I disagree with this mindset. I’m a older med student who is pregnant and I feel well supported. It is certainly doable and the eventual pay and flexibility as a physician is worth it. Most female doctors become mothers- why limit yourself so early?? She can finish all her training before having kids and work part time making good money |
Would pick the same career but with no kids. |
No, it actually worked out well. I’m a partner at a mid-size regional law firm (about 150 attorneys) and I have a huge amount of flexibility. It doesn’t always work out that way if there is some unexpected client fire drill, but that doesn’t happen all that often. I am an M&A lawyer, which I don’t think people generally associate with work life balance. It has been surprising how well it works out 90% of the time. The key for me is not being shy about using my flexibility to my advantage. As long as I’m productive and my clients are getting their needs met, no one cares where I am or when I do the work. |
Another tax attorney here. I'm so glad I chose this path! |
This made me lol |
DP, but I had no idea who most of my teachers married, so I had no idea if they married “well” or not. Silly argument. |
I don’t know. Let’s say you decide to be an NP instead, and you make $120k/yr instead of $180k/yr (avg salaries on Glassdoor). Nurse practitioner school is 2 years instead of four, so that puts you up $240k on the med student. Then you have 3-6 years of residency plus fellowship making about $45k/yr. Let’s say 3 years here. 3 x ($120k-$45k)= $225k. Then the med student has paid an average of ~$200k vs ~$50k for NP school. Let’s say that’s a difference of a little over $200k to pay back if you include interest. Now we have $240k + $225k + $200k = $665k. But now the physician is making more money... If both are working 1/2 time, the physician outearns the NP by $30k/yr. ($60k vs $90k). So, that’s 665 \ 30 = 22 years after the physician gets her first job before the NP and the physician break even. Assuming they both started school at 25, they are 54 years old. In the next 13 years before retirement, the physician out earns the NP by a total of $390k. Over a lifetime. That’s not counting the additional hours in med school and residency OR the years of investing from ages 27-32 that are lost. If the NP saved 20% of her salary for those 5 years, that’s roughly $1.2 million at retirement age. If you want to go to med school, then go. But your motivation should be becoming a good physician, not getting a high paying part time job. The math just doesn’t work out. |
Yes that's what I've seen, too. Lots of management consultants who get recruited by clients. |
I'm not the one who posted the top, but this is such an unnecessarily harsh response. I also grew up with no financial knowledge and a single mom in poverty. Teachers looked like they had a wonderful life when I was in high school in the early 90's. They dressed well, brought lunches that looked delicious, always had cars to drive to work.Looking at them, I would have thought teaching was a great choice to go into. Thanks for calling me an idiot though. |
There are a few flaws in your argument. Where is NP school $50K? It's more like $150K at the DC/Baltimore area schools plus you need a BSN first. Also $120K for an NP salary is high. You're looking at more like $90K in the greater DC area. I've been job searching in this area and am familiar with actual salaries and not just glassdoor estimates. |
I'm the DP who posted that I'm not a teacher but understand this mindset and I agree. Neither of my parents went to college. My dad worked as a manager at a local bank and then got promoted to manage a region of branches, and I thought that was such a fancy, powerful job. My mom stayed home, we had Christmas presents, we went on vacations, etc. I had NO PERCEPTION of what "big law" was, consulting, finance, etc. My teachers had gone to school in my hometown, got college degrees, and lived in my town as teachers - as far as I knew it was a reasonable career perfectly within the range of 'middle class'. Honestly I fell into my career and completely "lucked out" that I ended up in a UMC salary living in a city like DC. The snobbery on this site can be astounding even after a decade in this city. People are not even aware of their own privilege, it's shocking. |
Yep, nursing school, especailly for NPs is quite expensive now, the 150k seems much more in line with what I have seen. The price has gone up dramatically. |
Then move. Look at the tuitions at multiple schools and apply to many places so that you have options. There is no reason to pay $75k/yr for NP school. And I don’t know what to tell you about your salary. If the Glassdoor estimates are significantly higher than what you are being offered, you should bring that up with your prospective employers. Either they aren’t offering you what you are worth, or there is some reason for the discrepancy. I did a quick google search and didn’t find any exact salaries listed, which makes me think there is room for bargaining here. |
Good grief. I'm giving you DC salaries and tuition costs because you're posting on a DC area message board. Sure, an NP could move to Montana and make more. But a physician could move there and make substantially more as well. (My husband is a physician and hospitals in rural America are always recruiting for big $$$). But the point remains. In the DC area, NP school is $150K+ and salaries are $90k (and jobs are scarce). And get back to me when you apply to 10 jobs, get one offer (after you're chosen over 20 other candidates) and you tell the hiring manager that you want $120K instead of $90K because that is what glassdoor tells you should be paid. ![]() ![]() I know what I"m talking about (as an NP, working with NPs, friends who are all NPs, etc). |
Ok. But it seems unfair to use national averages for physicians and DC specific for nurses. If we are talking about DC/Baltimore schools only, then medical school is $300k for four years. And the average physician salary is $120k. The numbers still hold. It’s not a good deal financially. |