A-Level Choices, Medicine or Computer Science
Over the last couple of weeks, I have been contemplating my A-Level Choices and I am currently split between Medicine and Computer Science. From my mock grades of straight 9s I am told that I can go into any career which I want and I am passionate about. I am quite passionate about computer science and have even pursued an EPQ project related to it and am interested to study it in university. Yet looking at the current job market in Tech, it seems absolutely abysmal. The lay-off rates are through the roof and there is always the possibility of AI replacing us and basically making our careers and degree redundant. I am worried that by going into this field, I will never find a job in this market and that it is becoming too competitive. In addition to this, I also realise that this career is no longer as lucrative as it was 10 or 20 years ago. Finally, I know that to even stand a chance in this horrible job market, I will have to get admission to top universities. I am willing to put in the work for this, but if I am rejected from this then my future career prospective are not as good. Also I realise that moving abroad with this profession is a lot harder than medicine due to the competition everywhere in the world.
However I am also curious about medicine. I know that this will be a long gruelling 20+ years of my life for my training, but if I am able to get a well-paid and respectable job then, I do not mind this. But I also know that right now the Junior doctor market and getting into specialist training is extremely competitive. I know that the prestige of the medical school is less important than in CS, (everyone does foundation training afterwards) but would still be aiming top universities. If I was going down this route, I would plan to get my training done and then look at moving abroad to USA or the middle east. But I also know that training as a junior doctor will be traumatising, having to watch people die etc, and I will have to work for long night shifts before I am able to climb the ladder. I am still interested in Biology and Chemistry and I believe
I have done my research into both fields now and soon have to submit my A-level choices. I can always change my choices later, but I still need to decide at some point before starting sixth form. During the Summer after my GCSE's I plan to get work experience in both fields, which I hope will be able to better inform my decisions. I know this has been a long message, but I just want to choice the right field where I will be happiest. Any advice, but specifically if you work in one of these fields, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
However I am also curious about medicine. I know that this will be a long gruelling 20+ years of my life for my training, but if I am able to get a well-paid and respectable job then, I do not mind this. But I also know that right now the Junior doctor market and getting into specialist training is extremely competitive. I know that the prestige of the medical school is less important than in CS, (everyone does foundation training afterwards) but would still be aiming top universities. If I was going down this route, I would plan to get my training done and then look at moving abroad to USA or the middle east. But I also know that training as a junior doctor will be traumatising, having to watch people die etc, and I will have to work for long night shifts before I am able to climb the ladder. I am still interested in Biology and Chemistry and I believe
I have done my research into both fields now and soon have to submit my A-level choices. I can always change my choices later, but I still need to decide at some point before starting sixth form. During the Summer after my GCSE's I plan to get work experience in both fields, which I hope will be able to better inform my decisions. I know this has been a long message, but I just want to choice the right field where I will be happiest. Any advice, but specifically if you work in one of these fields, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
You can easily get into either course by doing bio/chem/maths/fm so it's hardly an either or. In fact even FM isn't necessary except for a handful of CS courses.
There is no such thing as a "top university" for medicine because the NHS is the only employer for graduate trainee doctors and they consider all medical schools equal in line with the GMC view, and to ensure there is no bias they blind recruiters from your medical school in the recruitment process.
Also not all specialties are equally competitive and you can't only look at competition ratios in isolation for these - while for example clinical and medical oncology have competition rations of n>1, they never fill all posts. Likewise with GP and quite a few other specialties as I understand. This reflects simply that many doctors apply to a large number of specialties, which drives up the competition ratio, but since they can only accept one training number ultimately some of those will go unfilled.
Note that unless you're a US citizen your odds of getting a job in medicine in the US are quite a bit smaller than you might be thinking. There are a lot of immigration complexities which restrict employers sponsoring working visas if there are qualified Americans that could take the job so anything or anywhere that would be "competitive" in the US, you won't be able to get unless you're truly better than literally every other US doctor that applies to that job. I'd also note that invariably since you specify the US and the Gulf you are making such decisions based on salary alone, and the highest or even median salaries for US doctors are not going to be the same as for IMGs - as above you aren't likely to be working in a competitive specialty, which tends to include all the most lucrative ones, and you're also most likely going to be working for a hospital as a salaried doctor, rather than setting up your own private practice, and hospital based doctors will earn a lot less regardless.
