I’ve spoken to a few guys now who went the MD route but never made it. Ended up pushing their careers back. They had to either go to college again or take up some vocational activity or family business to manage.
And at the bottom it’s always - well my parents wanted me to become a doc because that’s what all parents want and they figured I’d catch a good proposal etc.
I mean really? Have you guys seen this or it’s just the pick of the day I tend to catch ?
re: Pre-Meds and the Rishta Game
Frikkin spell check on the phone I swear to God. It’s supposed to say premeds not premiers.
re: Pre-Meds and the Rishta Game
Pre-med is a joke. Everyone starts out as pre-med and then something happens that they no longer a pre-med.
In my undergrad, we had like over 150 kids who wanted to be doctor and hence chose premed. By senior year only 50 were left. And from that, I know only hand full - 10-15 who made it. So being a pre-med is no guarantee you would be a doctor nor it tells about the person’s intelligence.
Heck, even being in medical school is no guarantee you could make it until you are done with 4 years. In my medical school, 10 kids dropped out or kicked out over these 2 years. Scary thought after so much loan.
And for the guy you talked about in your blog, I don’t think he even completed his college. He is BSing you.
re: Pre-Meds and the Rishta Game
Absolutely he is, that’s why he got a lecture.
And to add to the above, the number of people who get fired from their residency programs is shocking. Some people are out there carrying MD degrees, loans they can’t pay back and no one will employ them because they were kicked out of their residency programs.
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Yep heard those too. But its usually over the stupidest reason like disagreement with faculty, mouthing off at program director or just not doing whats expected of them. I wonder how these people escape through all the safety nets and make it to residency. I would just keep my mouth shut until residency is over.
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^ Yep that is exactly what you need to do. Even in the face of the worst abuse, keep silent.
It’s sad, this is why so many of us go into a mental fog.
Re: Pre-Meds and the Rishta Game
Just out of curiosity, how long is residency in the US?
Re: Pre-Meds and the Rishta Game
3-6 yrs depending on specialty.
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The way medical school is structured in terms of length of study, money, and examination and state licensing a lot has to fall in place just right for one to successfully become a doctor. Besides, if a nation only has doctors, or only engineers, or only Pharmacists, or only librarians, or only economists, or only Chefs that nation will not be able to survive.
Re: Pre-Meds and the Rishta Game
Not everyone’s parents wants them to be a doctor! There are some people out there who want their kids to get a good education and earn a decent living. Engineers, IT professionals, MBAs, CAs, lawyers, scientists etc are all educated professionals who make good money. Yes, not crazy money in every profession but good, above average income!
If people didn’t get into Med school I guess they could get a masters degree after their bachelors. Why another bachelors, unless it’s another professional degree! Baffles the mind. I met a desi girl recently, she has a phd from Northwestern University. She is a scientist and is currently working on a DNA sequencing project. Had great regard for her. Wonder why desis have to lie so much. That guy in your blog is worthless. At 34 acting like a kid and has no direction.
Re: Pre-Meds and the Rishta Game
The new trend in my community is all parents are now sending their kids to Carribean (right after undergrad) and Pakistan (straight out of high school and because it’s much cheaper than Carribbean) for medical school because they can’t make it in US. All for the money and status–these people have no interest in science or medicine or actually helping the sick and it’s these type of people who have ruined health care system for the upcoming generation. Like literally every desi kid is being sent, even the one who used to get Cs in science classes in high school. One of them became a doctor and got residency (without a bachelor’s, no MCAT, without ever taking organic chemistry physics or chemistry and took 2 years to study for USMLE while US med students only get 6 weeks) so all the parents saw this slacker do it so now they think their kids can do it also. It’s become relatively easy to pass and do well on USMLE with enough time and studying the right way, there are so many good legit studying resources now and many Carribbean schools, which are for profit money making schemes, are actually teaching to the exam.
Trust me there are easier ways to make money, I lost my 20s in never ending training and studying and have debt that keeps growing due to interest while my business, lawyer, dentist friends were already making money and are now married and settled. Doctors from US and Carribbean have hundreds of thousands of debt and they are worked like dogs during residency, fellowship and even after. It’s not easy—they are held to very high academic standards all their lives and even high standards by government and community once we have a medical license which can be lost or suspended for things that dont even relate directly to medicine like DUIs. The entire process and job itself are very stressful.
Avoid doctors who went from US to Pakistan just to bypass the system. All doctors are not created equal.
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Exactly my point! And I see parents sucking up to the doctors too just so their kids could get into residency programs because after USMLE scores I guess it’s who you know that counts too. Practicing doctors have told me that. It’s sickening to see people so money minded and status conscious.
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I’m in med school here and I can vouch for what some of the others have said. I went to a huge undergrad with at least 200-300 people in my pre-med classes. I can’t speak for the entire school but the muslim group on its own had at least 30ish people at one time that were pre-med. Guess how many made it to med school–10 (and that’s a stretch).
