This question was originally posted on Quora.com and was answered by Paul Bolin, M.D. (physician) Here’s what I ran into when I was a medical student. The assumption that when a medical student is finished, that they are ready to hit the job market and make six figures. I had a nurse come to me and tell me the hospital was looking for pediatricians and the name of their HR manager. Aside from the fact that I wasn’t going into pediatrics, it would be at least three years before I would be ready to apply for a “real” job. Are you going to medical school to be a doctor or a nurse? A doctor. Medical schools train doctors. Nursing schools train nurses. As a male, I didn’t run into this question nearly as much as my female classmates. You look too young to be a doctor. I’m not a doctor, I’m a medical student. And most medical students start right after college, meaning they’re in their early 20s. Some people in their early 20s look really, really young. That we’re in lecture all the time. The first two years of medical school are spent in lecture. The final two years are in the hospital working just like any other job. That we’re super geniuses. While most to all medical students are ahead of the curve academically, and while many medical students are exceptionally smart, most of us are simply good at one thing: Taking tests. I knew several very intelligent pre-meds in college who had their hopes dashed because of test anxiety. And a lot of my classmates who aced exams during our classroom years were total dolts when we had to apply that knowledge in real life. There’s quite a bit of intellectual diversity in medical school. That we want to date your niece. This got worse after graduating, but on several occasions I’ve had nurses or CNAs actually try to set me up on a date with their single daughter or niece. Awkward. Source
