Going back to school?

[Midoriya]

Okay, so this is basically a question and discussion for people who have graduated from university and gone on to graduate school, but feel free to contribute even if you haven’t done those things. For context, I recently graduated from university with a degree in business. I’m feeling a lot lately though that I haven’t learned enough, and that I want to go back to school sometime in the future. I’ve been having dreams and feelings lately that I should go to med school and eventually become a doctor, and these feelings have only been strengthened by the virus COVID-19, my mom struggling with cancer, and the fact that I have people in my family who are in the medical field. I really feel like I could accomplish it, I’m just not sure if I could handle everything that comes with the job (that’s the only thing holding me back besides time and money right now). My question is, for those that have been to university, is it worth going for more than four years, or not? I know this is kind of a loaded question and I’m sure there’s bound to be different opinions on it (I’d love to get opinions from people already in the medical field as well), but I just wanted to know what people on this site think. Thanks for reading.

 

[CasualWheezer]

I'm currently a senior in high school, I'm continuing attending school online but I'm probably not going to go back to in person learning. It's just not going to be the same and it's going to be really hard to adapt to that environment. As for college, I plan on going there probably the after next summer but I still haven't made any serious applications or know where I want to go. I want to pursue the humanities like English, History, etc and also really want in my wildest dreams to do something with film creation.

 

[Dunquixote]

I attended college 2005 (after I graduated) and several years after and I honestly regret it, though I don’t regret what I learned since I would have never been aware of the settlements and stuff in Israel :/ or learned how to check more sources and look at different view points. But since I lost my job, paying my student loans have been impossible. I cannot get hired by anyone and there is no job I am comfortable with because of my mental issues.

I originally went to school as a history major political science minor and one point went into secondary education but my instructor and my experience convinced me that wasn’t the path for me. I couldn’t pass the last two classes.

I took a break and eventually went into medical billing to give mea better chance at getting an office job for a part time or full time, come to find out the certification test cost 500 dollars and the books are expensive. by now i forgot everything anyways. i don’t even have five hundred dollars.

To me it has been a waste of money aside from the knowledge I obtained; I had a lot of problems but I won’t go into them (it is extremely painful for me to think about tbh). Had i known loans would go up every year not paid, I wouldn’t have gone.

Sorry for this being all over the place. My answer would be yes if you know exactly what you want to do and don’t do what I do keep changing your mind (or the guidance counselors not being entirely helpful). I think you may have a better chance at getting hired.

I may be wrong though since I haven’t finished.

Sorry if this has been no help. this is a difficult topic for me but i want to help you by sharing what I could.

 

[glow]

grad student here!

ok so postgrad is only worth it depending on your career path. honestly, master's degrees are only worth what you derive from the knowledge + how it advances your career.

i'm an accounting major, and for me it's HUGE because it allows me to enter public accounting ($$$) and take the CPA exam and beyond that i'm actually learning a lot (or, uh, trying to) and i'm into the subject.

if i was like.... a humanities major.. i don't think a masters is gonna do much unless you want to go into education. even some business degrees, like marketing for example, a master degree is lowkey useless

so yeah you gotta do the ~return on investment guesstimate~, and this doesn't just have to be a monetary thing. it can be value that you will see just from being in a field you love. just from your short paragraph, i'd say you should AT MINIMUM test the waters! talk to people in the field as much as you can -- connect with ur family members in medicine and bring up your hesitancies and maybe ask if there's somewhere you may be able to intern. even if it's in more of an admin role, you may get a sense of the environment and learn more about what you want to pursue

 

[Aliya]

Hi! Current graduate student in Public Health (specifically in Epidemiology) and I plan to get my PhD in the future but I'm not sure yet if I'm going to take a break between my MPH and PhD (depends on how competitive I am, but I am currently split between academia and industry research as my final career goal). This is super long but I hope it helps!

Similar to what others have said already, it's only worth it if your career path requires it. Regardless of your field/end career goal don’t make the investment if it’s not required (especially now with online learning imo it's not worth paying the price of normal tuition even if you have synchronous online classes). Going back to school is extremely expensive and it shouldn't be a decision you rush into, but I admire your passion for medicine! Unfortunately it's quite different for the humanities and the ROI just isn't there imo like with business and STEM.

