[Lionheart]

At UCLA, the stereotype rings true of a majority of Asians being pre-med. With the cost of medical school exceeding $200,000. skyrocketing malpractice insurance, 80 hour weeks, 26 hour shifts, and grueling amount of schooling, I REALLY want to know: why are you going into medicine?

To help people?

To make money?

For your parents?

The prestige?

I'm curious to know your responses.

[noquiero]

Not in college yet, but I'm adamant I'm going to be a doctor.

I'm mostly a people person and I like learning about how humans can f-up their bodies and how people save them so instantaneously. I'm aiming for Pediatrics because I love kids. They're so fun

Helping people is just a thing I do. Parents are pretty happy with it. Haha.

[starstrewnnight]

I am not an aspiring doctor but I was watching a documentary called "Doctors' Diaries" and it gives you a very good look on the journey of becoming a doctor. If you have netflix, you can watch it instantly online. Here's the summary:


"Tracing two decades in the lives of seven doctors, this fascinating two-part NOVA show reveals the details of their experiences, starting with their first day at Harvard Medical School in 1987 and leading to their lives in 2008. From being green med students to polished professionals balancing a demanding career with family, these physicians talk openly about their lives, offering a rare look at their many inimitable challenges."

Half of them ended up divorced :[

[tarantula390]

To be honest, I don't actually know why im doing it.. I'm a 2nd year undergrad med student in Australia
being in med school, you meet people (yes, mostly asians lol) who're doing it for all sorts of reasons.. including the ones youve listed there

I used to think it'd be awesome to have lots of money and power becoming a doctor... used to be a pharmacy student, but then the endpoint of every treatment regime seemed to be "refer to doctor", so.. i wanted to be the doctor
but theres so much more now than just that, everything's seems to be really interesting and enjoyable.. both the sciencey side and the clinical side despite the fact that you work your ass off every step of the way...

on a side note, med school in australia is almost fully subsidised by the government... which is unhelpful for your cause =/

[SOCKBUNNY]

You know how little kids love saying "when I grow up I'm gonna be...." Yea, I don't think I ever said that. I never really thought about it. I remember in middle school, my mom went through health issues and my dad told me a few times that I should get good grades and become a doctor. Being immature and easily annoyed when people tell me what to do, I remember brushing that off telling him I don't ever want to become a doctor.
And then, sophomore year of high school, I took a medical careers class to fulfill the graduation requirement for an occupational ed credit. And that got me really interested in medicine, in the things you can do. Funny thing is, that class contained mostly girls who wanted to go into nursing and work with babies. That really repelled the idea of nursing for me. That got me thinking, medicine is interesting... I might go there, but if I'm gonna do it, I want to go Big. Doctor is the Big thing. It's the first career I became interested in.
That summer I went back to Taiwan and went to a summer camp at one of the medical schools and it basically opened me to more things in medicine. And of course, the best part was, I got to see a real human cadaver!!!!! And touch it!!!!! (With gloves) After that, I started volunteering at the hospital and put more effort into academics. I was already a pretty good student before but with that goal in mind, it pushed me to work harder and load on AP courses and whatnot.
Wanting to be a doctor affected my college choice. I used to dread the idea of staying in-state for college, I really wanted to go to California and get some sunshine (not much sun here in the winter). I got in UCLA, my top choice, but in the end, I chose to stay in-state instead of paying 50k/yr for undergrad.
I'm going to start my freshman year soon (UW starts so late...) my major is undeclared. I have no idea what I want to major in (hopefully I don't end up the typical pre-med bio/chem major...) and honestly, lately, I've been wondering myself why I want to be a doctor. Because sometimes, it feels like I say I want to be a doctor because I'm so used to saying that now. Part of me is hanging on the to goal because it's helped to pushed me to work harder. I'd rather have an idea of maybe what I want to do than nothing at all. All I know is, if I do stick with it, it won't because of money. I never considered money. If I could really become a doctor, I'd work my ass off to pay off all debts then move to southeast asia and work for the really poor. If not there, I'd work in inner city hospital so I can see all sorts of weird people. So I guess part of me is choosing this career to satisfy my curiosity. I love seeing what kinds of weird people are out there lol.

My friend, who's really good at art, wants to be a doctor too. But she says that's not what she really wants, she would love to open up a art school and teach art, but she says being a doctor is a more stable job.
Another friend says she wants to be a doctor too, but she says it's not something she's passionate about, she talked a lot about for the money.

Haha, hopefully that's a satisfying response to your question
starstrewnnight thanks for the recommendation! I'm gonna try to watch that documentary. It's on the PBS website too http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/doctors/program.html

[Lionheart]

I appreciate the answers. I'd like to see the percentage of incoming freshmen who are pre-med who end up doing something else. I'd guess it's a fairly high percentage.

[remix441]

i want to be a doctor becuase of the money

[joogrlpekaun]

Haha the Asian pre-med thing is so true! I walk into class and you could almost make me believe that I've stepped into an alternate reality version of Asia where everyone speaks English.

I appreciate the answers. I'd like to see the percentage of incoming freshmen who are pre-med who end up doing something else. I'd guess it's a fairly high percentage.

I don't remember which school it was, but one of the schools I looked at when I was applying to colleges three years ago said their defection from pre-med-type majors was about one-third after just the first year. So yes, very high, at least at some schools. It's common to purposely try to make the first two years "weeders" so that the students who can't make it will decide to do something else after a year or so and the classes will get smaller.

A lot of the pre-med people I know are doing it because they're good at science courses, didn't know what else to do with themselves and pre-med gave them a clear goal with a career at the end of the tunnel, and knew their parents would one hundred percent approve and help them pay for school. For example, I know a girl who's very good at chemistry, but really wanted to major in History. Her parents freaked when she brought up the subject and told her they would cut her loose if she didn't go into something more pre-med friendly, so she ended up majoring in Biochem. The same thing happened to a friend of mine when she told her parents she wanted to major in English, only she ended up in Computer Science because her parents gave her the option of either pre-med, engineering, or comp sci. A few people have openly admitted that it's for money, but I haven't heard that reason explicitly mentioned very often; usually prestige or stability is the key word, while money lurks in the background. Some of them I know actually really love the idea of becoming a doctor for its own sake, but sadly, at least based on my experience over the past three years, they seem to be the minority rather than the majority. The level of enthusiasm in the classes I have with mostly pre-med students is generally pretty low because few students would even want to study the material in those courses if they didn't have to as part of their road to med school.