There is also no guarantee labour markets will remain the same in other countries like the Gulf, Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc for overseas doctors and since you are at T-11 to 16 years, going into medicine with the exclusive intention of working abroad is not a good idea because those markets may not exist by the time you get to that stage. For all you know geopolitical situations may change restricting your ability to work there, or they may find other countries are able to supply their demand for doctors cheaper than UK doctors. Also realistically in 11+ years time your priorities are likely to be very different and you may be much less keen to move halfway across the world for a paycheque away from all your family and friends.
I'd also note that medicine is to some extent jurisdictional and some countries may not accept all GMC accredited medical degrees equally (or at all), and moreover your experience studying and practicing medicine in the UK NHS system is not necessarily going to prepare you to work in a foreign healthcare system which in some cases may have a completely different model (such as in the US). Therefore it's generally probably best to aim to study medicine where you will ultimately be practicing medicine.
So I think you may need to think a bit more about your motivations for medicine and plans for it and whether that's actually realistic, regardless of whether or not you can get into the medical degree in the first place.
There is no such thing as a "top university" for medicine because the NHS is the only employer for graduate trainee doctors and they consider all medical schools equal in line with the GMC view, and to ensure there is no bias they blind recruiters from your medical school in the recruitment process.
Also not all specialties are equally competitive and you can't only look at competition ratios in isolation for these - while for example clinical and medical oncology have competition rations of n>1, they never fill all posts. Likewise with GP and quite a few other specialties as I understand. This reflects simply that many doctors apply to a large number of specialties, which drives up the competition ratio, but since they can only accept one training number ultimately some of those will go unfilled.
Note that unless you're a US citizen your odds of getting a job in medicine in the US are quite a bit smaller than you might be thinking. There are a lot of immigration complexities which restrict employers sponsoring working visas if there are qualified Americans that could take the job so anything or anywhere that would be "competitive" in the US, you won't be able to get unless you're truly better than literally every other US doctor that applies to that job. I'd also note that invariably since you specify the US and the Gulf you are making such decisions based on salary alone, and the highest or even median salaries for US doctors are not going to be the same as for IMGs - as above you aren't likely to be working in a competitive specialty, which tends to include all the most lucrative ones, and you're also most likely going to be working for a hospital as a salaried doctor, rather than setting up your own private practice, and hospital based doctors will earn a lot less regardless.
There is also no guarantee labour markets will remain the same in other countries like the Gulf, Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc for overseas doctors and since you are at T-11 to 16 years, going into medicine with the exclusive intention of working abroad is not a good idea because those markets may not exist by the time you get to that stage. For all you know geopolitical situations may change restricting your ability to work there, or they may find other countries are able to supply their demand for doctors cheaper than UK doctors. Also realistically in 11+ years time your priorities are likely to be very different and you may be much less keen to move halfway across the world for a paycheque away from all your family and friends.
I'd also note that medicine is to some extent jurisdictional and some countries may not accept all GMC accredited medical degrees equally (or at all), and moreover your experience studying and practicing medicine in the UK NHS system is not necessarily going to prepare you to work in a foreign healthcare system which in some cases may have a completely different model (such as in the US). Therefore it's generally probably best to aim to study medicine where you will ultimately be practicing medicine.
So I think you may need to think a bit more about your motivations for medicine and plans for it and whether that's actually realistic, regardless of whether or not you can get into the medical degree in the first place.
