields of medicine. I would not want to be starting to pay off a $350K+ school debt in my mid to late
40's at a starting salary of $200K (or much less in some fields). It really doesn't make sense to pay that much in schooling (plus the loss of income for 3 to 10 years of residency) if your career is only going to be 20 years long at the other end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you volunteer as a hospital scribe? It might stoke your appetite or extinguish it.

Worked in hospitals for 20y. What in the heck is a volunteer scribe?!?!?

If you are 100% committment to doing medicine, look at NP or PA programs. Much less debt in a shorter amount of time, but will allow you to work independently.

[Anonymous]

I would not go to medical school at this age (I'm 35). It was so much work. I did have one friend in her mid 30's in my medical school class and another friend in her mid-30's in my residency class. I don't know how they did it. If I had to redo things, I would probably be a PA. You get to do essentially the same thing without so much schooling and debt.