Why you should not go to medical school

Post by roentgen » Sat, Sep 24, 2011, 2:56 PM UTC

Cushman wrote: post #59

roentgen wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a different experience. Medical school was easy, I was single and went out drinking / partying two or three nights a week. Not to be crass, but I did well with the ladies. Luckily I can get by on four hours of sleep or less. So, I don't feel like I missed out on much of the early twenties experience. Most of my non-medical friends had jobs and I didn't, but that was the only real difference. Things got a little…

Lesson learned: If you do fine without sleep, and manage to wind up in the most lucrative specialty^, medicine may just be for you! Speaking as the son of a psychiatrist who didn't marry a radiologist: you got lucky, and your wife got luckier. Good for you guys, but that's not what a student should expect from med school any more than a CS student should expect a $10mm exit. ^Barring, what, the specialized surgeries?

Post by roentgen » Sat, Sep 24, 2011, 2:59 PM UTC

adrianwaj wrote: post #70

jpdoctor wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I make over 800k a year Does it bother you that you are profiting handsomely from sick people?

More importantly, does it bother him that they are sick in the first place, or is he happy?

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Sep 24, 2011, 3:11 PM UTC

hugh3 wrote: post #61

mootothemax wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does make his argument about the bad money bogus though. Nearly every other job is worse money than being a doctor If you worked those other jobs for 80 hours a week, I think you'd start catching up pretty quickly ;-)

Yeah, but in medicine, by the time you're making the big money you're working much less. Or on whatever schedule you like. At the age of 29: $45,000 for eighty hours a week. At the age of 49: $600,000 for forty hours a week.

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Sep 24, 2011, 3:15 PM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #68

patrickgzill wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for your honesty. May I ask, what exactly do you do that you feel justifies your 800k per year? It seems to me that your career is ripe for disruption.

Generally, rare goods - and skills - are valuable. So going to school for a long time to learn an unusual skill well means that your services are more valuable. Also, providing a large amount of value in a small amount of time (like accurately interpreting the results of a scan) leads to providing huge amounts of value over the course of a year. Part of the explanation is the sheer volume of individuals he can give a…

Post by roentgen » Sat, Sep 24, 2011, 3:21 PM UTC

billjings wrote: post #76

marknutter wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He makes that much as a partner of a practice, not as a doctor at a hospital. This is no different than being a founder of a successful small business.

It's also worth noting that radiology has been undergoing some significant transformations. Formerly, a practice would contract with one nearby hospital to read their cases. With the advent of teleradiology, though, it is no longer necessary for the practice to be all that close to the hospital. As a result, radiological practices are contracting with more hospitals. They are growing and sometimes putting smaller pra…