Something just clicked and I want to go to medical school and I don't know where to start?

[weirdscience5]

I'm 24 years old and have been out of undergrad for about 2 years now. For a long time, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer. However, after working at a courthouse for over a year, I've found myself disenchanted by the politics and structure of the legal field. It's all politics and no one actually wants to put people first. I just don't think it's right for me. I have a passion for helping individuals and thought I would be able to do this through the legal field. However, my time at the courthouse has shown me that it is likely not the case.

During this time, I have spent ample time in hospitals after having really no exposure to the medical field. My mother passed away last year after spending 5 months in the hospital. This Christmas, my father has spent nearly a month in the ICU (mostly on a ventilator) for covid-19. I was really quite stunned by how much I enjoyed learning, watching, and talking to the doctors and nurses about what was going on. I've always found both law and medicine fascinating and enjoy reading up on medical journals for fun so I also find the content engaging. They do so much and impact so many. I love that the job is puzzle solving, active, helping people, etc. I also was astounding how differing levels of care impacted patient well-being (my mom's nurses/doctors were not very engaging and often left her alone and confused/helpless where my dad's were honestly some of the best people I've met). I really feel that something clicked for me.

I have an undergraduate degree in business/econ with a 3.7GPA and little healthcare experience. I took some science classes in undergrad but withdrew from them because I was struggling at the time to find motivation freshman year / know what I wanted to do. I've worked at the courthouse and part time jobs throughout college. What is the path from here? Is it stupid for me to throw away a potential degree in law (I've been accepted at a near full ride to a top 20 law school)? Do people like me have success going to medical school? How can I build my resume and get those credits I need? I would like to start as soon as possible...

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[reaction mechanisms]

It’d be difficult to me to advice you to walk away from essentially a full ride to a top 20 law school. You stated your reason for losing interest in the legal field is due to your opinion that law is “all politics and no one actually wants to put people first.” There are avenues in the legal world that work more directly with helping people as compared to the courthouse experience you’ve described. I would recommend looking into pursuing one of those branches. Sorry I’m not well versed on the legal system to be more specific at this time, but I’m sure you know what I’m getting at. Now, if you’ve realized for other reasons that medicine is the only place you see yourself and have lost all hope with law, then yes I think you would be well versed to begin preparing your med school application. I would recommend enrolling and excelling in the prerequisite courses that you’ll need (gen chem, organic, bio, physics, etc) while getting as much clinical experience as you can (volunteering, scribing, medical assistant, clinical research coordinator). In fact, clinical research may be a great segue from law to medicine. You’ll also need non clinical volunteer hours, a solid MCAT score, strong letters of recommendation, and a compelling personal statement that touches on your reasons for wanting to switch from law to medicine. Best of luck with whichever path you choose.

 

[Bonne Nuit]

I'm 24 years old and have been out of undergrad for about 2 years now. For a long time, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer. However, after working at a courthouse for over a year, I've found myself disenchanted by the politics and structure of the legal field. It's all politics and no one actually wants to put people first. I just don't think it's right for me. I have a passion for helping individuals and thought I would be able to do this through the legal field. However, my time at the courthouse has shown me that it is likely not the case.

During this time, I have spent ample time in hospitals after having really no exposure to the medical field. My mother passed away last year after spending 5 months in the hospital. This Christmas, my father has spent nearly a month in the ICU (mostly on a ventilator) for covid-19. I was really quite stunned by how much I enjoyed learning, watching, and talking to the doctors and nurses about what was going on. I've always found both law and medicine fascinating and enjoy reading up on medical journals for fun so I also find the content engaging. They do so much and impact so many. I love that the job is puzzle solving, active, helping people, etc. I also was astounding how differing levels of care impacted patient well-being (my mom's nurses/doctors were not very engaging and often left her alone and confused/helpless where my dad's were honestly some of the best people I've met). I really feel that something clicked for me.

I have an undergraduate degree in business/econ with a 3.7GPA and little healthcare experience. I took some science classes in undergrad but withdrew from them because I was struggling at the time to find motivation freshman year / know what I wanted to do. I've worked at the courthouse and part time jobs throughout college. What is the path from here? Is it stupid for me to throw away a potential degree in law (I've been accepted at a near full ride to a top 20 law school)? Do people like me have success going to medical school? How can I build my resume and get those credits I need? I would like to start as soon as possible...

