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5 Things You Should Consider Before Going To Med School
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Welcome to MedKinza talks your go to source for bite sized content and becoming future doctors. I'm your host, Kinza Hussain, and I'm a second year medical student helping students navigate the ins and outs of one of the most competitive careers. I will be sharing the lessons I've learned and inviting guest speakers to provide real quality advice to help you get into medical school, succeed as a med student and prepare you to become a future doctor. Want more free quality advice? Subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me on Instagram @medkinza, where I post videos and infographics delivering content to you every week. Now sit back, relax and learn something new. And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any of my latest episodes. Released every week.
This is Episode 12 and today's episode, we are going to be talking about five things you should consider before you go to medical school or before you make the decision to go to medical school. I have talked about this a little bit in my previous YouTube videos and my Tik Tok. My handle for both those accounts are Mid Kenza and they received a controversial response. So some people thought that everything I was saying was not relevant and that, you know, even if those five reasons for going to med school don't match up, they should still go and it won't be a problem, whereas other people were more positive about it and said, hey, you should be thinking about these five reasons. You shouldn't go to med school a lot earlier on before you make a lifetime commitment to becoming a physician. So I'm just going to go through five things in general just to kind of ask yourself or consider before you make the decision to go to medical school. So this podcast episode is a little bit more geared towards either premeds right now, even high school students who are thinking they might want to do a career in medicine. And as a current medical student right now, I don't have the ins and outs of a physician's life, but I do have the ins and outs of a medical school students life. So I'm going to go through these five things and hopefully you guys will get a better idea of what final decision you want to make.
So getting right into it, the first thing I want you guys to consider is do you love medicine? I was scrolling through Instagram the other day and I saw Dr. Rollap. She is @fifteenblades on Instagram, put up a post quite recently about her love for medicine, and she started with a quote that someone had said to her, which goes a little bit something like this. Medicine is for those who couldn't imagine doing anything else. So ask yourself, is medicine for you because you can't imagine doing anything else in the world, does that define your love for medicine? So that's just something to think about. You are going to be doing medicine day in, day out. There obviously is still room to do other things that you might love. It could be hobbies. It could be side hustles. I'm currently, you know, getting into a lot of different things right now. When I started medical school, my YouTube was going off. So I am a current social media content creator. I'm an influencer on Instagram and Tik Tok, and I do partake in these activities almost every single day. And even now I'm starting to learn more about business. I have an Etsy shop that I'm currently working on. I have an interest in real estate even, and I'm starting to listen to more podcasts geared towards that. So you do have time to delve into these different interests that you might have. But most of your time, in twenty four hours of a day and night, you are going to be focused on trying to get done your medical school responsibilities first. So that does limit the time you have to delve into other interests.
The second thing you should consider before making the final decision to go to medical school is have you volunteered or shadowed enough to really know what your life is going to look like as a future physician, looking, you know, watching TV, watching other people be involved in these roles can be really glamorous and it can maybe give you a false or glorified portrayal of what your life might look like, especially if you're watching Grey's Anatomy. I know a lot of people who watch Grey's Anatomy, including myself, and thought like, hey, that's what it's going to be like in the future. But obviously, you know, that's a TV show. You should really spend your time instead of watching TV shows about it, really go into a hospital and volunteer shadow. A couple of physicians that you make connections with while you're volunteering and see, like, is this something that I like? Do I like what they do? Ask them specific questions about their lifestyle, what their work life is like, what they do on a daily basis. And that would give you a much better idea of is this something that you really like?
The third thing you should consider before making a final decision to go to medical school is what's your motive for going to medical school? So answering that, you know, essay question that you're going to have to answer when you are filling out your medical school applications is difficult. The question is, why do you want to go to medical school? Why do you want to come to this school specifically or why do you want to be a physician in general? So it's really hard to answer that question if you haven't thought about it beforehand and thought about what is your real motive for going to medical school? Do you want to be in the hospital 24/7, treating patients? Do you want to go into surgery and do something really hands on? Do you have the shadowing and the volunteering experience to back up those claims? That's something they're going to look for. So you can't just blindly say like, oh yeah, I really want to be a pediatrician. I want to be a surgeon without having hours of volunteering, shadowing or even research backing up those statements. So that's something that I think about. A lot of people said, you know, their motive is to have a good financial life and might not say that out loud to anyone. But I'm sure some of you who are listening to this today are thinking the back of your head like I'm going to make probably one hundred thousand to three hundred thousand dollars in the general scheme of things as a physician. And I really want to have a good lifestyle. So I'm going to pick medicine because, you know, I get the best of both worlds that way. So think about what your motive is and make sure at the end of the day, whatever your motive is, and always also goes back to your love for medicine, because if you're going to be doing this day in and day out, you definitely want to enjoy it and you want to love what you do. So when you wake up at 3:00, 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning to go into work, you know, you're not unhappy about that. You're happy to go. It motivates the hospital, your patients, your work. It motivates you to get up in the morning.
