Ambitious EMT

Here is my 2 cents (for what it is really worth). Having been through the whole process I can't imagine drawing it out any longer than necessary. I would not want to delay it any longer than I had to. You are still looking at 4 years of med school and at least 3 years of residency (probably 4 if you are going to DO route). In that time you are missing out on a lot, friends, family and income/investment building. You may not think that getting to a point where you can start saving for retirement is important, but take from someone on the other side, it will become very important. Add kids and a wife to it and it becomes even bigger. Medicine is changing so don't expect those huge doctor salaries to exist in a few years. I know physicians that have seen their pay cut by 40% over the last few years, screwed over by the insurance companies. You will have huge debt and relatively small income. Once you are done with school you will have time to do all of those other things you dream of and then some. There are plenty of physicians that still work/volley in the field if that is something you are interested in. The best thing about it is you don't have to call medical control. My advice is to get the prereqs and MCAT done ASAP and get through school and residency as quick as you can.
 
Thank you for your insight. I have shadowed a lot of doctors and most of them point me in the direction of PA. I have been told that profession will be a large part of the future medical care. I was wondering if I picked that route would paramedic be a good step to take. I'm not the type of person who wants to get married and have a family so that won't be an issue for me.
 
My thinking behind it was I was going to finish my pre-reqs immediately despite anything that happened. Taking a year of the science classes isn't something that goes relatively quickly. I wanted to shoot to get into medical school but if something were to happen and I didn't get in then by having been a paramedic would allow to to have the patient contact hours necessary to apply to PA school. If I finished the pre-reqs and apply and didn't get into medical school after multiple attempts I would have to start my patient contact hours later. By doing this I am also having a back plan in place in case things don't work out. I am definitely taking the advice of focusing on the sciences, but also having a back up plan in place where I am eligible to apply to a PA program if medical school didn't work out. I am NOT looking for comments about PA vs. MD so if you are here to bash PAs keep your comments to yourself please. I am just saying I want to have my first option as well as my backup option up to par so I don't waste more time. I am taking the advice of leaving the excess medical knowledge for some other time and taking the other pre-reqs as soon as I graduate, I just don't want to get to a point where if I didn't get into medical school and have no patient care hours to do a different profession.
 
Avid316 said:
I am NOT looking for comments about PA vs. MD so if you are here to bash PAs keep your comments to yourself please...
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Haha that was out of the blue. @Ewok Jerky would be able to give you some insight on PA (if you're worthy). I believe he was a EMT in PA school.
 
The only reason I say that is because the previous forums I have been a part of whenever someone would talk about PAs there would always be negative opinions of the profession and I am just looking for advice.
 
I was a part of SDN and it wasn't as helpful due to the fact most aren't accepting of any other route other than traditional medical student.
 
SDN is great but keep in mind that it's called "student doctor network" and most people there are shooting for MD/DO. It would be useful to know what the rest of your application looks like - what is your cGPA, sGPA, what EC's do you do, any research or volunteering experience?

Also, don't take ERDoc's advice here lightly. While I suppose I'm glad I took the path I took, I'm "old" now. I'll be 33 when I finish medical school (assuming I get in on my first try), which means I'll be 40 by the time I finish residency if I go into surgery. 40 years old with $300k in debt, no house/equity/savings, and a beat up old car. Meanwhile, a good number of my peers who went into computer science, finance, etc, will already be retiring or at least thinking about it. Hopefully I'm a "young 40" and I still have energy and physical health to do medicine for a while (how healthy are your parents/grandparents?).

If med school is indeed the end goal, the sooner the better (maybe, depends I guess). I'm kicking myself for not figuring it out sooner, and I'm only going to be ~4 years older than average matriculant age...

Here is a path that might satisfy you: Work as an EMT. Finish undergrad. Immediately begin paramedic program (typically 1 year didactic, 1 year clinicals). During the 2nd half of your paramedic program, begin knocking out pre-med/PA requirements. Finish your medic program and get a job. At this point you're ~23, have a bunch of EMS experience and are ready to apply to med/PA schools. You could work full time for a year, be 24, and apply to start at age 25 which is the average age. Or, you could decide that you love EMS and stick with it, and do PA further down the line when you get sick of carrying people down stairs (IMO the older you get, the more sense it makes to go PA over MD/DO).
 
Thank you for the advice. That was my plan. I planned on applying to paramedic school immediately after I graduated and begin to get the rest of the pre-reqs out of the way while I was in paramedic school. The program that is me is an 11 month program an highly recognized in my state which allows you to graduate with you NREMT which I could use to get into a high activity area. When I finish my pre-reqs I can apply with some experience instead of just doing the pre-reqs and not seeing if I like medicine. Thank you for all your input.
 
You can hit the hour requirements for most PA programs without too much trouble, i.e. within maybe 1 year working full-time. It's nice to have a real career behind you when you apply but not necessary and frankly no longer the norm.
 
I don't think you will find anyone here that is going to put you down for considering PA school. Now if you said DNP, that might be a different story, lol. I work with some great PAs and I work with some idiot MD/DOs. You will find good and bad in each field. As for your best option, only you can figure that out. One thing I would mention though is paying attention to how medicine is transforming right now. There is a huge push for a bundled payment system and the large hospital systems love it. It means they can decide how much of the bundled payment gets sent to each provider. This gives the hospital system the power and control, taking it away from the providers. Many systems are using their power to force physicians to become hospital employees. The system sees them as no different from every other employee. It's getting to the point where you have non-medical people dictating how to practice medicine. Some systems are even trying to get away from calling them patients and instead use the term clients. If we are all just going to be employees in the future, seriously consider if you want to go to medical school and rack up $300k+ in debt.
 
Avid316 said:
Thanks so much for all the kind remarks. I took anatomy and physiology as a junior in college (I am going to be a senior now) in my opinion we didn't learn anything in enough depth which is why I want to keep up on that. So is buying the medic book a good idea to learn the pathologies of disease?! The only reason I was going to buy the pharm book is because people who used it said it showed how each drug works on the cellualr level.
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It sounds like you are well on your way towards a career in (emergency) medicine. Never lose the drive to learn. Education is what matters.
 
Seriously consider finishing your pre-reqs while you are still in your four year university. Stall your degree by leaving a class or two, finish the pre-reqs, and then graduate. It's so much easier to get them done while you're in a university. Once you graduate it's harder to get back in to take the classes you need.

I had near the same plan as the OP but decided that getting my medic was a colossal waste of time. I ended up getting my degree in an unrelated field (Computer Science) and left like 2 classes until I had my pre-reqs done. Once I did them I took my last two classes and graduated in June.

Not sure how true it is, but I've heard that PA school is as competitive (if not more competitive) than getting into medical school nowadays. It seems like an overwhelming majority of my peers are pursuing PA over medical school.
 
Gurby said:
40 years old with $300k in debt, no house/equity/savings, and a beat up old car.
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Kind of sums up why MD became a giant nope for me. PA school though sounds like the perfect solution.
 
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