Help Medicine or finance

Hi guys,
I got a pretty daunting situation where I’m stuck on how I want to move on in my life.
I have taken a gap year and in year 13 applied for medicine and 2 economics courses too. I didn’t do well in my medicine application as a whole and I think that influenced my decision into thinking medicine is not for me.
Now im applying again and I’m having doubts about whether I want to have a life in finance.
If I flipped a coin and on one side was medicine the other accounting and finance. I’m afraid my heart seems to push more for the medicine side. But I would need another gap year and start all over again. And if I am not successful yet another gap year.
Please please if anyone was in my situation and you can advise I would appreciate it so much.

I'm not sure anyone can answer this for you. If you dont have work experience in a healthcare role (HCA ideally or a carer), that might be a good start. Especially for your gap year.
For reference, im just a GEM med applicant (with interviews). I've seen countless posts online advising to avoid medicine. For me personally, I've worked as a physio for 10yrs and know the pressures of the NHS. I know unequically that I want to be a doctor and it's the only occupation I'm passionate about. Every doctor I've spoken to in real life, while acknowledging how difficult med is, has said they would never have chosen a different profession and love their jobs. Obviously the money is less than a finance role, but for someone like myself, it's a lot more money, even at just F2.
I've seen many posts online about those who have switched from med to finance, and that it's not an easy transition. And I've seen posts from those who have left and returned to med, or move to medicine from finance. The overriding sentiment seems to be medicine is just more rewarding. But there's plenty of people saying they don't miss medicine either. I don't think finance roles are a walk in the park, you'll have similar difficulty with long hours, difficult workloads and high competition.
It comes down to what your passion is. Which is an enormously difficult thing to decide at 18 years old. You can always apply for grad medicine if you study maths/accounting etc and decide it's not for you. And vise versa. I realise this doesn't answer your question at all, but i hope it was some food for thought.

Hi guys,
I got a pretty daunting situation where I’m stuck on how I want to move on in my life.
I have taken a gap year and in year 13 applied for medicine and 2 economics courses too. I didn’t do well in my medicine application as a whole and I think that influenced my decision into thinking medicine is not for me.
Now im applying again and I’m having doubts about whether I want to have a life in finance.
If I flipped a coin and on one side was medicine the other accounting and finance. I’m afraid my heart seems to push more for the medicine side. But I would need another gap year and start all over again. And if I am not successful yet another gap year.
Please please if anyone was in my situation and you can advise I would appreciate it so much.

I’m glad I came across your post as an undergrad student looking to do Medicine, this has definitely given me something to think about.
I can’t think of other careers that I’d genuinely be interested in, but due to hearing a lot of negativity from those in the profession it made me doubt whether I was making the right decision.

I think I'm qualified to answer this question, at least from a personal perspective. I know people who have taken several gap year(s), myself included. It's tough putting studies on hold especially when your friends from college have 'move on' with their life and are finishing their degrees already. However, medicine in itself is a long degree, 5 years plus 1-2 years depending on intercalation and BM6 year 0 years or years out - 'taking a break' from studies. I chose to continue to pursue a career in medicine because of a number reasons, the main one being while I was good at maths during sixth form and I did enjoy it to a degree (was fortunate enough to be able to grasp the concepts without much work and genuinely found it satisfying when a question would click into place nicely) I missed the science of biology and to a lesser degree chemistry (didn't really like Chemistry all that much at A level, haven't come across it as such to a deeper degree at medical school so far). In theory, going for economics would be fairly straightforward as the subject requirements aren't that specific, many accept you if you took maths as an A level and my subjects (maths, chem, bio) were more than enough with the required grades. See if you can do some work experience during your gap years, I know lots of people on various courses across the country who did different jobs from HCAs to office work/administration. Please don't worry about feeling behind and the uncertainty of it all (easier said than done!) as life is a marathon, not a sprint. Everyone has a different journey, there's numerous people who are graduates on the BM5 course and also multiple mature students. It just means you have more life experience etc. Feel free to reply to this message if you have any more questions.

Hi guys,
I got a pretty daunting situation where I’m stuck on how I want to move on in my life.
I have taken a gap year and in year 13 applied for medicine and 2 economics courses too. I didn’t do well in my medicine application as a whole and I think that influenced my decision into thinking medicine is not for me.
Now im applying again and I’m having doubts about whether I want to have a life in finance.
If I flipped a coin and on one side was medicine the other accounting and finance. I’m afraid my heart seems to push more for the medicine side. But I would need another gap year and start all over again. And if I am not successful yet another gap year.
Please please if anyone was in my situation and you can advise I would appreciate it so much.

I'm happy to hear that. Before approaching doctors at work (and one from my gym), my only contact was doctors on Reddit. And the doctors Reddit is pure hatred for: the profession, healthcare professionals, PAs, ANPs/ACPs and basically everything. But I think they only represent a very small amount of doctors, and a very specific demographic. It's an echo chamber of extremely upset people, and it won't give you the full picture.
This week I've been reading the book Your Life In My Hands by Rachel Clarke. Talks about all the doctor struggles up to 2017. Talks about all the ups/downs of the life of a doctor in the UK. Has spurred me on more to want to pursue medicine.