The fourth thing you should consider before you make the final decision to go to medical school is are you willing to put in the long term effort it requires? And by this, what I mean is medicine is a lifelong journey. And when I say that, like, I can't emphasize how true that is. So you're right now probably putting in a lot of hours volunteering, shadowing, working. You're probably either working on your applications or you're studying for the mcat. And that's hard. And unfortunately, it doesn't really just end there. So that's the first step into getting into medical school. Now, are you willing to put in the work to stay in medical school? You're going to have to pass all your exams. You're going to have to get a great or average, whatever you're looking for, score on the step one exam, and then you have to take a step two exam and then you have to take shelf exams, you know, when you're in your third year doing your rotations. So it just it's a long lifetime journey and you have to be willing it to put in the effort kind of forever, and you're going to be learning, even as a resident, even as a future physician, medicine is changing, technology is changing. You have to keep up with that. So you have to read you have to gather knowledge for the rest of your life. So ask yourself, are you willing to do that or are you going to enjoy the lifelong journey or not? Because it's going to be lifelong.
Now, the fifth reason you should consider before you choose to make the final decision of going to medical school are the finances. So are you willing to sacrifice your finances right now for, say, a better future when you hit your 30s to 40s? Are you willing to do that? I think people don't realize school is really expensive. College is expensive. Graduate school is expensive. Same thing for a medical school. Law school. It's expensive. So are you willing to sacrifice your finances now if you can't pay your tuition in full every year for a life in medicine and for a better future when you start hitting 30s or 40s, when most of your debt is starting to get paid off? That's just something to consider. And if you're the type of person that wants to work hard now for just a couple of years and then get out, make a ton of money, get a job right away, some physician assistants say that's what they want to do. That's why they want to finish their journey. And five to six years. So they're not in school for eight years and then get a job and start working. Same for some of the nurses I've spoken to say and for some of, you know, other professional schools are shorter. That's not something they value. They want to get into the working field a lot sooner, whereas as a physician, it's going to take a minimum of four to like an extra four years of med school, plus three years of residency minimum before you start kind of making the big bucks after when you become a resident. So that's something to consider. Like whatever you value, it's totally fine. But you have to ask yourself, what is it that you want? What is it that you value and how do you see your future playing out?
So those are the five reasons you should consider before you make the final decision of going to med school. If you enjoy the podcast, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss any new episodes released every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Also, if you want one little thing from this show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a rating and a review. It means a lot to me and I read them all and I'll see you in the next one.
This is Episode 12 and today's episode, we are going to be talking about five things you should consider before you go to medical school or before you make the decision to go to medical school. I have talked about this a little bit in my previous YouTube videos and my Tik Tok. My handle for both those accounts are Mid Kenza and they received a controversial response. So some people thought that everything I was saying was not relevant and that, you know, even if those five reasons for going to med school don't match up, they should still go and it won't be a problem, whereas other people were more positive about it and said, hey, you should be thinking about these five reasons. You shouldn't go to med school a lot earlier on before you make a lifetime commitment to becoming a physician. So I'm just going to go through five things in general just to kind of ask yourself or consider before you make the decision to go to medical school. So this podcast episode is a little bit more geared towards either premeds right now, even high school students who are thinking they might want to do a career in medicine. And as a current medical student right now, I don't have the ins and outs of a physician's life, but I do have the ins and outs of a medical school students life. So I'm going to go through these five things and hopefully you guys will get a better idea of what final decision you want to make.
So getting right into it, the first thing I want you guys to consider is do you love medicine? I was scrolling through Instagram the other day and I saw Dr. Rollap. She is @fifteenblades on Instagram, put up a post quite recently about her love for medicine, and she started with a quote that someone had said to her, which goes a little bit something like this. Medicine is for those who couldn't imagine doing anything else. So ask yourself, is medicine for you because you can't imagine doing anything else in the world, does that define your love for medicine? So that's just something to think about. You are going to be doing medicine day in, day out. There obviously is still room to do other things that you might love. It could be hobbies. It could be side hustles. I'm currently, you know, getting into a lot of different things right now. When I started medical school, my YouTube was going off. So I am a current social media content creator. I'm an influencer on Instagram and Tik Tok, and I do partake in these activities almost every single day. And even now I'm starting to learn more about business. I have an Etsy shop that I'm currently working on. I have an interest in real estate even, and I'm starting to listen to more podcasts geared towards that. So you do have time to delve into these different interests that you might have. But most of your time, in twenty four hours of a day and night, you are going to be focused on trying to get done your medical school responsibilities first. So that does limit the time you have to delve into other interests.
