This question was originally posted on Quora.com and was answered by Jonathan Geach, MD Doctor of Medicine, Loma Linda University School of Medicine The following is a best case scenario. You graduate medical school at 26. Then you will have a 3 year residency in internal medicine. Many people have to do a fourth year being a chief to get into a good program, but you are an awesome candidate clinically and have top board scores, so you go straight into cardiology. This takes another 3 years. You are now 32. After enjoying your 6 years of residency you could go and earn a starting salary of $400,000 doing what you have spent so much time learning to excel in. But you are not going to settle. You want to also be a cardiac surgeon. Back to the beginning. You first have to do a surgical internship followed by 4 more years of general surgical training. Good luck maintaining your knowledge and cardiac skills during this time. After your surgical residency is finished you will be able to enter a cardiac surgery fellowship. This will be another 3 years. So you will have invested 8 additional years of your life and given up almost 3.5 million dollars in opportunity cost. At 40 you will finally be done and ready to be both a cardiologist and a cardiac surgeon. Good luck! Source