If you are interested in exploring medicine as a career, your first steps are to shadow physicians and gain some clinical experience. Clinical experience can be paid (e.g., EMT, CNA, medical assisting, phlebotomy, scribing) or it can be gained on a volunteer basis (e.g., hospital volunteering). I recommend spending at least 40 hours of your shadowing with a primary care physician, such as a family medicine doctor.

A week or two of physician shadowing and a few months of clinical experience will help you discover if this path is right for you. If you remain interested in medicine, you will need to enroll in your postbac classes to finish your prerequisites. If you're starting with zero science credits, you're looking at probably 2-3 years minimum of premedical postbac coursework.

The actual practice of medicine/healthcare is very, very different than it appears to patients and their families. You may find yourself equally as disillusioned with medicine as you have been with law once you see how things work on the other side. That's why it's important for you to do this research before you make any major decisions like giving up a full ride T20 law school acceptance.

 

[deleted367183]

N of 1, but yes, it is stupid imho to throw away that full ride. You’re young—give law a shot. Plan to work in public interest. You can always go to med school if you still want to later.

 

[Mad Jack]

I'm 24 years old and have been out of undergrad for about 2 years now. For a long time, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer. However, after working at a courthouse for over a year, I've found myself disenchanted by the politics and structure of the legal field. It's all politics and no one actually wants to put people first. I just don't think it's right for me. I have a passion for helping individuals and thought I would be able to do this through the legal field. However, my time at the courthouse has shown me that it is likely not the case.

During this time, I have spent ample time in hospitals after having really no exposure to the medical field. My mother passed away last year after spending 5 months in the hospital. This Christmas, my father has spent nearly a month in the ICU (mostly on a ventilator) for covid-19. I was really quite stunned by how much I enjoyed learning, watching, and talking to the doctors and nurses about what was going on. I've always found both law and medicine fascinating and enjoy reading up on medical journals for fun so I also find the content engaging. They do so much and impact so many. I love that the job is puzzle solving, active, helping people, etc. I also was astounding how differing levels of care impacted patient well-being (my mom's nurses/doctors were not very engaging and often left her alone and confused/helpless where my dad's were honestly some of the best people I've met). I really feel that something clicked for me.

I have an undergraduate degree in business/econ with a 3.7GPA and little healthcare experience. I took some science classes in undergrad but withdrew from them because I was struggling at the time to find motivation freshman year / know what I wanted to do. I've worked at the courthouse and part time jobs throughout college. What is the path from here? Is it stupid for me to throw away a potential degree in law (I've been accepted at a near full ride to a top 20 law school)? Do people like me have success going to medical school? How can I build my resume and get those credits I need? I would like to start as soon as possible...

Medicine is also full of politics and bad incentives that put regulations and dollar signs ahead of the interests and needs of patients. Not a working day goes by that I don't have to interface with some awful part of the system. If you're looking for a magical place where the interests of people come first and you can make a difference without worrying about interference by entrenched structures over which you have no control then medicine certainly isn't that place. You are just trading one bad system for another. There's a lot of good you can do, but the wins often don't come easily or frequently. I love my job, but every day is an uphill battle in which I choose to face the same things that have pushed you away from a career in law.

You'll find these same structures in academia, business, and politics, because all fields are constructed by people and people qre far from perfect. The only difference is that you can see the machinations of one by virtue of having been inside it, but the others are still unknown to you. Choose wisely, as doscarding that full ride may merely be trading the devil you do know for the devil you don't.

 

[2010houston]

I don’t disagree with anything said above re politics and medicine, but I will also say that helping people and caring for patients truly does give me joy every day, and I love my job as a physician. So while yes there are of course bad things, there’s also some very cool aspects to this job - especially for someone who is motivated by making a difference. Agree that shadowing - ideally a variety of specialties and practice settings - is a great first step.

 

[happypuppy]

I went to a T5 law school with a large scholarship. My experience with the law was a lot like what you've described except realized over the course of earning a JD and then working as an attorney for a few years after. This is my advice to anyone who is on the fence about law and thinks that maybe it will get better: it won't. If you are not 100% into it, i.e. what you saw at the courthouse, don't go. Whether you do public interest work or go to a firm (unless you do transactional work which is another kind of beast), at base, what you see in the courthouse is the job of a lawyer. Law school trains you to be a lawyer. It you don't want to be one, don't go. Sure, you can do other things with a law degree, but you will be taking a path of significant resistance the entire time. If you know you don't want to go, don't try to force yourself to fit because its the most convenient path right now. You have lots of time. Try out some roles in healthcare, shadow, etc. Schools aren't going anywhere.

