Should I Go To Medical School?

If you are really sure you want to be a doctor , realize you’ll have to borrow a humongous sum of money to pay tuition and support your family, and will probably never get rich being a doctor, and your wife likes the idea – why not?

No you are not crazy. I know others who have done it. Doable but difficult.

first of all you have to consider whether you are willing to relocate. Especially With a degree from touro you have to be open to the possibility of medical school in Chaifa/Tel aviv or at the very least not in the tri state area. Also do not overlook DO schools.

If you would not CONSIDER moving from the tri-state area. I would reccomend against pursuing medical school

(Of course residency you would have the same thing all over again)

No way, you would have to completely insane about becoming a physician to just start undergraduate studies at this point in your life. Take it from someone who just finished a health graduate school with kids.

a) per my first ten second internet search, touro only has a DO school

b) per the next ten second search, it is unranked by usnwr

c) per the final ten seconds of intense thinking, the answer is no.

Edit: it apparently opened 5 years ago and costs 40k+. ABORT ABORT ABORT (no, that does not mean become an ob/gyn).

and write soul: Touro has 2 medical schools in the mortheast and two on the west coast. I am in their medical school

I was in a somewhat similar situation as you three years ago and chose to go for it. I benefited greatly from speaking to other people who left BMG and went on to med school. I would advise you to seek us out (there is quite a few of us) and hear what it entails. If the mods can give me your contact information, I would be happy to speak with you.

There are a lot of unknowns here. First being, what is your motive in becoming a doctor (as opposed to going into any other field), is it because you would like to make big bucks and hold a prominent position in that people will respect you more? Or do you want to go into this field for the sake of being able to help other people in a phenomenal way (and of course make nice $ too)? If it’s only for reason #1, you might not make it through until the end (and even if you do, you will not be happy with your job)because medical school is a huge undertaking financially, scholastically, and takes a toll on family etc… From the way you write your post, it seems like out of the blue you just one day woke up with this idea. Most people who successfully complete med school have been entertaining the idea for years and have prepared themselves in all aspects for the ‘adventure’. Also, medical school is a lot more than 2-3 years. Besides for pre-req’s and all, there’s internship and residency. It’s a long process. Lastly, who knows how doctors will fare with the future Obamacare. I’m not trying to discourage, but you gotta look at all the factors here because it’s a major decision. Hatzlacha!

verapoi yerapei: You learn something new every day. I knew they had osteopathic schools, but not a regular medical school.

I don’t think, though, that Touro is the best for undergrad if you want to have options for med schools. Where you go to undergrad really does matter in this case.

frumscientist

If you don’t have a strong passion for medicine then forget it because its very difficult so to go forward with such a thing at the age of 25 with 2 kids is only smart if you want it want it want it, because if you arent strongly into it and your main motivation is just a nice parnassah you will probably burn out and drop out.

People have done it. If you feel it’s your calling – go for it!

i gotta say, dentistry sounds like a pretty chill life. if you can do that, do it. but do yourself a favor and don’t go to a school with people who shouldn’t be licensed to cure cheese, let alone people.

If your reason for wanting to go to Touro is that it is a quick decent degree, it might work. There are quicker degrees (using yeshiva credits which I’m assuming you have) and better degrees out there but probably not both.

If you are thinking about going to Touro because you wish to minimize your exposure to the ugliness of the world then med school may not be the way you eventually want to go. Even if it is, Touro may limit your med school options, causing you to move to a place that is likely far worse for your ruchniyus.

Why not go to a “real” college? It might be cheaper (if you are smart enough for med school, you should be smart enough to get into a good school at less than full price), and it will almost certainly give you a better, more usable education that will help you decide want you really want to do.

Princeton, Columbia, NYU, Penn, Yeshiva, Fordham, Rutgers, College of NJ, and Stevens are all comparable commutes or better from Lakewood, and all will provide a far more valuable degree than Touro. If you choose not to go to med school these degrees would translate to more opportunities.

As far as whether Doctors make a decent living, the answer is yes. There is a shortage of primary care physicians, and the government will even subsidize part of the cost of med school for those who agree to be a physician in an area with a shortage. That area might not have a minyan though.

Some doctors are obscenely rich. Many more aren’t.

Obamacare makes it more likely that any given patient has insurance which makes it more likely that a doctor will at least get paid.

I’d be more worried about technological advances that lessen the need for human doctors or government intervention far more drastic than Obamacare.

The current system seems unsustainable. Medical care is a necessity that anyone feels they must pay for, but the price is really insane. IMHO it is fundamentally wrong that so many people make so much money off of medicine. In a sense it is taking advantage of desperate people.

True, some of the money drives healthcare quality up, but to argue that the reason so many can take such a large cut off of someone else’s cancer or senility is for the patient’s benefit seems to only works up to a point. We’re at least approaching that point.

If money is your only motivation, successful careers in finance or business are doable for talented and motivated (and some might say soulless) people.

Although the future is in technology, particularly in biotech (although biotech may have some of the same concerns as the medical field generally), the managers of a company make more than the employees with the technical training, and no one makes more than the savvy investor.

There are also easier ways of making a decent living (think [biomedical] engineering).

