bubitom Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 I am interested in both(economics has crossed by mind also). Currently in high school(Pre-IB) I don't have issues studying any subject if I want/need to. In the past years I was highly set on medicine, with a few periods when I did prefer law or business/economics over medicine. Now with the deadline for my IB subject choices closing on me, I am totally confused whether to pursue law or medicine. The biggest thing that steers me away from medicine is the length of the studies. 11-13 years of studies in total is a bit off putting. I'm also good in natural sciences( especially bio and chem). Also the unpredictability of healthcare by the time I finish my studies is worrying me.On the other hand I've always been well capable of reading academic texts and righting essays on them. I enjoy history and civics, and I'm also certain I would also enjoy law. I also enjoy paperwork to a certain extent.I'm really confused which I should set my eyes on. Hopefully somebody in this community could provide some useful insight and information to help me resolve my issue. Ofc, in the end it should be my own decision, which shouldn't be affected by anyone else than me. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellie Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 Could you go to a local university and shadow students of medicine and law? I've done that for three different specialties and it really helped me make my choice. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubitom Posted February 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 Could you go to a local university and shadow students of medicine and law? I've done that for three different specialties and it really helped me make my choice.no, not really Only university close is University of Helsinki and they aren't very open-minded about these things. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vioh Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 11-13 years of studies in total is a bit off putting. Also the unpredictability of healthcare by the time I finish my studies is worrying me. What you're saying above sounds a little strange to what I know. From what I've heard, it usually takes 6-7 years in total. Of course, it might take up to 10 years if you wanna be a surgeon (because of the time for necessary practice and gaining experience). But 11-13 years sound a bit like an exaggeration. And what do you mean by "unpredictability of healthcare" after university? I thought doctors and surgeons are among the most sought after jobs in the world? The average salary for doctors is pretty high as well. Anyway, law or medicine? wow, that's a really tough one to answer. I often tell people to go with their passions. But of course, you don't really know enough about either law or medicine to be able to say definitively which one you are more passionate about. Due to that reason, I would strongly advise you to do a bit of research online. We are living in a digital age. The Internet has everything. For example, you can pick a university that you like, and look at how the medicine/law program is structured in that university. In fact, some universities even upload courses' syllabi, lecture slides, video recordings, homework, reading materials,... to their public website that you can freely access. So maybe you can look at those and decide for yourself which program line sounds more appealing to you.Another way is to find inspirations from things that are available online. You can maybe subscribe to a blog of a human-right lawyer and read about how a day of being a lawyer looks like. Or you can search for videos on youtube about medicine. For example, videos capturing the activities in Emergency Room (ER), etc. In fact, I have spent many of my dinners watching youtube videos about doctors operating on people. To be honest, those videos didn't inspire me, but I found them rather disgusting because of all the blood, the fat, as well as the sharp knives used to cut the skin open.... But that made me admire doctors and surgeons even more. Those videos helped me realize how much science, technology and the advancement of medicine can contribute to saving millions of people's lives. So I guess what i'm trying to say is that you need to research information on the internet. Look for learning materials as well as inspirational stuff on google. Then ask yourself this: can you imagine doing the things that the people in the videos are doing everyday? Can you imagine yourself standing the emergency room and operate on people whose lives depend on you? Or can you imagine yourself sitting days after days in an office, reading though thousands of files and documents in order to handle a single legal case?Of course, if you still cannot decide at the end, you can try to choose your subjects wisely such that you can keep both of the options open. From what I've heard, many law schools only require students to take languages and at least one of the social sciences. Similarly, most medical schools only require you to take both bio & chem. So you can maybe choose maths, languages, history, chemistry, and biology. That would keep both options open. 2 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 27, 2016 Report Share Posted February 27, 2016 (edited) 11-13 years of studies in total is a bit off putting. Also the unpredictability of healthcare by the time I finish my studies is worrying me. What you're saying above sounds a little strange to what I know. From what I've heard, it usually takes 6-7 years in total. Of course, it might take up to 10 years if you wanna be a surgeon (because of the time for necessary practice and gaining experience). But 11-13 years sound a bit like an exaggeration. And what do you mean by "unpredictability of healthcare" after university? I thought doctors and surgeons are among the most sought after jobs in the world? The average salary for doctors is pretty high as well. About the 11-13 years of studying, it's quite true. First you have your six years of medicine in school (eight if you're in America due to medicine being a graduate course), then your residency and fellowship which can range from three to eight years. At minimum, you've got nine years, at max, probably about 16? That's probably the main reason many of people at my school have decided to drop the idea of taking medicine. To OP, Vioh has given fantastic advice, and I'd also recommend seeing if maybe a close friend's relative or your own relative is a doctor/lawyer and ask if you can talk to them about it (or if you're embarrassed to do so, ask your mum to do it - my mum was perfectly willing to do so). This is a pretty difficult decision, and having to suddenly make a choice is damn difficult, so I'd definitely reiterate Vioh's idea of using the Internet and trying to find reasons why people chose medicine or law and seeing which you can best relate to and interest you the most. Edited February 27, 2016 by Guest Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.