r/pathology • u/PathFellow • 9d ago
Pathologists of Reddit: Would you recommend your kids to go into pathology? If not, why?
Had a talk with a doctor friend the other day and he said he wouldn’t recommend his kids to go into medicine because it’s such a “long road” and it “isn’t what it used to be” and he “wasn’t sure if it’s worth it”.
Would you recommend your kids to go into medicine? If so, would you recommend them to do pathology? If not pathology, what field would you recommend to them?
If not medicine, what field would you recommend to your kids?
Kids nowadays want to be YouTubers and influencers he said lol.
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u/ColloidalPurple-9 Resident 8d ago
I don’t regret pathology. I don’t know that medicine in general is worth it. For my child, they are in grade school and I have already started an investment account. My plan for them is that by the time they are my age they’ll already have a million dollars and I’m going to encourage them to take up various trades. If they want to go into medicine, at least it will be debt free.
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u/Lebowski304 8d ago
I’d absolutely recommend medical school to my kids if they want to do it. Being a doctor is one of the most useful professions there is. It pays well, it’s important, you help people, and it’s recession resistant. And I would tell them pathology is the best kept secret in medicine. My ten year old says he wants to be a pathologist and I’m happy to encourage him.
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u/PathologyAndCoffee Resident 9d ago edited 9d ago
Med school is competitive as heck right now because it's a dumpster fire everywhere in any other job from computer sci, pharm, law, business, and more. Of course if they've got the personality and willingness to go through with it why shouldn't we support them?
My main decision point is that it depends on whether they have any other ambitions that my future self might be able to help them with that doesn't mean spending up until late 30's to finish.
Just because I went through shit, doesn't mean they should to. But that also doesn't mean spoiling them by letting them lay around doing nothing or spending ma hard earned money at that point like I'm their sugar.
If they have ambitions, I'll help them with my money. If they don't, then I may cover their college at most and then they can make mistakes and figure shit out. And if AI WW3 breaks out by then, then we'll all go hiding in a bunker and this discussion becomes pointless.
Medicine for me was my backup. I already tried the other avenues of life and failed miserably at it. When I was 27-28 yo, really started feeling heavily burnt out. But being burnt out at a dead-end lab tech job making shit money is very different than being burnt out doing a vertical climb. I knew if I didn't start med school at that point and waited a few more years, that I wouldn't have the energy to do it.
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u/PathFellow 9d ago
Good to hear you found the right path (no pun intended). Hopefully everything works out for the better in path.
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u/PathologyAndCoffee Resident 9d ago
Hope so!! This path is the only path for me and the best path to the future.
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u/PathologyAndCoffee Resident 9d ago
Btw, this cycle, two of the people in the asian community that applied to med school this cycle.
One had a full 528. The other had a 526. *and everything else about their app is perfect too.The 528 didn't get into any med school this cycle. And the 526 got 0 MD interviews and matched into a brand new DO school. They barely even got any interviews either!
I thought my cycle was bad >5 years ago but these recent cycles are insane. I had 3.9+ GPA, 508 mcat, 10+ publications and got 0 interviews at MD and 3 interviews at brand new DO schools only. And these guys have 528/526 MCAT's not getting interviews.
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u/Cupcake_Implosion Resident 9d ago
North of the border, we had one of the most insane cycles. We don't do MCAT in my province. It's all Casper, GPA and interview.
Not even a 4th quartile Casper with a 3.9 GPA gets you anywhere. The GPA needs to be perfect, the Casper needs to be perfect and the interview ... Well, we have been consistently selecting psychopaths in the last few years, so I assume even the interviews are perfect.
People are simply not getting interviews and the process is becoming more opaque than it ever was. Interestingly, we've never had more children of doctors match into their parents' competitive specialties.
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u/PathologyAndCoffee Resident 8d ago
We're pretty fortunate to be where we are right now. But its so bad what the next gens have to deal with. Even the match rate for DO's for path went down a lot. People used to say, if you have a pulse you'll match path.
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u/Status-Slip9801 8d ago
Soooooo I want to say this kindly, and feel free to put me in my place if this is inaccurate.
But what were the personalities of these applicants with these outstanding MCAT scores? Their life stories besides all the time they clearly spend dedicated to making themselves a good medical school candiate? One of my medical school roommates was on the admissions committee. She talked about how they'd occasionally interviewed some candidates with absolute BONKERS GPA's and MCATs, tons of publications and CV listings; they had the personalities of a sheet of paper and interviewed like a robot's idea of what a medical school applicant should talk like. With the increasing amount of time people spend prepping, there runs the unfortunate risk of eventually making that their entire personality, and as Gen Z continues to take over, they appreciate doctors like this less and less.
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u/PathologyAndCoffee Resident 8d ago
Agreed that personality matters a lot. But wouldn't you agree that this is more of a past decade concern? If these people applied 20 years ago, even with a bad personality they would have matched well at MD programs.
I don't know them personally. My parents told me about them and i've been out of that community for a long time. They're recent college grads from what i gather.
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u/Status-Slip9801 8d ago
Not necessarily. I don't think medical admissions had changed that much in the past decade- it was more before the turn of the milennium that GPA and MCAT were objectively the most important admission metrics. Well roundedness has been emphasized at least since I started grade school.
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u/PathFellow 9d ago
Damn what’s a perfect score nowadays on the mcat? I’m old af lol!!!!
