Crowd sourcing career advice for a college student

[mie]

We're finding that a lot of pre-med students are interested in public health.

[mie]

Depending on the school, yes, public health is a major.

[kicks]

Ok I'm just going to word vomit because I'm in a rush, sorry for any errors in grammar

Other careers I can think of off the top of my head: pharmacist, dentist, PA, nurse, NP, OT, PT, SLP, vet, public health things, vet tech. Then obviously there are a bunch of science careers that you can do with bio, Chem or physics degrees.

If he wants to do medicine i wouldn't discourage him simply because of the cost. The other careers such as pharmacist have high loans as well and don't make as much money. So I think the return on investment is pretty good to be a doctor. Even though I'm going in to the 2nd lowest paid specialty if I do things in a reasonable manner I can have my loans paid off in less than 10 years.

From my understanding in regards to PA school it's a different kind of difficulty to get in to because you have to meet strict criteria for X number of hours of clinical service and other things.

Although I'm glad I worked for 3 years before going back to school, I'd encourage him to try to figure out if he definitely wants to be a doctor now and do his pre-reqs as an undergrad. He can major in anything but just has to do pre-reqs which aren't that bad.

I'd encourage him to volunteer at a hospital to get a feel for it. I knew I definitely wanted to do it when I felt "alive" entering the hospital every week.

SNMA is an organization essentially for med students of color and they have a branch that talks to the undergrad students for mentoring but I can't think of the name. I'm sure if you google you can tell him about that.

Also now that I'm a doctor, no knock on nurses, but I'm very glad I'm not a nurse. I would not like it at all and I'm glad I didn't "settle" for a lack of a better word at being a nurse. I'm sorry if that comes off as mean. I do love nurses and couldn't do my job without them. But it is a different field and thinking process.

Even though I don't want to practice clinical medicine forever and I'm already synical (so much damn paperwork!) I think it's a great career with a lot of options that I would encourage a young person to pursue as long as they understand the realities.

Essentially if I had a natural talent and could be a self-employed musician that made my own schedule I'd chose that over medicine, but I wouldn't chose a "regular" 9-5 job over medicine any day. So far I have no regrets.

[formerlyak]

If he is a freshman, encourage him to get jobs and internships on campus. You mention it's a big state school, so there should be opportunities. Look for student jobs in departments like development, alumni relations and student services. All of those areas "help people" but in different ways than doctors and lawyers. I've been in development for years and one of the things I like about it is I feel like I get to make a difference in people's lives through my work. And I hire students all.the.time. Some decide they love it and some find other areas of non-profit work that they like better through what they do in my office.

In college, my boyfriend was an intern with the athletic training department. He was paired with a Sports Medicine Doctor who would train him on basics of sports med and emergency med. He'd get assigned to a team each year and get to travel with that team. It really helped him see if he liked that line of work or not (for him, the answer was not).

On the flip side of that, my brother's bff was certified as an EMT in college and the last two years he worked as an EMT for our campus' hospital. He loved it and went on to work for our local fire department and become a paramedic.

Good luck to him!

[05heel]

I entered as a pre-med biochem major. Since I don't like to touch bodies, I got a pharmacy degree (PharmD), and since I don't like to see people I got a PhD in immunology/pharmaceutical sciences. In hindsight, I don't think I ever actually wanted to be a doctor, but no one really knows anything at 18. The best thing I did for myself was getting a job as a lab assistant in various labs on campus. You don't need to know anything when you start. Just how to wash glassware and restock supplies. The real benefit is that there are always post-docs, med students, and older undergraduates around to give you advice, and most are willing to let you work on some things. I still keep in touch with students that were in my grad school lab.

[compassrose]

Sept 14, 2016 13:44:04 GMT -5 05heel said:

I entered as a pre-med biochem major. Since I don't like to touch bodies, I got a pharmacy degree (PharmD), and since I don't like to see people I got a PhD in immunology/pharmaceutical sciences. In hindsight, I don't think I ever actually wanted to be a doctor, but no one really knows anything at 18. The best thing I did for myself was getting a job as a lab assistant in various labs on campus. You don't need to know anything when you start. Just how to wash glassware and restock supplies. The real benefit is that there are always post-docs, med students, and older undergraduates around to give you advice, and most are willing to let you work on some things. I still keep in touch with students that were in my grad school lab.