Since your undergrad is in business I'm assuming you'll have to go back and complete the science prerequisites for pre-med. That would be a good opportunity to first see if the material is interesting to you and to network with faculty which will help immensely when applying. I cannot stress networking enough as I wouldn't have my Graduate RA position or numerous career development opportunities if I didn't talk to my professors about my career goals. I am incredibly quiet so it hasn't been easy to put myself out there and now my only regret is that I didn't start talking sooner!

As for myself I went to undergrad in Health Administration (because good $$$ lmao), but it wasn't fulfilling for me and I just didn't feel the same passion my peers did. I became interested in research through a required class and nothing in my other courses made me as excited. I decided to change my career plans to PH after realizing it was the right fit for me in my final year of undergrad. I need to get my Masters to qualify for many entry-level positions and a PhD if I am looking to further my career so graduate school and beyond is pretty much a necessity.

I'm more than happy to chat more via PM if you or anyone reading has any additional questions. I am incredibly passionate about what I'm learning now and it is truly day and night compared to my undergrad. I'm confident that I'm on the right track now with my career and I couldn't be happier

 

[TheSillyPuppy]

I can't offer much from personal experience, but Dr. Mike has a video specifically sharing his journey about how he found his way into medicine.

In some ways, I think your background in business might give you a unique skillset and perspective that can be valuable in the medical field. For example, if a medical professional interacts with patients on a daily basis, I think a good skill to have is persuasion. Some patients (i.e. my mom ) can be stubborn and insist that their daily habits are healthy when they're factually not, and it's up to medical professionals to work with patients to get them on track towards a healthy lifestyle that works with the patient's habits, routines, daily schedule, etc.

In more broad strokes, I come from an engineering background, and from what I've heard, the time and money investment is not worth another four or five years of undergraduate studies, say, if your original major was in civil engineering and you wanted to pursue a career in mechanical engineering instead. In that case, most people would opt for pursuing a Master's in mechanical engineering at most. Obviously, a transition from business to medicine would require "catching up" of foundational knowledge in the sciences, some mathematics, etc., but I don't have the knowledge to judge whether or not that is worth another undergrad degree in life sciences/something else.

I hope this helps; apologies for having thoughts all over the place. Happy Thanksgiving, and take care!

 

[amemome]

For me it was worth it. My undergrad degree was in English, and I wasn't really able to find a good application for my degree in the job market. I ended up going to grad school in a computer-adjacent field, and it immediately improved my job prospects and my skillset. Currently in a decent computer-adjacent job, can see myself growing a lot more than if I had just stuck with my undergrad degree.

Obviously your business degree gives you more options coming right out of undergrad... but if you want to specialize further, going to grad school might give you that opportunity.

You could also go to grad school through your company, if that's something they offer. I have a friend who got their higher education reimbursed by their workplace!

Med School thoughts <- IMO med school is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from getting a graduate degree:

I have a friend in her final year of med school (good luck to her in finding a residency program) and from what I've heard, it's a LOT... lots of memorizing/testing (and lots of it ends up being high-stakes), lots of clinic work (unpaid iirc?), lots of human relations (gotta kiss up to your resident so you get a good recommendation, have to deal with others in your program actively trying to stomp you out so they get exceptional rec letters, etc...). if that's something you think is interesting, and you have a specific idea of what kind of doctor you want to be (i.e. will you be in the ER, outpatient, inpatient, etc. or a hospitalist? or someone super specialized?)

Med school is 3-4 years of school/ clinic and then another 4 years of residency, possibly more depending on what you specialize in and what kinds of work you want to do in the hospital. So that's at least 8 years of not being a full-fledged doctor.

 

[Aurita]

hi current Microbiology PhD candidate here!

going to med school is very different from getting a PhD but I think this applies pretty broadly.

what are your motivations for going to med school & what are your future goals & timeline? as previous people mentioned it’s going to take many years before you’re a full doctor ): are you willing to invest that much time for a career change? If so, then I think you should go for it! I don’t think it’s ever too late to follow your passions & dreams but it’ll be a bit of a harder road that those who took the “traditional” path.

you’ll probably need to take additional courses to meet the med school requirements and idk how it’ll work with covid but you’d need some hospital time / research time before applying o: also a major thing is the financial aspect! unlike PhDs where you are paid to go to grad school, you usually need to pay for med school and would you be willing to take out lots in loans potentially? o:

i think it’s very commendable for you to realize you want to shift paths & are looking for ways to do it! Online learning isn’t for everyone but it does open up avenues for you in terms of schools & courses. I’d say if you’re sure about pursuing medicine, you should go for it but plan out the timeline & financial details first.

