- DrQuinn Said:
I am sorry to have to enter a comment in such absolute dis - agreement with some else's post (and I sincerely fo not wish to offend nor violate any term of use) but . . .
Do Not Let Anyone Tell You To Give Up!
Challenge Discrimination Courageously! Politely but forthrightly. But do not expect failure or let anyone else create their expectation for you.
Do Not Let Anyone Tell You To Give Up!
Challenge Discrimination Courageously! Politely but forthrightly. But do not expect failure or let anyone else create their expectation for you.
Dr Quinn,
In all fairness to the above posters, I didn’t get the impression that anyone was discriminating against the OP, nor did I get the impression that anyone was telling the OP to give up. I was left with the impression that the other posters were encouraging introspection before setting down this long, expensive, sometimes exasperating road at such an advanced age. There’s a big difference between someone who’s 59 and about to hit the ‘submit’ button on their primaries versus someone who’s 59 and still has years worth of pre-med pre-reqs, MCAT, and all of their associated demands and expenses lying ahead of them. The advice and opinions for the former would’ve probably bore a more encouraging tone. But for all we know, this OP is years away from even reaching this point in the process, assuming there were no unexpected delays and unlimited financial resources were available to him – a mighty big assumption! He could theoretically be close to 70 in the off chance he was to be accepted.
I think anyone entering medicine at such an age needs to reexamine how they want to spend their old age and whether or not the sacrifices they will make in terms of time, energy, and, most importantly, money are worth the return on their investment. Only the OP can decide this for himself, but the rest of us would be doing him a great disservice if we didn’t point out some of the downsides. It’s one thing to work till you die because you’re healthy and love what you do, but it’s another thing entirely to work till you die because you’re forced to do so due to a mountain of debt hanging over your head. The latter scenario sets the OP up for a potentially very miserable way to kick off what should be his “golden yearsâ€. I know medicine is all about altruism, but it is also very much a selfish pursuit. Before the OP sets off down this road, he needs to decide what’s really in his own long-term best interest. Does he want to give up fishing trips with the grandkids and cruises with the spouse in exchange for night-float & on-call? Does he want to reverse mortgage his (and his spouse’s) home and blow through his life savings and/or pension for the life of a starving student, intern, resident, fellow? Does he want to give up a comfortable position on life’s totem pole that’s taken a lifetime to achieve in exchange for a very uncertain future with attendings half his age barking orders at him while the rest of his peers are entering retirement? If the OP can sincerely answer yes to these questions and cannot think of any other less expensive way to fulfill his self-actualization needs, then I say Godspeed. I understand medical school is the Holy Grail for us OPM’ers, but it’s not all sunshine & giggles, even for the traditional students.
So while I agree with you in principle, Dr. Quinn, that the prejudices of others should not enter into the equation, there needs to be a healthy dose of reality injected into the discussion so that the OP can make an informed decision on whether or not to move forward on this. I think that’s all the above posters were trying to do. To do less would be irresponsible of us.