Am I Nuts?

[CivE Bricky]

Chucktown -

Beyond a doubt, you need a different job with a different emphasis.

I think there's lots of good discussion here. JR said much of what I wanted to say - and quite well.

I agree there's more going on with you than a burning desire to be a doc.

I agree you need to know way more about what medicine really is before you decide whether to go that route...

I think there's something about missed expectations related to income, lifestyle, doing better than parents (maybe), having a stay-at-home parent, etc. that may not add up in the exact place you're living now - but would add up elsewhere. Medical school is going to be a minimum of 6-7 years of far worse financial issues than you have now....and no guarantee of a relatively quick way to dig out of medical school debt once it's over.

I recommend more thinking and investigation - you haven't convinced me that you're drawn to medicine, but more that you're trying to escape from something else.

Good luck sorting it out!

-Brick

 

[Chucktown PE]

So I wasted another year on this and I'm back in the same place. I can't seem to shake the desire and I feel like time is running out for me. My job sucks even more now than it did a year ago. After talking to doctors, even the ones that told me not to do it, I am now trying to sign up for a biology course and an organic chemistry course this fall. I'll have to take another biology and organic chemistry in the spring and I'm going to study for the MCAT for the next year and try to take it at the end of next summer, along with brushing up on my general chemistry, which I haven't had in 10 years. That will mean that I could possibly enroll in medical school when I'm almost 32 (Fall of 2012) and I'll be 36 when I get out, 40 - 42 by the time I start making decent money again. Oh well, that's better than being miserable for the next 30 years.

 

[Paul S]

So I wasted another year on this and I'm back in the same place. I can't seem to shake the desire and I feel like time is running out for me. My job sucks even more now than it did a year ago. After talking to doctors, even the ones that told me not to do it, I am now trying to sign up for a biology course and an organic chemistry course this fall. I'll have to take another biology and organic chemistry in the spring and I'm going to study for the MCAT for the next year and try to take it at the end of next summer, along with brushing up on my general chemistry, which I haven't had in 10 years. That will mean that I could possibly enroll in medical school when I'm almost 32 (Fall of 2012) and I'll be 36 when I get out, 40 - 42 by the time I start making decent money again. Oh well, that's better than being miserable for the next 30 years.

You can do it Chuck! Good luck!

 

[Master slacker]

When are you going to accept the fact you'll be called "Dr. Jellyfinger"? uke:

 

[cdcengineer]

So I wasted another year on this and I'm back in the same place. I can't seem to shake the desire and I feel like time is running out for me. My job sucks even more now than it did a year ago. After talking to doctors, even the ones that told me not to do it, I am now trying to sign up for a biology course and an organic chemistry course this fall. I'll have to take another biology and organic chemistry in the spring and I'm going to study for the MCAT for the next year and try to take it at the end of next summer, along with brushing up on my general chemistry, which I haven't had in 10 years. That will mean that I could possibly enroll in medical school when I'm almost 32 (Fall of 2012) and I'll be 36 when I get out, 40 - 42 by the time I start making decent money again. Oh well, that's better than being miserable for the next 30 years.

Chuck - you gotta try and be happy.

Yeah, you might be nuts, and you sound like a guy I used to work with, but happiness is key.

Good Luck

 

[benbo]

2012? Isn't that around the time the USA as we know it is going to cease to exist? Won't that have any impact on your plans?

Seriously, just take your classes and see how you like them. That's not really that big of a commitment to start out with.

I took a year of O chem and a couple biology courses when I started out in school, and shortly after that became a drunken hippy and dropped out of school for a while. O Chem is a pain and completely boring IMO. Plus the class will probably be full of a bunch of annoying, cutthroat pre-med kids. But I don't think that it necessarily has much to do with what doctors actually do.

 

[Master slacker]

But I don't think that it necessarily has much to do with what doctors actually do.

Kinda like differential equations for us?