Reply 2
Original post
by Pro13Over the last couple of weeks, I have been contemplating my A-Level Choices and I am currently split between Medicine and Computer Science. From my mock grades of straight 9s I am told that I can go into any career which I want and I am passionate about. I am quite passionate about computer science and have even pursued an EPQ project related to it and am interested to study it in university. Yet looking at the current job market in Tech, it seems absolutely abysmal. The lay-off rates are through the roof and there is always the possibility of AI replacing us and basically making our careers and degree redundant. I am worried that by going into this field, I will never find a job in this market and that it is becoming too competitive. In addition to this, I also realise that this career is no longer as lucrative as it was 10 or 20 years ago. Finally, I know that to even stand a chance in this horrible job market, I will have to get admission to top universities. I am willing to put in the work for this, but if I am rejected from this then my future career prospective are not as good. Also I realise that moving abroad with this profession is a lot harder than medicine due to the competition everywhere in the world.
However I am also curious about medicine. I know that this will be a long gruelling 20+ years of my life for my training, but if I am able to get a well-paid and respectable job then, I do not mind this. But I also know that right now the Junior doctor market and getting into specialist training is extremely competitive. I know that the prestige of the medical school is less important than in CS, (everyone does foundation training afterwards) but would still be aiming top universities. If I was going down this route, I would plan to get my training done and then look at moving abroad to USA or the middle east. But I also know that training as a junior doctor will be traumatising, having to watch people die etc, and I will have to work for long night shifts before I am able to climb the ladder. I am still interested in Biology and Chemistry and I believe
I have done my research into both fields now and soon have to submit my A-level choices. I can always change my choices later, but I still need to decide at some point before starting sixth form. During the Summer after my GCSE's I plan to get work experience in both fields, which I hope will be able to better inform my decisions. I know this has been a long message, but I just want to choice the right field where I will be happiest. Any advice, but specifically if you work in one of these fields, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
However I am also curious about medicine. I know that this will be a long gruelling 20+ years of my life for my training, but if I am able to get a well-paid and respectable job then, I do not mind this. But I also know that right now the Junior doctor market and getting into specialist training is extremely competitive. I know that the prestige of the medical school is less important than in CS, (everyone does foundation training afterwards) but would still be aiming top universities. If I was going down this route, I would plan to get my training done and then look at moving abroad to USA or the middle east. But I also know that training as a junior doctor will be traumatising, having to watch people die etc, and I will have to work for long night shifts before I am able to climb the ladder. I am still interested in Biology and Chemistry and I believe
I have done my research into both fields now and soon have to submit my A-level choices. I can always change my choices later, but I still need to decide at some point before starting sixth form. During the Summer after my GCSE's I plan to get work experience in both fields, which I hope will be able to better inform my decisions. I know this has been a long message, but I just want to choice the right field where I will be happiest. Any advice, but specifically if you work in one of these fields, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Hello!
I was in a similar position when I started my A-Levels, as I was considering between 3 different routes: medicine, engineering and computer science, with medicine being my priority and top interest. I took Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Maths and Further Maths.
However, after the 1st term, I realised that I wasn't enjoying Chemistry as much as my other A-levels. The workload of 5 A-levels was quite challenging, so I dropped Chemistry, crossing out my path to medicine (at least through conventional routes). I chose to do Computer Science at university as I really enjoyed the breadth of the opportunities that the degree provides, and the problem-solving aspects of programming. No regrets so far, although I am still looking to combine my interests in technology and medicine by pursuing further education/research in bioinformatics or health data science.
1.
To keep your options open, you can take Maths, Chemistry, and Biology, which would enable you to do both degrees. None of the universities require CS A-level for a CS degree, although for some Further Maths is essential.
2.
There are a lot more options available by completing either degrees than just software developer and doctor. That is why pursuing a career that you are genuinely interested in is beneficial, as you are more likely to explore those. The job market and the trends are ever-changing and difficult to predict looking far into the future... But also don't let the idea of making the wrong choice scare you, as this choice is definitely not the end of the journey. Even if you choose to do the other, you can later find yourself switching the speciality, etc... There are many opportunities out there.
3.
It's a very difficult decision. Take your time with the research, but also prepare for the decision to become increasingly more difficult the more research you do. Perhaps reaching out to people who work in those fields (through the alumni contacts of your school, or connections on LinkedIn), shadowing, work experience (virtual and in-person) can all be useful in helping to shape your opinion.
Polina,
Lancaster University Computer Science Ambassador.
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