We’ve had people fail out of school here (3 desi kids, 2 boys and 1 girl) and some not pass boards.
The ones that I’ve noticed in my class that struggle the most are the ones that don’t want to do it /aren’t capable of doing it (just don’t have the strong educational background to compete with 150+ neurotic nerds) and basically were pressured into it by family.
A lot of the “MDs that don’t make it” in my opinion are the Caribbean graduates; there are definitely qualified students going to the Islands for whatever reason, but a LARGE LARGE majority of the students accepted to off-shore schools are those that don’t have the credentials to get into US schools. It’s set up so that these school will accept 500-600 kids knowing that a small fraction of those are going to be able to make it through.
Like someone said above, a lot has to fall in place for med school to happen. I would be very very wary of anyone that’s repeating a year of school/retaking boards/"taking time off"in school or residency. Unless you know the full story, it may very well be that there’s some academic reason and that’s going to translate to a really hard time getting residency. We know a few people that have married people that struggled to pass boards and 4-5 years down the line, they’re struggling to match…still. Same goes with Pakistani/foreign medical graduates. Unless they’ve passed their USMLE, don’t finalize anything.
ps- you have a blog? Do share! 
Re: Pre-Meds and the Rishta Game
Also note, UNITED STATES is one of the fewest countries among 200+ countries in the world that pays doctors specialists a high salary (in pure USD) . Among other countries paying more than the US is Belgium, Netherlands and Australia. Even Canada, UK, Germany pays less!
In Canada for example, an experience high paid IT professional makes almost the same as a doctor specialist. Essentially they fall in the same tax bracket
Re: Pre-Meds and the Rishta Game
I doubt that.
Re: Pre-Meds and the Rishta Game
whats your reason for doubting that?
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I am an in IT professional and i have doctor friends.
Re: Pre-Meds and the Rishta Game
me too.
The high end IT professional in Canada can make $110 annual…the doctor specialist is around $160K
in the US is more like $150K for a high end IT while a specialist doc makes around $300K easily.
Re: Pre-Meds and the Rishta Game
Yeah that’s because US system of becoming a doctor is also messed up. Unlike other nations, we have to do 4 years of pre-med (each year is $50,000-$65,000 tuition and board per year) and then 4 years of medical school to get medical doctorate (MD) (which is another $60,000-80,000 tuition and board per year), and then 3-7 years of residency at reduced salary and then 1-4 years of specialized training for fellowships at reduced salary. Residency is one of the most brutal things, its like being an indentured servant, I wouldnt wish it on anyone lol. Plus becoming a doctor is so competitive in US that sometimes students have to take 1-2 years off to do research before applying for medical school. You do the math all while debt is growing due to interest. At minimum, can take 11 years to become a doctor but most often more than 13-15 years if specialized. US is also the land of suing and malpractice (government leaders are mostly lawyers so pro-malpractice which drive up health care costs also but don’t expect tort reform any time soon) so doctors have to pay a substantial amount for malpractice insurance to protect their medical license and assets. Government also takes 30-40% of income for taxes. Dont get confused by gross salaries, actual take home salary is MUCH MUCH less. Dont get me wrong, we doctors do make a comfortable living but trust me it’s not worth it unless you really enjoy medicine and helping the sick. There is so much beauracray in dealing with hospital administration, government and insurance companies to document every thing and even fight for reimbursement in medicine it’s a headache. Can’t even properly take the time to sit down and talk to patients because have to do so much paperwork because of government and insurance companies. I seriously spend more time on paperwork than patients which frustrates me because I became a doctor to see and help patients. Doctors also work odd hours and if on call need to stay within a certain proximity of the hospital. We do work extremely hard and sacrifice a lot for every bit of that salary.
Most other nations the medical degree itself is considered a bachelor’s (i.e. MBBS) and there is no pre-med and can go directly into medical school after high school. The training is not as rigorous either and people can become a general physician after 1 year of residency. Also government in other nations subsidizes medical school–either it’s free or like $5,000 a year. There is also not as much malpractice and suing in other nations. They finish training much earlier. Unfortunately, these people are dying to come to US for the money after benefitting from their nation’s more efficient training causing brain drain in their nations. They have it the best ONCE they make it here in US..little to no debt, younger age, while making more money.
There are some doctors who have made medicine into a business–avoid these doctors. Most of these are foreign trained because money was their major incentive to come to US or go abroad for medical school to play the system.
Re: Pre-Meds and the Rishta Game
there is a huge difference between $110K and $160K.
that being said, you will get a six figure salary only if you are working in startup in Toronto or you have 10-12 years of experience. If you are working in a regular Canada based company (Telecom, banks etc) or consulting companies, you wouldn’t get much.