College Question [Need Serious Advice]

[Fluffz]

from my point of view, if you realy know what u want to do, go for it. but maybe finish medicine first? so the time wouldnt be wasted and IF you want to start a family at some point you could do that, quit studying, and still get a good job. i sort of have the same problem but

i have no clue what to study. I do want to make money afterwards so art or ethics aint the way to go. i like writing but i am not sure if i need to study to do it, i also like design and painting, but i aint good with it. i thought about teacher, but they get jobs very hard here. or some science, like quantum mechanics. it needs to be something NON IT! however i like some IT parts, like AI and human-comuter interfaces. that would be interesting too. and of course game design, i write unprofessional gameboy games. im not interested in law, money or leadership, unless its politics. tell me some tests i could do, i seriously need help.

i am 25, have a bachelor in IT, workin in IT and gov would give me ~650€ a month for free to study so money is not that big of a problem, considering i could still do some part time job.

[Epinephrine]

Hmm... before we talk about other career choices, are you sure this is the best idea for you?

Why did you go into medicine in the first place? What type of doctor did you imagine yourself being in the first place?

It's true that the first few years of med school in the pre clinical clerkship years can be like lots of rote memorization. Hell all of medicine is a lot of rote memorization and a lot of really hard work, but it's the goal at the end that's ultimately worth it by a huge margin. You have not even started the interesting part of medicine yet (the part where you actually get to help people, and feel the rewards of being the person actually doing the helping). I have to say it is a very special job, and not one that can easily be given up.

Ask yourself, if you quit now, would you regret it in the future as you never even found out what being a real doctor is all about?

Then there are practical considerations. How much do you know about industrial design and how good are you at other things? Do you actually have the talent to become a reasonably good designer? Will you be making a decent enough income so that you can pay off your debts and also have a reasonable standard of living that you'd be happy with?

All jobs and all degrees will have lots of pointless work, and training is hard. It's true that you might have worked really hard in undergrad and have to work really hard in medical school, but then again the rewards are huge. All my friends in undergrad who didn't work hard and instead spent a lot of time partying and having fun, now have very little job prospects and very few options for the future past your regular boring office jobs.

If you are apt to quit at one thing only a year and a half into it, will you have the resolve to become decent enough an industrial design person to actually enjoy your job? Remember that even family doctors (only 4 more years of training from where you are at this point) are their own bosses and have absolute control over their entire day. Lots of freedom in how they want their practice to be managed, and lots of freedom in terms of setting their own hours and scope of work. If you were going to be in the working world, will you hate the loss of freedom?

Just wondering if you are absolutely sure of your decision or not. If you are, then that is too bad that you wasted all this time going into medicine, but at the end it's important that you find something you enjoy. If you are not quite sure, just remember that medicine is extremely different once you get into the clinical aspect of it.

(In case you're wondering, I'm a 4th year med student)

[Zerzera]

I would think about finishing the study you started. But since I can't answer any of your questions I probably shouldn't post here. :fear:

[Nockm]

Yay for internetted pivotal moments in subspacers' lives

Epi's above questions look important and yet unanswered, I too wondered what compelled you to choose med before I yell "don't do it if you hate it".

[Galleleo]

Ok, this might not relate too much to your med school story, but maybe you can get something from it.

I am currently doing business school. And quite a big part of the courses I get are purely aimed at doing research because I am studying at a university. So I get classes that are barely related to the actual business school part and solely aimed at making you a good researcher. These classes are incredibly boring to me and I really have to force myself to study for them, etc.

Next to that, I am basically done with the whole school stuff, the exams, the studying, etc, etc. I really just want it to be over so I can start working. So yeah I can't say I look forward to going to school everyday and to study and I procrastinate a lot. But, I do notice that I enjoy the classes aimed at business, and I know I really want to go into business. So I know it's worth sticking this study out.

In other words, ask yourself if it's worth sticking through your study because what comes afterwards is something you are really interested in. Though you are getting tired of all the cramming and stuff, are there courses you do find interesting when you read about them and stuff?

[Ephemeral]

So three BIG questions:
1) How hard is it for me, a 23 year old, to go back to get a 2nd BA?
2) My parents have been taking a heavy load on my tuition. They say they will NOT pay for my education if I decide that medicine is not for me. I'll be totally financially independent. How the heck do I pay tuition? Will I be able to take out loans with no credit? I've literally have had no REAL jobs in my life.
3) Is anyone in the product design or ID industry and/or academic track? Can you tell me a bit about it and the education you need to work for a company like IDEO (www.ideo.com ... used to be my dream job in HS)?

1) Very hard, it looks bad on your resume (professional student who can not decide what he wants to do when he grows up).
2) Get a job
3) Dream jobs? Dream jobs are great as long as you dont mind being poor.

Seriously, in this world people get paid for stress. It's that simple. The closer you are to the money, the greater the stress becomes.

Sounds like you are headed in the wrong direction. You are bailing because of stress. Of course school is the most valuable waste there is, no one can argue that paying for the privilege of being forced to memorize something only to regurgitate it for some test and then forget it forever (here is an idea, perhaps we best remember things that are really important to us) sucks. If you can remember key settings in Subspace, but can't remember stuff that SHOULD be important to you (for making money), spend some introspective time with yourself.

[Jonesy]

I realize that if I could do something besides medicine it would be product design or industrial design (ID). That would mean going back to get my BA in design at somewhere like the DAAP program at the University of Cincinnati (http://www.daap.uc.edu/). So 4 more years of undergrad. To give you an idea of where I'm at ... I have a BA in biology (specialization in physiology) from Northwestern University.