Ditto this. And bench skills are good to have and make you pretty employable after graduation as a technician, too. Plus, there are a lot of non-medical fields in Biology that could be a good fit.

The MCAT is tough, but I think freshman year is a little too early. Is he a good standardized test taker? I guess the correlation with the ACT isn't so strong anymore, but it used to be an excellent predictor of MCAT success. 

[kicks]

Sept 14, 2016 14:40:05 GMT -5 @246baje said:

kicks, he wants to know if it is too early to prep for the MCAT. My gut is that it's probably not necessary to start prepping as a freshman but I obviously have no experience.

Is he good at standardized tests?
Unfortunately, under represented minorities tend to do worse on the mcat. I don't remember my exact score but it wasn't great.

You really do need to have the pre-reqs done to properly study for the content, but I'm sure he could work on some study strategies.

The format has changed vastly since I took it back in 2007 but I know when I took it there was big emphasis on the verbal section as that was thought to show critical thinking skills that can't necessarily be taught. So that section could definitely be studied for now. I think the test also has psych and sociology on it now.

So I don't think it'd be a horrible idea for him to get familiar with the test in some ways by the middle to end of freshman year, but there's no point in hard core studying.

I think you usually take the test junior year if you want to go straight in to med school after undergrad. 2 years is enough time to get the pre-reqs done.

[kicks]

Sept 14, 2016 19:19:01 GMT -5 @246baje said:

Sept 14, 2016 15:27:12 GMT -5 kicks said:

Is he good at standardized tests?
Unfortunately, under represented minorities tend to do worse on the mcat. I don't remember my exact score but it wasn't great.

You really do need to have the pre-reqs done to properly study for the content, but I'm sure he could work on some study strategies.

The format has changed vastly since I took it back in 2007 but I know when I took it there was big emphasis on the verbal section as that was thought to show critical thinking skills that can't necessarily be taught. So that section could definitely be studied for now. I think the test also has psych and sociology on it now.

So I don't think it'd be a horrible idea for him to get familiar with the test in some ways by the middle to end of freshman year, but there's no point in hard core studying.

I think you usually take the test junior year if you want to go straight in to med school after undergrad. 2 years is enough time to get the pre-reqs done.

He said he struggled with standardized tests but he also said earlier he's got enough AP credits to graduate in 2-3 years.

Not sure how that works since I'm foreign.

Tell him not to graduate early!!!! Enjoy the joys of college. Unless money is a concern, then I understand wanting to get out of there asap. But even then, I'd find a way to get scholarships, grants, working extra, etc to stay for 4 years. I'd seriously discourage him from graduating early, especially if he wants to go to med school. 4 years is the way to go. 

[kicks]

Sept 14, 2016 20:28:14 GMT -5 @246baje said:

Sept 14, 2016 19:49:16 GMT -5 kicks said:

Tell him not to graduate early!!!! Enjoy the joys of college. Unless money is a concern, then I understand wanting to get out of there asap. But even then, I'd find a way to get scholarships, grants, working extra, etc to stay for 4 years. I'd seriously discourage him from graduating early, especially if he wants to go to med school. 4 years is the way to go. 

Can you elaborate on why not?

This is obviously a privileged viewpoint, but college is such a time of no responsibilities and exploration in the U.S. There is no need to rush it if you don't have to. Again obviously if there are financial concerns, then I completely understand wanting to finish earlier to not have more loans. But even if that extra year only costs a few thousands dollars (if you have scholarships or a part time job), I'd still think it'd be worth it to continue living out the college experience for the full 4 years.

I also have a different view since I played a sport in college. So playing for all 4 years was always my goal. But I still think it stands because I distinctly remember more than 1 person telling me to enjoy college for as long as possible because you'll never be able to get back that time. I completely agree. I've lived a pretty stress free and fun life since then, but college was definitely a special time that I'm glad I didn't cut short. 

[pretzel]

Is he great at science? If not, another avenue he could explore is Urban and Regional Planning. I used to advise students in that major and in my head I called them the "making the world a better place" majors. They are interested in all kinds of social justice causes and try to fix society's problems through community organizing and strategic planning. AMAZING kids