 

[Slugger926]

So I wasted another year on this and I'm back in the same place. I can't seem to shake the desire and I feel like time is running out for me. My job sucks even more now than it did a year ago. After talking to doctors, even the ones that told me not to do it, I am now trying to sign up for a biology course and an organic chemistry course this fall. I'll have to take another biology and organic chemistry in the spring and I'm going to study for the MCAT for the next year and try to take it at the end of next summer, along with brushing up on my general chemistry, which I haven't had in 10 years. That will mean that I could possibly enroll in medical school when I'm almost 32 (Fall of 2012) and I'll be 36 when I get out, 40 - 42 by the time I start making decent money again. Oh well, that's better than being miserable for the next 30 years.

That is the exact same reason I went back to grad school for an engineering management degree, and now 1 year out from finishing an MBA. Have you thought about launching something on your own, and maybe taking an Small Business Entrepreneurship with possibly a Corporate Entrepreneurship class to help guide you? Marketing, organizational theory, and a few other classes will help as well. You can hire out the accounting and legal on an as needed basis.

My wife, an RN, didn't want me to go to medical school even though I could get in easily at Oklahoma State. I will be 40 in September, and would love to launch my own company as soon as I finish this MBA. The successful doctors I know have business degrees too, and launch their own clinics, and grow their business.

On another note, have you considered the BSN degree, becoming a nurse, then finding a distance learning or local MS in Nursing program to become a nurse practitioner? The nurse practitioners make nearly as much as the doctors with less intern and clinical time, and less headaches.

Good luck with your decision. Let us know what kind of stuff we can engineer to start a biomedical company.

 

[Dleg]

.... you should still consider federal service..... The health care bill provides for 800 fully-funded medical degrees per year, provided you commit to 2 years service in the US Public Health Service for every year of education that is paid for. Not sure it's been funded yet, but the mechanism is in place. By the time you finish your chem and biology classes, it will probably be open for business.

If you just want the caduceus on your collar, you could bypass all the schooling and join the USPHS right now and put all that wastewater engineering skill to work on a deserving indian reservation somewhere (probably not even on the rez itself, at your level of skill - you'd be in a more centralized office serving multiple reservations). Of course, the hiring process is a little messed up right now, but it will probably be sorted out by the time you get through the application process.

 

[AN_US]

Hi Chucktown! Remember me?

Your post reminds me of a joke that ends like this:

"Hey! Some asshole has my pen!"

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

AN_US, how's it going you old stinker? Haven't heard a toot from you in ages. Where ya been?

 

[Master slacker]

Probably just been farting around.

 

[ElCid03]

That's certainly a tough one but MUSC is a great school. If it's still bothering you a year later then you're right it will bother you for the rest of your life. Go for it!

 

[Chucktown PE]

Sorry to dredge this up, but rather than starting a new thread I thought I'd mention that I have had another opportunity fall in my lap this week. I had a startup equipment manufacturer call me about coming to work for them as one of their application/sales engineers.

It sounds like it could be hugely lucrative and there would be an ability to buy into the business. It could also be incredibly risky. I'm not going to mention the company's name but now I'm debating whether I should try this.

 

[Dleg]

The only engineer I know who truly makes "fatty money" did so by becoming a sales engineer in the industry he used to work in as a "regular engineer". But, you've got to pretty good at being a people person to keep it up without burning out fast.

 

[Chucktown PE]

The only engineer I know who truly makes "fatty money" did so by becoming a sales engineer in the industry he used to work in as a "regular engineer". But, you've got to pretty good at being a people person to keep it up without burning out fast.

So he had an airplane and a girlfriend that would let him do things to her that are illegal in some states? Whatelse qualified him as making fatty money?

j/k

Believe it or not from my posts, but I am a people person. I do really well talking to people. And since this is a startup, it sounds like I'd be doing the technical sales part of it for a while, but then I'd get to do some product development type stuff as well.

 

[Dleg]

Yes, he truly does own a plane. He's married, though, and I won't speculate as to what his wife allows him to do.

 

[Flyer_PE]

The company I work for has less than 30 full time employees. My brother's wife thinks it's risky as all hell because it's a small company. I feel a lot more secure here than I ever did working for either the utility or the medium sized AE. My reasoning is that the only job security that exists is what you have to offer your next employer. Even if there is risk of the company not surviving, for me, that risk might be offset by experience and marketability gained.

 

[ElCid03]

^Well said!