HELP! - Im into med school but I am regretting it!?

I am very happy I have a medical place this year, and I am confirmed to go to med school, I will put that out first.

This maybe nerves before starting med school, but I was 100% convinced I would not get into medicine this year and would not end up going to med school this year. I was actually happy as I always wanted to do business and start my own business and make myself something. I was going to go into the advertising or the arts side of business.

Anyway I ended up with amazing grades and got into my firm choice uni, but I am not 100% sure about medicine anymore .. I am so scared now as I feel like I would succeed in both, but after my med degree I would end up just going into business. I feel like it is too late to drop out now and my parents are so proud of me and want me to go.

I dont know what I should do. I will probably go and do medicine at uni, and I will really enjoy it, but then I might go into business afterwards, I am not too sure anymore...

The alternative is I drop out now, and apply either through clearing or next year for things like business management at Kings which would be amazing!

Has anyone else been in this position, or is in this position!?

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If you are wondering, I got A*A*A(b) this year, so its not a matter of entry requirements, I am just panicking!

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Reply 1

Nottie

Medicine is a very tough course and even people that are 100% sure they want to be doctors have moments of doubt and mental breakdowns throughout the course.
If you dont want to do medicine, there's no point sacrificing 5 years. You won't enjoy it and its a waste of money for both you and the NHS.

Reply 2

Anonymous #2

I know a person that dropped out of first year of Medicine at Imperial.*

Reply 3

Anonymous #2

Original post by Nottie

Some Medicine courses are 6 years.

Reply 4

Anonymous #1

Op here

Isnt it better to get a medical degree then set up your own business rather than have no degree to fall back on?

Reply 5

AnnaRainbows

You seem more enthusiastic about Business, rather than Medicine. At the end of the day, you should do what makes you happy, and not out of duty to your parents or some other social standard. Medicine is for those who don't see themselves doing anything else :smile:

Reply 6

eden3

Do what you want man. Whatever is most practical for you.

I had an offer for Med in Yr 13 and didn't get the grades, I was devastated.

Reply 7

Fred5134

Did you get any experience in a healthcare environment before applying to medicine?

The course is going to be quite expensive and will require many years of very hard work. You may greatly regret going into it simply because you think it's what your family want you to do. They probably want you to do whatever makes you happy.

Have you considered asking your uni if you can defer your offer until next year so that you can make a more informed decision about what you want to do with your life without being rushed by a deadline? A gap year to think things over may help you decide if it's really want you want to do.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 8

mrhedgehog

Medicine is a course where you have to love what you do if you do it. You seem to be more interested in business so I personally would say go with what makes you happiest, don't care about what others think.
You don't want to be in med school for 5/6 years wondering if its worth it while some other applicant is probably crying because they just missed out.

Reply 9

alevez2ez

Medicine is not terrible. I always have wanted to go to Med school.. it's the best place to tell you you're academically superior to pretty much other course over there. Universities are much more rigorous when it comes to taking Med students while all the other applicants have the same standard dates and procedure. Embrace it. You'll soon be having another mental breakdown because you're not at that regret level yet and then you'll forcefully make a choice. All my teachers dissuaded me from doing this course and they also did that to every other student saying it's really hard and bla bla... & that's why they are teachers. Because they couldn't achieve more than ****ing that. You're superior dude. You can do better than all those people at your school. .. a Med school student has made it so far, it's so much harder to make it into a decent med school than it is studying in one. A lot of your journey is over dude. If you leave this course and then start regretting when you're taking Business you'll be forever in the cycle of hate, blame and misery. So make your choice, think about it hard for once and never again. This is obviously only my advice, it's up to you to choose. It's pretty ironic how I'm trying to persuade you into Med School when Med School made me into Gregory House with loads of misery and emotionalism.

Reply 10

Another

I can relate

I've gone through about 2 mental breakdowns a year, wondering if the degree I'm doing is seriously what I want to be doing for the rest of my life. It's taken me until 4th year to finally be content with what I'm doing

You've got to remember that medicine is a very varied kind of field. You could become an NHS doctor like the majority, or you can go off on your own thing entirely. Have you thought about opening a private practice? Plenty of business and advertising opportunities there. If you have a natural gift in marketing, you're going to go far. Many people who do medicine have an inherent dislike for business, so you'll be at an advantage :smile:

Reply 11

InArduisFouette

Original post by Another

You've got to remember that medicine is a very varied kind of field. You could become an NHS doctor like the majority, or you can go off on your own thing entirely. Have you thought about opening a private practice? )

The number of Doctors who practice solely in the private sector is tiny and of those that do many have significant post CCT experience in the NHS / Military , take out the Occ Health doctors who work solely for a large business or an OH provider and the number shrinks even further...

Reply 12

G.name

Original post by AnnaRainbows

Don't romanticise this. Plenty of people do medicine that don't in fact love it. It's a traditional course, that along with it, carries significant social prestige. And no matter what people say, they cannot lie to themselves, that does form a part of their motivation. Not in every case, I'm saying, but the majority. Vast, vast majority, I might add.

