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[indecisivePremed]

deleted for privacy

[BernieMac]

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[indecisivePremed]

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[freewheeler]

Follow up with the job offers. Finish off your med applications. It won't be until January/February or later next year when you hear back from med schools re: interview offers, so there's no harm in submitting your apps and then taking the next few months to pursue full-time work and see how you feel about med vs. business. Then if you get interview offers next year you can follow up on those, if not then stick with your work.

Your MCAT is very strong, according to you your GPA and ECs are solid, so you should theoretically have a pretty decent shot. You're in an exciting position as you have options and seem well-positioned to pursue either. Medicine is a long and laborious road, so I think it is prudent to evaluate alternative careers prior to making such a commitment.

[OwnerOfTheTARDIS]

A bit of uncertainty is normal - as has been pointed out, medicine is a long road and some serious consideration of what you gain and lose by pursuing medicine is well warranted. Furthermore, I think that people who say that medicine is the only career they could be happy in are delusional and have built up unrealistic expectations of what medicine is like and are very likely to be disappointed if/when they get into med school. 

What attracts you to medicine? Try and pinpoint features of the profession that appeal to you (job security, salary, human interaction, caring nature, scientific inquiry) and see how your potential job offers line up with your identified values. Many careers employ the same characteristics of a job as a physician. If you think you will excel and enjoy these job opportunities, I would encourage you to go for them. Don't discount the weight of financial stress, missed holidays with family, long hours, and lack of vacation time that comes with pursuing medicine.

On another note - do you have to make a choice right away? Can you apply for medicine, get a job, see if you actually enjoy the job, and then reassess your options in May should you be accepted?

[indecisivePremed]

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[Exergy]

I would interview and try get a consulting offer while simultaneously try to get into med school. Neither is guaranteed so it's in your best interest to keep both in the running for as long as possible. I also interviewed for consulting and applied to med school in my 4th year and that was the advice given to me. 

if this was MBB level consulting there's something else you can think about. When I was prepping for consulting interviews with a friend of mine who was very focused on consulting and also fairly involved with recruiting, I asked him the same question. His response was that they might actually see an MD degree as an investment. If they make you an offer then they really do want you, and would be open for you to do your MD and then possibly go back after you graduate. There are definitely MDs who go into consulting after graduation. Not saying that you'll go into consulting after getting your MD, but they'll probably still see it as a positive thing. 

If you get an offer for consulting and then get into med school, I would just tell them then and see what they say. 

[Nimbles]

On 9/26/2017 at 2:06 AM, freewheeler said:

Follow up with the job offers. Finish off your med applications. It won't be until January/February or later next year when you hear back from med schools re: interview offers, so there's no harm in submitting your apps and then taking the next few months to pursue full-time work and see how you feel about med vs. business. Then if you get interview offers next year you can follow up on those, if not then stick with your work.

Your MCAT is very strong, according to you your GPA and ECs are solid, so you should theoretically have a pretty decent shot. You're in an exciting position as you have options and seem well-positioned to pursue either. Medicine is a long and laborious road, so I think it is prudent to evaluate alternative careers prior to making such a commitment.

Great advice :-)

 

[indecisivePremed]

On 9/28/2017 at 5:38 PM, Exergy said:

 

 

[Edict]

On 9/26/2017 at 0:33 AM, indecisivePremed said:

Anyone else having trouble deciding whether to go for full-time work or apply to medical school?

On one hand, I've wanted to do medicine for a few years, maybe, but I've always had such a hard time committing. I switched from sciences into a degree with great employability just in case I didn't make it to med. I took the MCAT a year after usual ON timelines, after my 3rd year. I thought the MCAT went really poorly, so I started looking into backup options - taking business school and applying to full-time jobs in my field as well as in consulting. Surprisingly, I've heard back from employers and I have an interview in my field coming up as well as a consulting interview. Both of these interviews are for attractive, secure jobs - one for a job with a 2 year program attached to it and the other...Well, prestigious, with a recruiter saying there were over 2000 applications for 2 positions.

To my surprise, I actually did really well on the MCAT (>520, 132 CARS). That made things...confusing to say the least. I'm scared of making the wrong decision - I have the GPA and MCAT, pretty solid research/ECs, I've already asked my referees but I'm not done my ABS or U of T essays. If I keep going forward with job applications and interviews, I'll need to commit way before May. I just don't know what to do - it's not like anyone in medicine will ever recruit me the same way firms do and keeping the shine/ego boost from that from impairing my judgement is hard. I'm scared of rejecting the offers for full-time work and then ending up getting rejected from med school, too. I definitely do NOT want to apply again after this cycle and I'm not interested in graduate school, so I need to have a lot of faith in myself.

I don't know. Just not sure what to do - anyone else with similar concerns or advice?

PM me. P.S. choose consulting