Urgent advice - declining an interview for next week or not

I am a registered pharmacist and had applied to study medicine for the 4th time, having missed my grades at A Level. I had an interview at BSMS earlier on in the year but was unsuccessful. I have now been offered an interview for medicine from a UK Medical School next tuesday, as they had miscalculated their numbers. I do not know what to do and whether I should go for this interview or not because i am absolutely exhausted having applied to medicine 4 times. After my last set of rejections this year I was not planning on reapplying to medicine and was thinking of becoming a GP Pharmacist and starting my pharmacy foundation training in october 2016.*

I feel like this interview has put a spanner in the works because I can think of more cons than pros when deciding whether a medical career is worth it for me. I think when i was 18 i would have done anything to become a doctor but the reality now is that i am a 26 year old graduate and when i think about medicine it makes absolutely no financial sense for me to study it now. I would lose 5 years of a professional salary, have to self fund my tuition fees and living expenses and this seems ridiculous to me at a time when many 1st time buyers can't even get their own mortgages. I will probably never recover from this financial loss and the thought of doing 5 more years of undergrad is scary as i am exhausted from my pharmacy study and training. Plus it will take 5 more years of training to become a GP and it just seems like too much/

the only pros I can think of is that ultimately medicine is my dream and it allows me to diagnose and take on more responsibility than i do as a pharmacist. It will take me 4 more years of postgrad training to become a GP Pharmacist and in that time I could be very near to completing my medical degree so i am really stuck because if the medical school interview goes well next week i am just not sure whether i would actually take up an offer. Can anyone offer any advice or perspectives?*

I would go for the interview.

You don't need to accept the offer. You might not even get one (harsh but true unfortunately). That would decide for you. But I wouldn't be able to deal with the not knowing.

All that said, you're not sounding very positive about medicine as a degree and it's not easy to get through, but you sound really excited about the end goal.
Ultimately, 10 years down the line, will you be disappointed if you're not a GP?

yes i agree - they are interviewing 16 people for 8 places though so it's 50/50. I get this gut feeling that I'm done with medical school applications and going to uni and i feel that this part of my life is done and dusted now. If they had offered me an interview even 2 months ago I would have gone for sure. It may sound odd but i'm not *really that bothered about not knowing right now (probably because i've got so many options within my pharmacy career right now that I previously hadn't thought of because i had tunnel vision towards medicine).*

I really don't know if I would be disappointed - yes I probably will always have a slight moment of disappointment or get upset when i start my GP Pharmacy training but the whole problem is that my life priorities have changed now. Medicine used to be my be all and end all - it was my only goal and I thought it would make me happy. I actually suffered a lot when i missed my grades and all the way through my undergrad because all i wanted to do was medicine and now that I have another chance it feels like I'm so exhausted from everything (arduous pharmacy training *and med school applications) that i kind of can't be bothered. I keep coming across so many disillusioned doctors now which doesn't help either. Friends have said to me this morning that next week's interview is a great opportunity but to me it isn't when i think that doing medicine now is going to cost me just below £250k in lost earnings, tuition fees, living expenses etc

Im so stuck i just don't know what to do and its going to cost me another £100 to get to the university if i decide to go (which is money i don't have at the moment)*

sit for the interview and get the offer first, then only you can decide

What's changed in the last 2 months for such a huge change of heart?
You sound really negative about it, so perhaps it is no longer right for you, which is totally fine. It's totally acceptable and reasonable not to want to do medicine any more. You don't need to justify it to anyone.

But for the sake of closure, I'd just go. Will they refund travel costs?

i think its the finances that have made me think twice - £250k is so much money to lose when i realise now that I can get whatever i wanted out of medicine by being a gp pharmacist. I've also just finished my final pharmacy licensing exam which has put me off the formal exam process because it was so tough.*

the change of heart is the exact thing that worries me and potentially makes me want to go for the interview because I've been feeling as if medicine is over for me for about 2 months. Prior to this, my first application when i missed my grades was in 2009 and I've always had it in my head since then that this was the only path for me*

Could you ask them to reserve your place next year (maybe explain the financial issues - you could save up for a year), and in that time continue with pharmacy and see if you still are happy or want to go into Medicine after?

Go to the interview. Other than travel costs, you have nothing to lose.

You're content with what you have. Whether you get an offer or not, you have a degree and a career already so you have nothing to worry about.

Get the offer. Then and only then can you make a decision on what path you want to take!

In terms of potential lost earnings, that's exactly what they are, potential. You could argue that a career in medicine would increase your potential earnings towards further in your career.

But I can fully understand not wanting to dive into another 5 years of uni when you already have a career which you could be progressing in. It all depends on how much you want to do medicine and how happy you'd be to continue doing pharmacy. This isn't something anyone on the forum can help you with as it's your decision based on your feelings.

However, we can help you with the decision to attend the interview and that's to go to the interview!

If you don't get the offer, nothing has changed. If you get the offer and decline it, then you've turned away from medicine on your terms. You've declined medicine, not the other way. How's that for closure! And if you get the offer and study, then you're working towards the degree and career that you so wanted from 18.

That's my take on it anyway. Either way, good luck!

Thank you so much for making me realise this. I guess after all of the years I have spent wishing I was a medic and hoping and praying that I would get another offer, it would be pretty amazing to get the offer and decline it. Even f I become a GP it would probably *help me mentally and instead of thinking what if, I will know I gave it a shot. Thank you so much - I will attend the interview and then any future decision will depend on the outcome.

Thank you so much for making me realise this. I guess after all of the years I have spent wishing I was a medic and hoping and praying that I would get another offer, it would be pretty amazing to get the offer and decline it. Even f I become a GP it would probably *help me mentally and instead of thinking what if, I will know I gave it a shot. Thank you so much - I will attend the interview and then any future decision will depend on the outcome.

Hey OP, how did it go?

Did you go to the interview? Let us know how you got on and what you've decided to do.

But most importantly, I hope you're happy and more at peace now it's over!

Hey sorry, I jsut made a new thread about this. I did get in - they gave me an offer yesterday and I am so far from being at peace it's kind of heartbreaking. I want medicine but I feel like there's so many things to think about that I don't know what to do. It's just not a simple decision