 

[Midoriya]

what are your motivations for going to med school & what are your future goals & timeline? as previous people mentioned it’s going to take many years before you’re a full doctor ): are you willing to invest that much time for a career change? If so, then I think you should go for it! I don’t think it’s ever too late to follow your passions & dreams but it’ll be a bit of a harder road that those who took the “traditional” path.

you’ll probably need to take additional courses to meet the med school requirements and idk how it’ll work with covid but you’d need some hospital time / research time before applying o: also a major thing is the financial aspect! unlike PhDs where you are paid to go to grad school, you usually need to pay for med school and would you be willing to take out lots in loans potentially? o:

To be honest, my biggest motivation for going is because I want to help others and do something I enjoy, and I feel like I could accomplish both of those things if I went down this path. I’m not even sure what my future goals & timeline are right now. I also probably wouldn’t be able to pay for it anytime soon and wouldn’t be willing to take out more loans as I’m already dealing with loans that I’ll need to pay back before too long.

After reading everyone’s replies here I decided that maybe that wouldn’t be the best path for me. I may ask my family about it (specifically the ones who are in the medical field), but I don’t see this happening anytime soon. Maybe in the future I’ll go back to school for grad school (my dad went to grad school many years after he finished his undergrad for various reasons), but for now I think I’m content with the degree I have and the opportunities I have before me. Thank you to everyone who replied.

 

[Aurita]

To be honest, my biggest motivation for going is because I want to help others and do something I enjoy, and I feel like I could accomplish both of those things if I went down this path. I’m not even sure what my future goals & timeline are right now. I also probably wouldn’t be able to pay for it anytime soon and wouldn’t be willing to take out more loans as I’m already dealing with loans that I’ll need to pay back before too long.

After reading everyone’s replies here I decided that maybe that wouldn’t be the best path for me. I may ask my family about it (specifically the ones who are in the medical field), but I don’t see this happening anytime soon. Maybe in the future I’ll go back to school for grad school (my dad went to grad school many years after he finished his undergrad for various reasons), but for now I think I’m content with the degree I have and the opportunities I have before me. Thank you to everyone who replied.

it’s never too late to go back to school imo so I think the door still remains open for you best of luck on your endeavors!!

 

[DJStarstryker]

My husband went back for a masters in computer science several years after finishing his bachelors (which was in finance, so he actually had to do some additional courses first to get into the masters program). It was really worth it. Not only did his job pay for him to get it, but he got a significant increase in pay after finishing it. The degree itself opened opportunities too because he now has a STEM degree instead of "just" a business degree. It became easier to get higher paying jobs.

If the graduate degree will open opportunities and/or more pay, I think it's worth it.

 

[Aliya]

To be honest, my biggest motivation for going is because I want to help others and do something I enjoy, and I feel like I could accomplish both of those things if I went down this path. I’m not even sure what my future goals & timeline are right now. I also probably wouldn’t be able to pay for it anytime soon and wouldn’t be willing to take out more loans as I’m already dealing with loans that I’ll need to pay back before too long.

After reading everyone’s replies here I decided that maybe that wouldn’t be the best path for me. I may ask my family about it (specifically the ones who are in the medical field), but I don’t see this happening anytime soon. Maybe in the future I’ll go back to school for grad school (my dad went to grad school many years after he finished his undergrad for various reasons), but for now I think I’m content with the degree I have and the opportunities I have before me. Thank you to everyone who replied.

There are plenty of careers in the medical field that have much shorter education timelines than medical doctors. Definitely do some research and see if anything interests you since there are many roles in a medical setting that all are working together to help patients.

I think it's a fantastic idea to plan out your future career goals and timeline and hopefully your family can help guide you. It's never too late to go back to school but make sure everything is in order first!

I wish you the best of luck with everything in the future!