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I noticed there are several medical doctors on Hacker News which is interesting. My son is currently attending college in the USA. His dream is to get accepte

I noticed there are several medical doctors on Hacker News which is interesting. My son is currently attending college in the USA. His dream is to get accepted into medical school. When you posted "Don't go to medical school.", are you being sarcastic? Or are you serious. Is medical school a dead end in 2022 in the USA?

bombcar 4y ago
I would find some doctors you can trust to speak honestly off the record, and talk with them.
throwntoday 4y ago
I can't speak to this personally but my brother is a physician and despite scoring well on his exams it took years to get a residency. Pedigree is still an issue, as-is nepotism and age discrimination it seems. There are a limited number of residency slots allotted by the government each year so if you don't get one it's a whole year before you can apply again. It's certainly an archaic system, and the incentive by the medical lobby to expand residency programs is low presumably to protect wages. Even if you do jump through all the hoops, life as a doctor is a grind. Hospitals are businesses and your job is to see as many patients as possible. This is all coming from him and other family members who went through the whole ordeal.
youniverse 4y ago
I work with a few Drs and will pass along some common thoughts, doing this quickly on mobile so apologies. In general: If you want a nice balanced life, you should aim to open a private practice. However private practices are a dying breed due to cost for renovating/acquiring an office (150k at the very least for renovating yourself here in LA), shitty payouts by insurance (and getting worse), I saw a pay stub just today for $37 for a specialist visit (cash visit would be around $250 so Drs really hate taking even PPO insurance these days), etc. Few specialties can pull off a private practice such as: Plastic/Aesthetic, ophthalmology (doing LASIK and cataract surgery), and some others but usually these two have it the best. It's even harder if not in a very populous area, but then competition is rife, should be ready to shell out for marketing. The majority of physicians work in groups or hospitals. There is a lot of stress and responsibility if you are a surgeon, you should know that this kind of life is what you want. In the end it depends on his goals, these days and evermoreso going forward physicians are just cogs in the system. You can get away by opening a private practice but there are plenty of challenges there. Getting into a nice residency program is mostly luck and medical school is rough. Not to mention the costs if you aren't well off. If anyone wants to ask anything I'd be happy to answer in a bit more detail when I get time.
- rawgabbit 4y ago
  Thank you for the thoughtful reply.
- fmajid 4y ago
  It depends on the speciality. Dermatologists are less likely to be disturbed by emergencies than cardiologists.

bombcar 4y ago

I would find some doctors you can trust to speak honestly off the record, and talk with them.

throwntoday 4y ago

I can't speak to this personally but my brother is a physician and despite scoring well on his exams it took years to get a residency. Pedigree is still an issue, as-is nepotism and age discrimination it seems. There are a limited number of residency slots allotted by the government each year so if you don't get one it's a whole year before you can apply again. It's certainly an archaic system, and the incentive by the medical lobby to expand residency programs is low presumably to protect wages. Even if you do jump through all the hoops, life as a doctor is a grind. Hospitals are businesses and your job is to see as many patients as possible. This is all coming from him and other family members who went through the whole ordeal.

youniverse 4y ago

I work with a few Drs and will pass along some common thoughts, doing this quickly on mobile so apologies. In general: If you want a nice balanced life, you should aim to open a private practice. However private practices are a dying breed due to cost for renovating/acquiring an office (150k at the very least for renovating yourself here in LA), shitty payouts by insurance (and getting worse), I saw a pay stub just today for $37 for a specialist visit (cash visit would be around $250 so Drs really hate taking even PPO insurance these days), etc. Few specialties can pull off a private practice such as: Plastic/Aesthetic, ophthalmology (doing LASIK and cataract surgery), and some others but usually these two have it the best. It's even harder if not in a very populous area, but then competition is rife, should be ready to shell out for marketing. The majority of physicians work in groups or hospitals. There is a lot of stress and responsibility if you are a surgeon, you should know that this kind of life is what you want. In the end it depends on his goals, these days and evermoreso going forward physicians are just cogs in the system. You can get away by opening a private practice but there are plenty of challenges there. Getting into a nice residency program is mostly luck and medical school is rough. Not to mention the costs if you aren't well off. If anyone wants to ask anything I'd be happy to answer in a bit more detail when I get time.

rawgabbit 4y ago
Thank you for the thoughtful reply.
fmajid 4y ago
It depends on the speciality. Dermatologists are less likely to be disturbed by emergencies than cardiologists.