Well sufficient, you don't necessarily need to get another undergrad degree if you are interested in studying something different.

From my experience, a lot of graduate programs don't require any specific undergrad major in order for someone to be accepted into the grad program. They usually just require that you have at least a 3.0 gpa at an accredited university.

I'd suggest that you look at the requirements for grad programs in whatever field you're interested in before you go looking for another 4-year degree.

~~~~~

I didn't take the time to read all the responses, so if my advice has already been said--my apologies.

[Zeebu]

well suff,
i went the "tough it out" road and now im doin alright. 2 years through school i realized i didnt want to be there and considered dropping out. unfortunately by that time i had accumulated nearly 50k in debt. just took it one quarter at a time.

i got my ME degree and now working as an engineer for caterpillar and having a pretty good time with it. im even doing design work which is one thing i didnt want to do. so do what other have been saying, can you see yourself doing this after school and liking it? if so, stick it out

btw about dream jobs not making money... my dream job would have made less... i wanted to be a high school calc teacher/swim coach =/ hell, still might happen with an early retirement, im only 22

[Stompa]

There's a study up in the LSU-S Med Center that says that over 85% of Psychiatrists resent that they had to go to med school, and stuff their heads with information that they will never, ever use.

A lot of people in med school have the absolute drive to make it through 4 years and then have plenty of energy to do whatever residency if they pursue that afterwards.

If you think that you will be miserable despite the work you put in and knowing that things will be better once med school is over....well...you aren't going to magically and suddenly feel better about your decision. What I mean is if you don't like it now, and you don't see yourself ever liking it anymore, there's little chance you will change your mine between now and 2 years from now.

[404 Not Found]

University of Cincinnati at least has a work study program that allows one in the ID dept to test their abilities/skills and perhaps land a job prior to graduation with a firm.

We have hosted Design students in the past that came from University of Cincinnati at my facility. It was Architectural rather than ID, but if your familiar with University of Cincinnati and the work study...you know what I mean.

I did yrs of study for Medical Illustration and now I am involved with Architectural design and fabrication. Go figure. Jumped from an Illustration to Communications Radio/TV and now I am doing absolutely nothing with anything I had gone to college for. I must admit that the Public Speaking classes are good to have under the belt!

[Sufficient]

To answer some questions ...

Yes, I've been super stressed out in med school. I also realize that I have not truly gotten to the "real medicine" part of medical school (clinical part, seeing patients, diagnosing, examining patients, etc). To give you guys an idea of medicine track, I have 4 years in medical school to complete. First 2 years are almost purely academic with introduction to clinical skills (practice with actor/actress patients and a few real life patients). I need to take the national Step 1 exam after my 2nd year. 3rd and 4th years are clinical where I spend a lot of time in the hospital basically being "cheap labor". On top of that I need to study in my off time for exams. I will have to take Step 2 exams after 4th year and apply to residency programs at different hospitals. So that part deals with 2-4 years maybe of specialization (ex. you wanna become an orthopedic surgeon ... tack on another 6 years or so of academics/hospital life).

I guess my main point is that I still have 5 years minimal of medical academics to go through. There seems to be not light at the end of the tunnel. My interest in medicine is rapidly decreasing. I am becoming jaded by the profession itself and simply unhappy with studying the material. The things I enjoy about medicine (patient interaction and clinical skills) are ignored because I don't have time to study them because I need to devote every minute of the day to lectures. My professors really don't TEACH you ... they spew out information in the hopes that you will absorb it some how. The tests are ridiculously picky and insanely difficult. I have no life aside from med school.

I feel that this is not something that I suddenly realized this year, but something that has bothered me throughout my undergrad years, through my first year in med school, and finally culminated into a breaking point now.

Another thing to sorta understand about my background. I have 2 brothers who are on the medicine track. One is a 4th year in medical school and my younger brother will be applying next year. I've lived my entire life with parents that have pushed us to become doctors. So while I admit that I was interested in biology when I was in HS and had an interest in medicine ... becoming a doctor was sort of the default. And once I got accepted into the 7 year program to go straight through undergrad and into med school, I just took the opportunity to do so.

[Sufficient]

Well sufficient, you don't necessarily need to get another undergrad degree if you are interested in studying something different.

From my experience, a lot of graduate programs don't require any specific undergrad major in order for someone to be accepted into the grad program. They usually just require that you have at least a 3.0 gpa at an accredited university.

I'd suggest that you look at the requirements for grad programs in whatever field you're interested in before you go looking for another 4-year degree.

~~~~~

I didn't take the time to read all the responses, so if my advice has already been said--my apologies.

To do ID I'll have to go back to undergrad to get a BA in fine arts or design. I only have a BA in biology which is totally unrelated. So I don't think it'll be possible for me to skip ahead. somehow.

[za gophar]

i live in cincinnati and i know a couple people who do daap, just cant remember who they are :/. that's a pretty rigorous program too, aparently.

[Zerzera]

You suddenly remind me of that dropout guy from fight club.

[404 Not Found]

Cleveland Institute of Art (not to be confused with the TV and email ads for the Institutes of Art) est. in the 1800's has a strong ID dept. Proably one of the best in the nation, as most Auto Designers and ID ppl working for Rubber Made and many other huge companies come from C.I.A.

C.I.A. also has the Med Design program attched to direct work with Case Western Reserve University. If you find schools that work directly with one another, maybe you can apply your med background to ID and channel it into a more personally rewarding career-direction? Just a thought. I had to take med classes while going for Med. Illustration.