I'm currently a freshman at a difficult 5-year math & CS program in some European country. For the past two months I've been contemplating switching to medicine/medical school but have a very hard time coming to a decision.
I applied to this math & CS-program due to my interest in research in computational neuroscience/machine learning. Unfortunately, the workload has been very high (60h/week inc. lectures) and I feel that I'm at the brink of a burnout. Simply put, grading here is quite non-lenient and I've lost most of my interest in pure mathematics. Having said this, things will probably become significantly easier and more interesting during the final 2 years of the program as I can specialize in CS/machine learning. Finally, while the program is very selective, it’s quite obscure internationally. Combine this with the non-lenient grading and I think I’d be at a major disadvantage applying to US PhD-programs. Basically, I don’t know if this path is realistic for me anymore.
On the other hand, my interest in medicine and neuroscience are significantly higher than pure math, but a little less than machine learning. I’m therefore considering switching to medicine as the workload is significantly lower (40h/week inc. lectures) and international reputation being much better (top 10 worldwide). In fact, the medical school is very well known in academic circles, and I could definitely do a PhD in neuroscience here as research is very good. If everything fails, I can still work as a physician which is something I’m interested in too. I do however feel like I’d be wasting my “talents” by going into medical research instead of machine learning.
To conclude, would I be making a good or bad decision by switching to medicine? Although both neuroscience and machine learning are very interesting, I think I prefer the latter and see more potential in it. Having said this, my probability of success by aiming for the former is way higher.
Ask HN: Switch to Medicine or Push Through?
1–5 of 5 posts
Re: Ask HN: Switch to Medicine or Push Through?
#2I know a lot of people who are going to medical school, get the MD, but skip the residency. Being a young doctor really sucks. I go to a primary care practice run by an experienced doc who hires a lot of early career doctors and nurse practitioners, often women. I think the practice as a whole is really high performing but I see a high level of turnover with the young people he brings in.
Re: Ask HN: Switch to Medicine or Push Through?
#3I know a lot of people who are going to medical school, get the MD, but skip the residency. Being a young doctor really sucks. I go to a primary care practice run by an experienced doc who hires a lot of early career doctors and nurse practitioners, often women. I think the practice as a whole is really high performing but I see a high level of turnover with the young people he brings in.
Thank you for your comment. My main goal isn't to become a physician but rather go into research but it's still something I think I'd enjoy if things don't work out. Out of curiosity, what do these medical school grads do after skipping residency?
Re: Ask HN: Switch to Medicine or Push Through?
#4I think you should reach out to @vsoch on Twitter. Even though it's not her area of work today, she went through the Med School world, while also focusing on CS. Check out her About page (https://vsoch.github.io/about/), see if that resonates with you, and feel free to ping her on Twitter with questions!
Re: Ask HN: Switch to Medicine or Push Through?
#5I know a lot of people who are going to medical school, get the MD, but skip the residency. Being a young doctor really sucks. I go to a primary care practice run by an experienced doc who hires a lot of early career doctors and nurse practitioners, often women. I think the practice as a whole is really high performing but I see a high level of turnover with the young people he brings in.
Thank you for your comment. My main goal isn't to become a physician but rather go into research but it's still something I think I'd enjoy if things don't work out. Out of curiosity, what do these medical school grads do after skipping residency?
I've seen some go into medically oriented startups. I worked on a project for one oriented towards using machine learning to read medical notes. Look up my email in my profile and I'll see if I can get you more info about that.