The second thing you should consider before making the final decision to go to medical school is have you volunteered or shadowed enough to really know what your life is going to look like as a future physician, looking, you know, watching TV, watching other people be involved in these roles can be really glamorous and it can maybe give you a false or glorified portrayal of what your life might look like, especially if you're watching Grey's Anatomy. I know a lot of people who watch Grey's Anatomy, including myself, and thought like, hey, that's what it's going to be like in the future. But obviously, you know, that's a TV show. You should really spend your time instead of watching TV shows about it, really go into a hospital and volunteer shadow. A couple of physicians that you make connections with while you're volunteering and see, like, is this something that I like? Do I like what they do? Ask them specific questions about their lifestyle, what their work life is like, what they do on a daily basis. And that would give you a much better idea of is this something that you really like?
The third thing you should consider before making a final decision to go to medical school is what's your motive for going to medical school? So answering that, you know, essay question that you're going to have to answer when you are filling out your medical school applications is difficult. The question is, why do you want to go to medical school? Why do you want to come to this school specifically or why do you want to be a physician in general? So it's really hard to answer that question if you haven't thought about it beforehand and thought about what is your real motive for going to medical school? Do you want to be in the hospital 24/7, treating patients? Do you want to go into surgery and do something really hands on? Do you have the shadowing and the volunteering experience to back up those claims? That's something they're going to look for. So you can't just blindly say like, oh yeah, I really want to be a pediatrician. I want to be a surgeon without having hours of volunteering, shadowing or even research backing up those statements. So that's something that I think about. A lot of people said, you know, their motive is to have a good financial life and might not say that out loud to anyone. But I'm sure some of you who are listening to this today are thinking the back of your head like I'm going to make probably one hundred thousand to three hundred thousand dollars in the general scheme of things as a physician. And I really want to have a good lifestyle. So I'm going to pick medicine because, you know, I get the best of both worlds that way. So think about what your motive is and make sure at the end of the day, whatever your motive is, and always also goes back to your love for medicine, because if you're going to be doing this day in and day out, you definitely want to enjoy it and you want to love what you do. So when you wake up at 3:00, 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning to go into work, you know, you're not unhappy about that. You're happy to go. It motivates the hospital, your patients, your work. It motivates you to get up in the morning.
The fourth thing you should consider before you make the final decision to go to medical school is are you willing to put in the long term effort it requires? And by this, what I mean is medicine is a lifelong journey. And when I say that, like, I can't emphasize how true that is. So you're right now probably putting in a lot of hours volunteering, shadowing, working. You're probably either working on your applications or you're studying for the mcat. And that's hard. And unfortunately, it doesn't really just end there. So that's the first step into getting into medical school. Now, are you willing to put in the work to stay in medical school? You're going to have to pass all your exams. You're going to have to get a great or average, whatever you're looking for, score on the step one exam, and then you have to take a step two exam and then you have to take shelf exams, you know, when you're in your third year doing your rotations. So it just it's a long lifetime journey and you have to be willing it to put in the effort kind of forever, and you're going to be learning, even as a resident, even as a future physician, medicine is changing, technology is changing. You have to keep up with that. So you have to read you have to gather knowledge for the rest of your life. So ask yourself, are you willing to do that or are you going to enjoy the lifelong journey or not? Because it's going to be lifelong.
Now, the fifth reason you should consider before you choose to make the final decision of going to medical school are the finances. So are you willing to sacrifice your finances right now for, say, a better future when you hit your 30s to 40s? Are you willing to do that? I think people don't realize school is really expensive. College is expensive. Graduate school is expensive. Same thing for a medical school. Law school. It's expensive. So are you willing to sacrifice your finances now if you can't pay your tuition in full every year for a life in medicine and for a better future when you start hitting 30s or 40s, when most of your debt is starting to get paid off? That's just something to consider. And if you're the type of person that wants to work hard now for just a couple of years and then get out, make a ton of money, get a job right away, some physician assistants say that's what they want to do. That's why they want to finish their journey. And five to six years. So they're not in school for eight years and then get a job and start working. Same for some of the nurses I've spoken to say and for some of, you know, other professional schools are shorter. That's not something they value. They want to get into the working field a lot sooner, whereas as a physician, it's going to take a minimum of four to like an extra four years of med school, plus three years of residency minimum before you start kind of making the big bucks after when you become a resident. So that's something to consider. Like whatever you value, it's totally fine. But you have to ask yourself, what is it that you want? What is it that you value and how do you see your future playing out?
So those are the five reasons you should consider before you make the final decision of going to med school. If you enjoy the podcast, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss any new episodes released every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Also, if you want one little thing from this show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a rating and a review. It means a lot to me and I read them all and I'll see you in the next one.