I'm 43 years-old, currently a 3rd year student, and frequently wonder why more people closer to my age do not choose to enter medical school. I can certainly empathize about money, and a vastly altered lifestyle once beginning the journey. I was an electrical engineer designing computer chips in the previous career. While my salary was insane for the last part of the 90s, I really did not enjoy my work, my workplace, or many of my colleagues. I loved engineering, just not the insane pace and focus on cranking products out the door. Had I not decided to enter medical school, I very well might have moved to Steamboat Springs, Colorado and tried a career as a mountain bike designer and manufacturer. But instead, here I am with just 15 months left in medical school and a palate of options for the rest of my working career.
There are a few areas in medicine where age is against you. Surgery for example is a sport for younger players than myself. While I got stellar evaluations in my surgical rotation and honors in the course, six weeks of 100+ hour weeks convinced me that life as a surgeon is a destiny for other students. Yes, there technically is an 80 hour work week, and the 80 hours reported on the timecard is strictly enforced. The reality is most surgical residents work far in excess of 80 hours, and it seems like most attending surgeons do as well. As the director of surgery pointed out, the vast majority of surgeons retire by age 55. Who wants to keep waking up at 2 a.m. and doing a lap appendectomy in their 50's.
At our school, the population is just so diverse that giant groups of students rarely get together and party. We did in the first year while everything was brutalizing our souls. Less commonly in 2nd year because we all started using free time to study for step one of the boards. Now in third year, we are all spread out doing different rotations in different hospitals, and we see each other only at orientation for the next rotation, and during the shelf exam at a rotations conclusion. It's like life, you hang out with the other students, residents, and attendings that you click with. Many of the older students are married with children and when they have free time, they spend it with the family. In one respect you'll have an advantage because you're closer in age to most of the attending physicians. It turned out that one of my attendings was a fellow ski team member when I was an undergraduate. Residents and attendings like discussing topics other than medicine, so if you have any other life experiences, you're much more fun to work with.
The biggest factor that age plays in the game of medical school is the diminished quality of life while once again a student. Instead of hanging out exclusively with other medical students I still run with my long-time friends. None of them are in school. All of them have plenty of free time and cash to play, to travel, to dowhat they want. I certainly don't have much free time and I live on a pretty strict budget. So frequently I end up turning down opportunities to go skiing, hiking, to concerts, etc. Right now, there's just no free time anymore.
The biggest hassle that I've experienced resulting from my age came from a 30'ish female instructor leading a small group component of a class that was part ethics, part alternative medicine, mostly bulls#@t. She was just pissed off that somebody my age got into medical school. A physician friend told me that she had interviewed several consecutive times and not been accepted. So I got the bitchy shoulder from the "Wish I was doing what you're doing," person, but nobody else seems to care how old you are. In most medical schools there are plenty of older students. Most classes have a few students with a PhD iin something, a few career switchers, retired military, etc. The attending physicians all love older medical students because apparently we are more comfortable talking to patients and digging out the necessary details during an interview.
I have absolutely no regrets about entering medical school. It's likely that my career will more or less be an extension of engineering. Probably I'll move into pain medicine through an anesthesiology residency or maybe I'll become a radiation oncologist. The thing is, if you decide to become a physician, you can for the most part pick exactly what type of physican you will be. You get to pick your dream job. I could never do that as an engineer.
Hope this helps.
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