I think the girl, because that's how the anonymous poster comes across in gender, should do what will make them happy, honestly like you said. But we can all have those moments of sincere thought in our minds, and on the contrary turn our heels on those conclusions.

I think this person will just go to study medicine, pass the course, through immense struggle (just like her peers, who at the interviews said that they 'loved medicine'; but never really had an idea of that clearly, only in some airy-fairy conception, to please their social expectations); and then go to continue that in training. Come to realise, like bloody 50% of people like herself that she wants a more relaxed life (the opposite to what she said at interview, that she ****ing 'loves continuous learning', when in fact she doesn't, as was clear in her struggles at school), and decide to become a GP. Then, own a business. Oh wait, I mean 'surgery', make a **** tonne of money. Because that's what society's ingrained into her, to earn a lot is good, it will allow you to live voluptuously, and fulfil yourself, i.e. make her bloody parents happy, who also share these erroneous tenets, that they're probably not even aware of.

It is indeed a sad state of affairs. But this is the effect of a passive, opiated people.

But I suppose, we need people like her. That don't take their jobs too seriously; I mean, do them with sincerity, not some quasi-sincerity that's the product of romanticism. We need them because our hospitals are being besieged by an aging population, to be essentially clerics, who've learned their trade by tremendous toil, from a reserve of will-power that's got no virtuous source. Not from actually loving the science, the traditions of medicine, but because of their view of it all, as it has been developed by modern society, corrupted by vice and vanity.

That is the truth!

G

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 13

Another

Original post by zippyRN

If OP doesn't like the career path that most medicine graduates go down, then yeah she'll need to be looking for the job sectors that is only occupied by the minority. If you want it, you'll work towards it

Alternatively, many Doctors and GPs run their own fully NHS or Mixed Private/NHS surgeries. Just because you run an NHS surgery doesn't mean that all business sense goes out the window

Reply 14

AnnaRainbows

Original post by G.name

Um, sorry? How is me saying 'medicine is only for those who don't see themselves doing anything else' romaticising? I didn't say 'people who do medicine love it', please don't draw assumptions from my words.

Medicine to me personally seems like one of the most challenging career options, and with that, naturally comes all the emotional breakdowns 'what ifs' and thoughts of quitting. It's bloody both literally and figuratively and I am in no way sugar-coating or, like You say, romanticising anything about it, because despite ALL of this, some people still don't see themselves doing anything else, no matter how difficult it may be. I've met a few of these people.

I agree though, it does look good socially, but social standards shouldn't be the most important thing, in my opinion :smile:

I hope the OP makes a decision that will make them happy and keep them motivated. Best of luck :smile:

Reply 15

username2752874

Original post by Anonymous

If you decide to stay on, you'll incur debt that is only realistically paid off by practising as a doctor (as income from a business can be a bit erratic). Dragging it on now may mean you have to keep in touch with medicine for a longer time.

Reply 16

Pinkberry_y

I would have put this down to pre university nerves until I read this:

Original post by Anonymous

I was actually happy as I always wanted to do business and start my own business and make myself something. I was going to go into the advertising or the arts side of business.

The alternative is I drop out now, and apply either through clearing or next year for things like business management at Kings which would be amazing!
!

OP you need to be honest with yourself, it sounds like you like the idea of being a doctor and your parents really want you to become a doctor but YOU don't. Don't put yourself through 5/6 years of Medicine which is hard enough when you really want to be doctor let alone if you don't really want to be there.
A guy in my year last year dropped out by December and applied through UCAS to do business at UCL which he will be starting this year now, because he realised he didn't want to do Medicine but started it anyway then after 2 months of studying it really realised he didn't want to do it anymore

Reply 17

G.name

Original post by AnnaRainbows

I hope the OP makes a decision that will make them happy and keep them motivated. Best of luck :smile:

There's no need to get arsey. So the rest of what I said, you agree with, it seems, as you didn't dissect it in the same way as the first. And I might add, it wasn't an assumption; merely an inference. I would argue, however, that what you said was romanticism: by saying that some people's imaginations are trammeled to think of only a career in medicine, is actually quite insulting and unrealistic. As humans, we all have the cognitive power to think more than one way. And just because you've met some people that can attest to your statement, doesn't mean it's true. How can you expect someone who's lying to themselves, or perhaps doesn't truly understand their feelings, for the aforesaid reasons, to give you an honest account of their thoughts. In fact, that too is romanticism.

On the whole, I agree with your advice. But I doubt the OP will read all of this.

G

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 18

doodle_333

it sounds like you really don't know what you want... my personal thought is that giving up your medical school place is a HUGE risk, if you end up regretting it you might not get another place given the competition level whereas you can always drop out if you change your mind. Both business and medicine are going to be tough options to get through and succeed at so you need to think carefully about what you really want long term. Talk to your family, I know you think they'll be disappointed but sometimes you need to talk these things through properly with someone who will be honest with you to see what you truly want... it may be they try and push you towards medicine and it only cements your decision to follow business or it might be that they come up with a few good points and you realise it's just nerves.