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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]All of the MDs should make more than these overpaid attorneys running around here.  Thinking of attorneys in large firms and independent financial regulatory agencies.[/quote]
And more than all of the hedge fund jerks too. [/quote]

Gov't lawyers top out at what 225-240k if you're at a financial regulator? How many drs do you know or do you see on this thread making less than 240k? The ones who've posted here making less than 240k all seem to work part time so presumably make about 1/2 of a regular salary. [b]I feel like you'd have to affirmatively TRY to be a dr. and make less than 250k -[/b]- like go part time, go to some underserved community clinic gig in the northeast etc. Though I do agree there's no reason for drs. to be making less than a quarter million.[/quote]
You don’t sound very familiar with salaries. Like at all. Underserved gigs are where they pay well. Tons of doctors in this area making less than $250 and working full time. What do you think pediatricians make?
Military drs top out at just under $200K (my husband is one in what would be extremely lucrative out of the military). So comparatively still making less than government lawyers. And, we’d love to get out.  Being general practice or pediatrics in the military is sometimes better pay than civilian, because their pay scale is based more on rank. Being one of the higher paid specialities is far less in the military. [/quote]
I just don’t agree with this at all. We’ll have to agree to disagree. Basically you’re saying if you didn’t choose a high paying specialty like surgery, you’re trying make under $250K?[/quote]

Basically -- yes. These numbers aren't a secret. No one is saying everyone has to be a surgeon. But if you affirmatively choose things like pediatrics or family med (and know that you are not ok moving to places like the Dakotas where you can choose those things and still make $$$ due to lack of supply; and know that you are from the northeast and will stay there), then yeah you are CHOOSING to make under 250k. You didn't have to be a surgeon as that skillset and that life isn't for everyone, but you could have just as easily gone done many many other higher paying roads -- anything from cardiology to nephrology to optho to many other things.[/quote]

You are clueless.  Like someone said MANY, probably most, drs are making less than 250.  Peds, internal med, family practice..are there areas of practice with the most physicians and they are making less than 250. Specialties have very limited spots for training.  If you want to make a million per yr as a spinal surgeon you better be in the top of your class and have some family connections.  [/quote]
+1
Not everyone can be in the specialities. Nor should they be. [/quote]

This. Family of drs. here and this "argument" comes up a lot. My sister went to the highest ranked med school among all of us -- UPenn -- usually ranks in the top 5. So for her and all of her classmates there, honestly it wasn't challenging at all to end up in a specialty; sure not everyone got there #1 choice specialty as that would depend on scores/boards etc. and frankly not everyone can be a surgeon or cardiologist, but if you were open about it, you COULD carve out your career in such a way that you would end up in a specialty and NOT end up in one of the lower paid primary care areas like peds, family med, or internal med (w/ no subsequent fellowship to make you a specialist - rather just doing IM and being a primary care doc).

So she is very unsympathetic to another sibling and several of our cousins (I went research track so no dog in this fight) -- who complain about salaries being low on the east coast + high student loan payments. She says the same types of things as the PP -- well you CHOSE to go into pediatrics etc. Reality is though for those going to regular med schools -- not top 5-10 in the country -- and working hard just to do average at those schools (so outside the top 10-15%), the vast majority of the residency spots are going to be in peds, family med, and internal med. The doors aren't wide open for you to be a cardiologist after your prestigious IM residency at a big name hospital just because you want to be. So yeah it's choices but it's also about your own abilities/grades/potential and the doors opened by your school and those doors do vary across schools. I think sometimes the people coming out of Hopkins, Penn, etc. for whom match is fairly easy as they write their own ticket just don't inherently get that -- because they and ALL of their classmates essentially wrote their own ticket. So I guess the lesson is -- if it's important to you/your kid to make $$$ and end up in a specialty, only go to med school if you can get into a top 20 because outside of that there are no "guarantees"; you can go to a lesser school, blow boards etc. out of the water and end up a nephrologist, but there's a better than even chance that you end up in the middle of the pack and in pediatrics.

But then -- isn't that what people say about law/b school -- only go if you're going to get into the very very top bc that's what "guarantees" the $$$ (as much as anything in life is a guarantee)?[/quote]

100% Disagree.  I know plenty who are in the coveted "specialties" who graduated from lower tier US med schools with some who actually "earned" their  med degrees overseas (Caribbean, India, Ireland, etc).  My own daughter graduated from MCV med school few years back and currently finishing up a Optho surgery fellowship at a coveted clinic.

[/quote]

I get what PP is saying and working in this space, I largely agree with "writing your own ticket" out of certain schools more than the rest.

Sure there are plenty of MCV grads and the like who get into optho etc. ,but it's not writing your ticket the way it is for Hopkins or Columbia or Harvard grads. Those at lower tier schools are working HARD to stay at the top to get those spots, whereas those at the top tier schools (some of which have no grades) are just not having to kill themselves the same way for the same spots. Don't believe me -- pull up a residency list from a top program in a top specialty. Guaranteed if that class has say 20 people (which is big for upper end specialties), at least 14 will be from ivys/UCSF/Hopkins/Mayo/etc. 5 will be from the "regular" med schools like MCV, UMDNJ or wherever, and 1 will be a foreign medical grad. And let's be real these programs are now having to think about diversity after years and years of all the residents in an entire class looking exactly the same; so then they use those 6 other spots to show some diversity as well . . . . I work in this space, yes it is more "strategic" than you think. I'm not saying your kid CAN'T go to MCV and end up a tippy top cardiologist, I'm just saying the road will be harder for that kid than the kid who went to Harvard and wants to be a tippy top cardiologist. Frankly more credit to your kid for rising to the top when the odds weren't all stacked in their favor.[/quote]

This is true for life in general, not specific to medicine.   Those working harder to get into top tier schools, be it law, medicine, athletics, etc will have an easier path to professional opportunities vs. those with lower schooling pedigree will have a rougher path..... [/quote]

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