MCAT

Med School is certainly not the only profession that does this (the third year of law school is literally pointless). But the guild system makes "doctor shortages" and "higher costs of healthcare" possible. Doctors simply do not need 90+ percent of what they spend time learning. If they go into general medicine, they just need to know enough to refer anything unusual to a specialist. And if they are a specialist, they need to know only a little bit more. So much of healthcare costs are a positive feedback loop associated with trying to recoup costs elsewhere to cover doctor salaries (such as unnecessary procedures).
And the point is that most of what is needed for what is mostly seen at hospitals is something already being taken care of by "physician's assistants" and nurses, with shift doctors just dotting the i's of those assessments. It's egregiously convoluted system that is also deleterious to society. But there are so many vested into how it works that it won't change except at a glacial pace (PA's are part of the thaw).
And this usually comes from my doctor friends anyway. Who feel that their time was wasted for no good reason and their intellect not even remotely challenged (thus the push into specialties). They become overworked and jaded, which can't be how this system should work. Hospitals try to push doctors to work the shift of what should be two to cut costs, when just having two 40 hr doctors should have been fine. Just the economics don't work with the artificially inflated salaries

med student here

pros:

interesting to study (to me)
lingering prestige
decent future job market/salary
sense of fulfillment on an individual scale
only way i get to do surgery on people
can also go research route/industry if desired

cons:

huge debt/opportunity cost
loss of time
poor hours, must constantly work
lots of institutional bullshit/hazing you have to get thru
the future may be bad for the field, but that is like every other field

i would recommend if you truly enjoy studying/learning about the human body and medicine. shadow across specialties to see if any of it clicks for you. i really like the OR.

if you just want to make buku bucks right away don't do it. i won't be making a doctors salary until im in my early/mid 30s.

most premeds ARE retarded. most also don't get in and get weeded out by orgo/phys

Molecular biology fascinates me, I know I won’t make much even if I get a PhD but I think it will be worth it
has got it pretty much right

The definition of a Pyramid scheme.
t. nursing student

Of course they're retarded. How unoriginal is the idea to be doctor? Bottom of the barrel. 90% are retarded normies. The rest are so self-loathing, they can't imagine a career that doesn't involve ingratiating themselves to people they hate even more.

You're clueless about healthcare and education in general. There is a hierarchy in every service/business just about. The top guy doesn't always have to do every aspect of every service/product that they sell/provide patients/customers. Just like a medical assistant can take your vitals, doesn't mean they're nearly as qualified as a nurse, or a PA for that matter. There's a reason they all have to work under doctors care, and why they're paid less. The responsibility lies on the doctor, and small accidents in healthcare have serious consequences. That goes along with not providing proper standard level of care. You give it a go, see how well you do.

Molecular biology isn't the same as biology though.

some of the most selfish and disingenuous people I have ever had the displeasure of working with were premeds.
>constantly asks about other people's gpa
>school is their only conversation topic
>runs 1 or more clubs with a fancy medicine related name but club activities consists only of bake sales and a few socials
>tries to get away with doing the minimum work required to get credit for the job
>will fight each other over some meaningless title
>will withhold info from you if they see you as competitor
>goes into great lengths to kiss the asses of profs and TAs
>constantly flexes on social media about how well rounded they are
>tagging other premeds on shitty med school memes
>totally doing med "because they love helping others, " "it's the only thing they can see themselves doing, " and "would have done it even without the six figure salary."

/thread

>There's a reason they all have to work under doctors care, and why they're paid less.
Liability, not know-how. Again because most of what is seen are a couple dozen various ailments, including life threatening ones. The outliers are usually referred to specialists.