In summary, if you really want to become a Doctor (not just for the money), can make it as a Doctor, and want to remain in an area of your relative choosing (which is a pretty strong need for a frum jew), you need to distinguish yourself. This is difficult enough with a good college degree, and even harder with one from Touro. It is doable though, and an admirable career choice if done for the right reasons.

I do think R’ Moshe has a tshuva where he says not to do it. It was easier to find a decent job without a degree then, true, but if I remember correctly he was against the amount of time it would take to do relative to other jobs. Caveat: the tshuva was for a younger person who didn’t need parnassah at the time. It seemed R’ Moshe had a hard time justifying becoming a Doctor for the sake of parnassah in ten years. Don’t have the mareh makom offhand.

Whatever you do, good luck, and daven!

sadly, my analysis stays the same. worthless degree for getting into an even halfway decent med school. you will be competing with thousands of people from real colleges.

I do not think this is correct. A high GPA in pre-med from touro plus a good MCAT should get you into med school. Perhaps if you’re aiming for an MD-Phd from Harvard, then not, but a regular MD program I think you are fine.

A friend of mine had no problem getting into ivy dental schools from touro.

ubiq: Where is your information from?

verapoi yerapei -“and write soul: Touro has 2 medical schools in the mortheast and two on the west coast. I am in their medical school”

I’m just curious -which school are you in and where in the country -East or West – the DO school in Harlem or the Med School they just bought out of NYC?

friends who have been down that route. (I didnt go to touro)

touro is a huge strike against, though not a fatal one.

To be clear i am saying what Health said “If you would not CONSIDER moving from the tri-state area. I would reccomend against pursuing medical school” This is assuming ANY undergraduate program.

If you are limiting yourself to touro AND plan to limit yourself to the trisate area, please please don’t!

Your dream is certainly possible and achievable and if it is what you want it will be well worth it! But you absolutely must be flexible/open minded for it to work. Of course this may not be possible when married and have children, you have to be realistic. If you can be flexible go for it!

I’m currently In Touro pursuing a degree in biology along with taking all the necessary premed courses. A large percentage of the teachers that teach the science courses teach in Brooklyn college as well and have told me that they follow the same curriculum in both. It is a lot of work and you must be passionate about becoming a doctor (not for the money)if you want to make it. There is an interesting 7 year program that Touro offers in conjunction with their d.o. school that you may want to look into(it’s called the integrated honors program).

Well sure, but the relevant question is whether a touro grad with a 3.85/35 is much worse off than someone from YU with the same numbers. And from what I understand, the answer is that any difference is much less substantial than the difference between the schools might suggest.

And your reference to law school proves the point. Because if there really is a strike in law school admissions against BTL’s, everyone agrees that there is no strike against Touro or any marginally normal college.

The reason you see great colleges represented in prestigious graduate schools is that students from those colleges are the ones who score high on the admissions tests.

I still think you’re giving it too much weight. You haven’t even mentioned GPA.

I’m gandering a 4.0 Touro GPA would be far better positioned across the MCAT scale than a 3.5 from Princeton.

PBA

I dont know since i have never discussed this with admissions commitee.

Here are my two cents Touro is viewed as worse than other colleges. I’m not saying it should be but it is. That being said would a BETTER GPA from touro be better than a lower one from say Brooklyn, (Princeton?)could certainly be, probably depends on the difference. (Though if what ytrwewq says is true, why would it be easier to get a higher GPA from touro, and if it is easier to get the higher GPA, there is your answer as to why it is looked down upon).

You say “far better positioned across the MCAT scale”, The MCAT is the great equalizer and would probably be given more weight from a less known college. How can you compare a 4.0 from touro to a 3.5 from PRinceton? By looking at their MCAT scores. In such a scenario it will be given more weight not less.

Also a few more points to the OP

1)Extracurricular are importnat Theres no need to go crazy, but you do need to show you have some interest in medicine and have an idea what medical field is like. Shaddow a Doctor, volunteer a bit at a hospital etc. You have time to worry about this since you havent even begun undergrad yet, but dont wait to the last minute. This will also give you something to discuss on interviews.

2) Be prepared to discuss what you have been doing over the past 7 years or so. Many academics do appreciate studying for its own sake, but spiritual betterment of the world may be a tough sell. Just be prepared to many it may sound like youve been slacking unless you carfeully frame what youve done. For obvious reasons admissions comittee’s abhor slackers

3) Read lopman24’s post above, his tone is harsher than I wouldve put it but I agree with all he wrote.

4) I cant stress this enough be flexible

5) It can absolutely be done

Frumnotyeshivish, I don’t know if it’s really the case that doctors have difficulty finding jobs in the places they want to live. Even if you get a scholarship that makes you move to an area with a doctor shortage, this shouldn’t be a problem, because although rural areas usually have a shortage, so do most inner cities. The vast majority of inner city areas are within commuting distance of a frum community.

My main concern would be hours and work/life balance, since the hours are often unreasonable. But that totally depends; there are some doctors who work for HMOs or have their own practice and work a 40-hour week. Such reasonable hours just seem much more common for non-physician medical professionals.

toiv shebirofim bigehenom.

Toi -“toiv shebirofim bigehenom.”

Are you sure it’s Toiv maybe it’s Toi?

Why are all/some of you assuming the question was written by a guy?