BECOMING A DOCTOR
It is clear that parents have reduced their expectations for their offspring if they cease encouraging their offspring to become a doctor or lawyer. Those professions have been revered through the ages. They enjoyed high social esteem even when they did not enjoy extraordinary incomes. By the twentieth century doctors and lawyers generally were among the highest earners and retained a high level of societal respect.
Law school and medical school are expensive in several ways. Tuition and books are expensive. Most professional schools in these fields require a full-time effort on the part of the students and forbid employment while matriculating in their institutions. Aspiring students, therefore, must find a way to pay for the various goods and services necessary to live. There is the double jeopardy of the heavy financial burden of paying for all aspects of continued study and the absence of an income. During their prolonged study they witness their undergraduate classmates fully ensconced in their professional lives, building their incomes, reputations and families.
Credentials have changed for entering both of these professions. One can no longer read law under a lawyer’s guidance and hang out a shingle announcing one’s qualification to accept clients with legal problems or needs. A prospective lawyer must attend a law school for three years after acquiring an undergraduate college degree. In most cases a person can become a lawyer after three years of law school and proceed to build their credentials, reputations and incomes.
Becoming a doctor is a different story. As with the law, candidates must have a glowing diversified record in undergraduate work to obtain acceptance into medical school. Most agree that four years of medical school is mentally, physically and emotionally challenging. With rare exception medical students have strong academic knowledge, skills and work habits. Nothing, however, has prepared them for the intensity of day to day demands which makes any sleep a luxury. During their last two years they get a taste of long hours on duty in their hospitals.
By the fourth year medical students must declare a specific field of medicine to enter. Having done so, they proceed to apply for residency positions in programs they think might accept them. They yearn for the opportunity to obtain an interview from medical schools on their prioritized list. Travel and living expenses associated with the interviewing process is burdensome. Residency granting institutions also prioritize their lists from perhaps hundreds of applicants that would like to join their institutions. Seldom does one institution offer more than six residency positions Anxiety reigns among the candidates in anticipation of the result of their quest.
On March 15 a computer provides a “match” for most all graduates from medical school. This is called MATCH DAY. The process involves matching the prioritize list of the students and the institutions. Students have no idea of where the computer and destiny will take them.
Off to their new locations the residents face three to seven years of continued study to become fully certified in their chosen medical field. This means setting up some kind of living arrangement they can afford on something like a subsistence income. It is of interest that the term “resident” derives from not too long ago when there was virtually no pay during this period of additional training following medical school. The young doctors could not afford their own accommodations, so they were residents in their hospitals.
Even the newest residents often find themselves involved in demanding medical situations. A president might be rushed into the emergency room while they are on duty. They are on duty for horrific hours. Most will experience consecutive shifts of around the clock duty. They obtain experience and training that qualifies them to strike out on their own and try to catch up financially with their undergraduate classmates who have been building their careers for a decade.
It is clear that parents have reduced their expectations for their offspring if they cease encouraging their offspring to become a doctor or lawyer. Those professions have been revered through the ages. They enjoyed high social esteem even when they did not enjoy extraordinary incomes. By the twentieth century doctors and lawyers generally were among the highest earners and retained a high level of societal respect.
Law school and medical school are expensive in several ways. Tuition and books are expensive. Most professional schools in these fields require a full-time effort on the part of the students and forbid employment while matriculating in their institutions. Aspiring students, therefore, must find a way to pay for the various goods and services necessary to live. There is the double jeopardy of the heavy financial burden of paying for all aspects of continued study and the absence of an income. During their prolonged study they witness their undergraduate classmates fully ensconced in their professional lives, building their incomes, reputations and families.
Credentials have changed for entering both of these professions. One can no longer read law under a lawyer’s guidance and hang out a shingle announcing one’s qualification to accept clients with legal problems or needs. A prospective lawyer must attend a law school for three years after acquiring an undergraduate college degree. In most cases a person can become a lawyer after three years of law school and proceed to build their credentials, reputations and incomes.
Becoming a doctor is a different story. As with the law, candidates must have a glowing diversified record in undergraduate work to obtain acceptance into medical school. Most agree that four years of medical school is mentally, physically and emotionally challenging. With rare exception medical students have strong academic knowledge, skills and work habits. Nothing, however, has prepared them for the intensity of day to day demands which makes any sleep a luxury. During their last two years they get a taste of long hours on duty in their hospitals.
By the fourth year medical students must declare a specific field of medicine to enter. Having done so, they proceed to apply for residency positions in programs they think might accept them. They yearn for the opportunity to obtain an interview from medical schools on their prioritized list. Travel and living expenses associated with the interviewing process is burdensome. Residency granting institutions also prioritize their lists from perhaps hundreds of applicants that would like to join their institutions. Seldom does one institution offer more than six residency positions Anxiety reigns among the candidates in anticipation of the result of their quest.
On March 15 a computer provides a “match” for most all graduates from medical school. This is called MATCH DAY. The process involves matching the prioritize list of the students and the institutions. Students have no idea of where the computer and destiny will take them.
Off to their new locations the residents face three to seven years of continued study to become fully certified in their chosen medical field. This means setting up some kind of living arrangement they can afford on something like a subsistence income. It is of interest that the term “resident” derives from not too long ago when there was virtually no pay during this period of additional training following medical school. The young doctors could not afford their own accommodations, so they were residents in their hospitals.
Even the newest residents often find themselves involved in demanding medical situations. A president might be rushed into the emergency room while they are on duty. They are on duty for horrific hours. Most will experience consecutive shifts of around the clock duty. They obtain experience and training that qualifies them to strike out on their own and try to catch up financially with their undergraduate classmates who have been building their careers for a decade.
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