Medicine after Economics?

Hey, I'm currently finishing my A-Levels for Business Studies, Maths (with Statistics) and Economics. I've applied for an Economics degree in Netherlands and I've been given an offer. My problem is, I absolutely don't want to be studying Economics. I do find it relatively interesting, I'm good at it and it goes well with my multilingual abilities, but I'm very certain I'd absolutely love medicine and that's what I want to do. There is no way for me to not do the Economics degree, but I was just wondering if anyone has any experience/knows anyone with the experience of entirely switching their career around?

P.S I'm currently 17, 18 next year in April if that helps in any way

What makes you say this?

Have you done any work experience in medicine? I'm just interested to see what your motivations are.

There are foundation degrees in medicine which have been designed specifically for people with the wrong A levels. I think it would be worth looking into them before embarking on a totally unrelated course for the next three years.

No, I haven't done any medicine-related work experience. I've never had the opportunity to choose my education. My parents own a company, so as you can expect, they've been making decisions for me for as long as I can remember.
Before starting A-Levels I was very good at Physics and top of class in Biology (i didn't do GCSE, i did something else, for which the level is higher). I often just research online and watch surgery videos, I'm absolutely fascinated by this. I just think that the world could really use more doctors, and we have enough theoretical Economists, because honestly, anyone can do economics. It would be such a waste for me to not do medicine, because I am not grossed out by anything human and I really need a purpose in life, because it is so hard to keep motivated when you pretty much hate what you're doing.

Thank you for the advice, I will look into that. I don't think I'll be able to confront my parents and go for a Foundation programme this year though. They are absolutely keen on me going to university at 17. I know it sounds stupid, but that's just my situation.

First of all I suggest you actually do work experience in a medical field - try and shadow a doctor. You really need to know what you want if you want to do medicine. (Also med schools more or less expect some sort of medical career exploration).

Sadly you must do Chemistry and or Biology otherwise I doubt that you will even be interviewed for medicine. Medical schools are competitive you know.

The realistic option is to either to do a Foundation programme or take a gap year to cram in a chemistry A-level as a private candidate. There is probably like 95% chance that you are not going to get interviewed with your current a-level choices if you want to go to med school at 17.

Also Graduate Entry Medicine could be harder to get in with an economics degree compared to most life science graduate applicants. GEM is by far way more competitive than undergraduate medicine. And by the way, if you are an international and want to study in the uk you would probably find the competition ratios 20 times more competitive than if you were a uk home student.

So...find out about medicine fully through work exp. Then either learn chemistry in a gap year and apply, or directly apply to a foundation programme if you really want to do medicine.

Also you don't always have to please your parents all the time you know.

Hey, I'm currently finishing my A-Levels for Business Studies, Maths (with Statistics) and Economics. I've applied for an Economics degree in Netherlands and I've been given an offer. My problem is, I absolutely don't want to be studying Economics. I do find it relatively interesting, I'm good at it and it goes well with my multilingual abilities, but I'm very certain I'd absolutely love medicine and that's what I want to do. There is no way for me to not do the Economics degree, but I was just wondering if anyone has any experience/knows anyone with the experience of entirely switching their career around?

P.S I'm currently 17, 18 next year in April if that helps in any way

Well I did!

Back in 2013, I had an offer to study Classics at UCL (random, I know). All my A levels were in non-scientific subjects. I was a bit like you: I was fascinated by the human body even though I hadn't really studied it much. I wanted to do something with my life where I knew I would be fulfilled and I knew medicine would provide that.
I declined the UCL offer, took a gap year where I did some travelling and some all-important work experience (it'd be silly not to get W/E. You need to make sure you're making the right decision) and now I'm doing an access to medicine course at a local college. I'm coming up to the end of it now, and despite all the people telling me how difficult it will be and how mad I am for making such a drastic decision, I am off to study medicine at King's this September!

If you want it enough, there is absolutely nothing stopping you. One thing I would say is it certainly won't be easy. Do your research, get some work experience, look into your options, knuckle down and persist! I hope it all works out for you! If you have any questions, just ask

Would like to point out graduate entry courses only have a handful of places in the country for international students.
If you do a different degree now you will struggle much more to do medicine later than if you did foundation year/access courses or just took a year out to do the correct A levels.

One of my biggest regrets as a teenager was not taking a year out to figure out what I wanted to do, instead of blindly jumping in to the first thing that can to hand.

This is so inspirational, thank you!!!
Do you mind me asking how old are you? And how long did you do the access course for?
I am 17 and I feel that if I take a foundation course I will be much older than most students at university. If it's just a year course than it should not be a problem though.

Seriously, thank you so much for your reply, it means the world to me knowing that it is possible to do what I want to do.

Thank you for the info =) I will definitely look more into access/foundation courses.

Do you happen to know if doing foundation is better than re-doing A levels? (I honestly wouldn't want to spend another 2 years doing A Levels in a college, I'd much rather study in a uni environment.)

Depends on where you want to apply to and what they accept.
Foundation courses are widening access courses provided by universities for under privileged children, as an international/EU student I don't know that you would qualify. Do check this though.

Hey, I'm currently finishing my A-Levels for Business Studies, Maths (with Statistics) and Economics. I've applied for an Economics degree in Netherlands and I've been given an offer. My problem is, I absolutely don't want to be studying Economics. I do find it relatively interesting, I'm good at it and it goes well with my multilingual abilities, but I'm very certain I'd absolutely love medicine and that's what I want to do. There is no way for me to not do the Economics degree, but I was just wondering if anyone has any experience/knows anyone with the experience of entirely switching their career around?

P.S I'm currently 17, 18 next year in April if that helps in any way