I plan on a career in patient care. I will almost certainly do research in medical school, but based on past experience I don’t expect to find it extremely compelling or to be extraordinarily good at it. Money concerns me if only for philanthropic purposes. The field that interests me most now (infectious disease) does not pay especially well, but I have decided that I really should seriously consider more lucrative paths that might let me donate enough to save twice as many lives in the developing world.
Both schools seem to have pretty solid clinical training and early patient exposure, to hear the students tell it (though they have little basis for comparison). I don’t have a strong preference between their curricula, except my worries about driving around between hospitals in Miami.
To me it then appears you have two (clear) paths in line with your preferences. Your emotional preference, what makes you happy, sounds like helping people in person (fuzzies). Your intellectual preference, goal, or ambition, could be paraphrased as, “Benefit to the highest possible positive degree the greatest number of people.” Your ideal profession will meet somewhere between the optimal courses for each of these two preferences. I list these to avoid misunderstanding.
The first course is the one you’re pursuing—get an MD, work with patients to be happy, and donate to efficient high-utility charities in order to live with yourself. If the difference in cost will really only come out to 30-60k $US, you will be able to live with your husband while attending UF, UF is more prestigious, would cause you less worry, and if matriculating to UF makes you happier—then by all means attend UF! I’d be quite certain about the numbers, though.
The second course isn’t unique to medical professionals, but they do have special skills which can be of unique use. Go to a developing country and solve medical problems in highly replicable and efficient manners. This course probably meets your two preferences with the least amount of compromise.
If you’re unfamiliar with Paul Farmer, he went (still goes, maybe) to Haiti and tried to solve their medical problems—he had some success, but unfortunately the biggest problem with Haiti was governmental infrastructure, without which impact cannot be sustained.
The second course would involve you using medical expertise to solve medical problems, and acquiring either additional knowledge or a partner with knowledge of how to establish infrastructure sufficient to sustain your solution.
The final step involves writing Project Evaluations on your endeavours so that others can replicate them in wide and varied locales—this is how you make an impact.
Not knowing anything about your husband, the above reasoning assumes he doesn’t have any impact upon the decision.
Thanks, your advice more or less coincides with what I was planning up until Ohio State confused me again. I certainly have not ruled out international medicine and nonprofit work as some part of my career, but I don’t see that any of the schools that has accepted me has a clear advantage on that front.
Perhaps one of the schools has someone on the faculty with experience in that area, and could mentor you. If I may inquire, how did Ohio State confuse you?
On Wednesday they awarded me a scholarship covering full in-state tuition, making them probably my least expensive option (since it’s easy to establish residency for tuition purposes in Ohio after a year or two). It’s an excellent program, but moving would be hard and Columbus is cold and far from both our families.
I plan on a career in patient care. I will almost certainly do research in medical school, but based on past experience I don’t expect to find it extremely compelling or to be extraordinarily good at it. Money concerns me if only for philanthropic purposes. The field that interests me most now (infectious disease) does not pay especially well, but I have decided that I really should seriously consider more lucrative paths that might let me donate enough to save twice as many lives in the developing world.
Both schools seem to have pretty solid clinical training and early patient exposure, to hear the students tell it (though they have little basis for comparison). I don’t have a strong preference between their curricula, except my worries about driving around between hospitals in Miami.
To me it then appears you have two (clear) paths in line with your preferences. Your emotional preference, what makes you happy, sounds like helping people in person (fuzzies). Your intellectual preference, goal, or ambition, could be paraphrased as, “Benefit to the highest possible positive degree the greatest number of people.” Your ideal profession will meet somewhere between the optimal courses for each of these two preferences.
I list these to avoid misunderstanding.
The first course is the one you’re pursuing—get an MD, work with patients to be happy, and donate to efficient high-utility charities in order to live with yourself. If the difference in cost will really only come out to 30-60k $US, you will be able to live with your husband while attending UF, UF is more prestigious, would cause you less worry, and if matriculating to UF makes you happier—then by all means attend UF! I’d be quite certain about the numbers, though.
The second course isn’t unique to medical professionals, but they do have special skills which can be of unique use. Go to a developing country and solve medical problems in highly replicable and efficient manners. This course probably meets your two preferences with the least amount of compromise.
If you’re unfamiliar with Paul Farmer, he went (still goes, maybe) to Haiti and tried to solve their medical problems—he had some success, but unfortunately the biggest problem with Haiti was governmental infrastructure, without which impact cannot be sustained.
The second course would involve you using medical expertise to solve medical problems, and acquiring either additional knowledge or a partner with knowledge of how to establish infrastructure sufficient to sustain your solution. The final step involves writing Project Evaluations on your endeavours so that others can replicate them in wide and varied locales—this is how you make an impact.
Not knowing anything about your husband, the above reasoning assumes he doesn’t have any impact upon the decision.
Thanks, your advice more or less coincides with what I was planning up until Ohio State confused me again. I certainly have not ruled out international medicine and nonprofit work as some part of my career, but I don’t see that any of the schools that has accepted me has a clear advantage on that front.
Perhaps one of the schools has someone on the faculty with experience in that area, and could mentor you. If I may inquire, how did Ohio State confuse you?
On Wednesday they awarded me a scholarship covering full in-state tuition, making them probably my least expensive option (since it’s easy to establish residency for tuition purposes in Ohio after a year or two). It’s an excellent program, but moving would be hard and Columbus is cold and far from both our families.