My decision to go into medicine was an entirely different experience, and related to wanting to be a doctor over anything else, not just running from the law. I am doing pre-reqs, working in clinical research directly with patients, and I am so happy, even though I walked away from what at one point was my "dream job." For me any of the things people complain about in medicine from observation and talking with physicians are nothing compared to the absolute misery I found in the law. I would take a bad day in medicine over my best day in the law, any day.

 

[petomed]

I'm 24 years old and have been out of undergrad for about 2 years now. For a long time, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer. However, after working at a courthouse for over a year, I've found myself disenchanted by the politics and structure of the legal field. It's all politics and no one actually wants to put people first. I just don't think it's right for me. I have a passion for helping individuals and thought I would be able to do this through the legal field. However, my time at the courthouse has shown me that it is likely not the case.

During this time, I have spent ample time in hospitals after having really no exposure to the medical field. My mother passed away last year after spending 5 months in the hospital. This Christmas, my father has spent nearly a month in the ICU (mostly on a ventilator) for covid-19. I was really quite stunned by how much I enjoyed learning, watching, and talking to the doctors and nurses about what was going on. I've always found both law and medicine fascinating and enjoy reading up on medical journals for fun so I also find the content engaging. They do so much and impact so many. I love that the job is puzzle solving, active, helping people, etc. I also was astounding how differing levels of care impacted patient well-being (my mom's nurses/doctors were not very engaging and often left her alone and confused/helpless where my dad's were honestly some of the best people I've met). I really feel that something clicked for me.

I have an undergraduate degree in business/econ with a 3.7GPA and little healthcare experience. I took some science classes in undergrad but withdrew from them because I was struggling at the time to find motivation freshman year / know what I wanted to do. I've worked at the courthouse and part time jobs throughout college. What is the path from here? Is it stupid for me to throw away a potential degree in law (I've been accepted at a near full ride to a top 20 law school)? Do people like me have success going to medical school? How can I build my resume and get those credits I need? I would like to start as soon as possible...

Answer this question:

"If medicine is as disenchanting as I believe law is, would I regret pursuing law or medicine less?"

As others have said, make the calls and send the emails that enable you to accumulate the hours of experience shadowing physicians and volunteering in patient-centric environments. Read as much as you dare here on SDN. Calculate the cost of fulfilling pre-req's and attending medical school.

Only if you believe you couldn't be satisfied doing anything else should you pursue medicine.

 

[EducatedGuesser]

I'm 24 years old and have been out of undergrad for about 2 years now. For a long time, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer. However, after working at a courthouse for over a year, I've found myself disenchanted by the politics and structure of the legal field. It's all politics and no one actually wants to put people first. I just don't think it's right for me. I have a passion for helping individuals and thought I would be able to do this through the legal field. However, my time at the courthouse has shown me that it is likely not the case.

During this time, I have spent ample time in hospitals after having really no exposure to the medical field. My mother passed away last year after spending 5 months in the hospital. This Christmas, my father has spent nearly a month in the ICU (mostly on a ventilator) for covid-19. I was really quite stunned by how much I enjoyed learning, watching, and talking to the doctors and nurses about what was going on. I've always found both law and medicine fascinating and enjoy reading up on medical journals for fun so I also find the content engaging. They do so much and impact so many. I love that the job is puzzle solving, active, helping people, etc. I also was astounding how differing levels of care impacted patient well-being (my mom's nurses/doctors were not very engaging and often left her alone and confused/helpless where my dad's were honestly some of the best people I've met). I really feel that something clicked for me.

I have an undergraduate degree in business/econ with a 3.7GPA and little healthcare experience. I took some science classes in undergrad but withdrew from them because I was struggling at the time to find motivation freshman year / know what I wanted to do. I've worked at the courthouse and part time jobs throughout college. What is the path from here? Is it stupid for me to throw away a potential degree in law (I've been accepted at a near full ride to a top 20 law school)? Do people like me have success going to medical school? How can I build my resume and get those credits I need? I would like to start as soon as possible...

Half of your personal statement is already composed in your comment. Return to school to take the pre-matriculation requirements while achieving As. Simultaneously begin to shadow or work in a clinical setting to gain the experience and exposure to patient care. See if you can defer enrollment in the law program to test your genuine interest in medicine. I've seen this avenue be successful. Best of luck!

 

[snooper]

Look into a postbac program, ideally one that links directly to a med school, e.g. Bryn Mawr and Penn/Columbia. Moreover, Penn does offer combined MD/JD degree.