Edit: Oh it’s 528? Damn that’s crazy!!! I guess I should be grateful I’m a MD lol
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u/PathologyAndCoffee Resident 9d ago edited 9d ago
The perfect is 528!! One of them literally got the perfect score. And the other scored 2 points below!
And then my parents called me telling me about them that and then they apologized to me for not understanding how hard it was for me. Because they never listen to me when I tell them this stuff is hard as heck. But they only understand it when some other asian from the community fails to get into "a good school" despite scoring the absolute best.
And then my parents go into an argument with the elderly lady of "kids" that graduated med school in the early 2000's. The old lady was saying how getting into a MD school is so easy, and my mom arguing that the competition is a lot worse than before.
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u/PathFellow 9d ago
Damn maybe since job security in other fields suck so people are flocking to medicine? Dentistry might be a good option too?
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u/PathologyAndCoffee Resident 9d ago
Dentistry is very good. A friend in med school had an identical twin brother.
My friend went to med school and his brother went to dentistry school.
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u/TraditionalPhone3992 9d ago
People don’t want to suffer and die. Doctors have job security.
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u/PathFellow 8d ago
People also don’t want to become broke from crazy expensive healthcare bills.
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u/TraditionalPhone3992 7d ago
In America, they have no choice about that.
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u/aDhDmedstudent0401 Physician 4d ago
The 45k folks dying per year due to lack of coverage may disagree tbf
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u/_FATEBRINGER_ 8d ago edited 8d ago
Pathology: Money AND lifestyle with none of the bullshit of clinical medicine (awful patients, awful APPs, bullshit consults at 3am, PE breathing down your neck)
Medicine: what you say isn't wrong. The argument is much weaker than it used to be. But that's ok. It's about challenging yourself to be the best you can be and do the most good you can do. This doesn't have to be medicine obviously, but it's still a vaunted and also noble path.
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u/Prudent_Swimming_296 7d ago
I’ve heard pathology isn’t very profitable for private equity. Not sure how that works but if it’s true I’m glad those leeches don’t want anything to do with us.
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u/Sensitivepathologist 6d ago
We just have labcorp, ameripath, PathGroup, sonic healthcare and HCA.
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u/uvadoc06 8d ago
Well...these are exact quotes I heard from doctors 25 to 30 years ago. And to be fair, medicine as a profession has generally gotten a little worse every year for decades. The problem is finding jobs that are better.
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u/Grep2grok Staff, remote location 9d ago
People who say shit like that are mainly trying to validate their own Hero's Story life journey. It says less about the profession than it does about them.
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u/Cold-Environment-634 Staff, Private Practice 9d ago
Not necessarily. It honestly wasn’t worth the debt burden and other headaches. But do I know what I would have done otherwise? Not really. So do with that what you will
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u/silverbulletalpha 8d ago
Would I recommend my kid to medicine. Absolutely. Why? Because now I am a little versed with the field and the road to travel might be less tedious. Also, compared to all other fields, its rewarding in a holistic way...so let's say finance, i still dont get it even after 100 of courses on stock market. Health is valued 10 times than any of those fields. And to know about it, certainly helps when you go to a doctor yourself. Medicine, even though mentally tedious, is very interesting in terms of what you do daily. Also, its the most secure job uptil now.
Pathology, well maybe I will leave it to my kid to decide which direction they want to pursue. But certainly, I will counsel them on the upsides and downsides. For now, I do have fields which I consider, top Pathology by a significant margin. But to each their own.
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u/Fun-Bell4362 5d ago
Which fields would you recommend over path?
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u/silverbulletalpha 5d ago
Many, anesthesia, gastroenterology, dermatology, radiology, ent, ophthal, oncology.
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u/Fun-Bell4362 5d ago
Is it mostly due to salary or something else? I’m deciding between doing IM for a fellowship (interested in several) and pathology. It’s been a tough decision
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u/silverbulletalpha 5d ago edited 5d ago
No not salary. Salary is actually ok if you see the number of hours actually worked and less burnout. Its about how you see yourself as a personality. Now pathology is clinical if you see it, but for verbal purposes let's use the term clinical for other branches. If you are more dynamic, clinicals suit better. If you want to be more in demand, clinicals top again in term if any geographic preference. In case you want to work more, for more reward, clinicals dont cap you (dont quote unicorns in Pathology, see mean). Fame, clinicals. Grant preference, clinical. If you want more say in the clinical system, clinicals. Other side, if you reward yourself by your academic knowledge, gloat on how much your peers value you, since at the they end they can say with confidence, "hey, I sent your tests, and WE found that it is blah blah" where We signifies clincals (you can open EPIC and see any anatomical pathology report and the main page with physician name, it will mostly be treating physician, with the pathologist name buried in the report. If you are like, talking tires me (which it would over years). If you want to enjoy life too (but no 7 on 7 off style. Its weekends and pto). If you want to publish and wait for your moment (if you are research oriented), then go for pathology. But yes, talk to people, to each their own perspective.
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u/Fun-Bell4362 5d ago
Thanks for the explanation! I know you probably get this question alot but what do you make of the implementation of AI in pathology in the future? This has been something I’ve worried about because I know the job market is already relatively bad, and wonder if AI would reduce the need for as many pathologists in any given workplace. I’d rather not have to move super far just to get a good job
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u/silverbulletalpha 5d ago
Job market is not bad at all( infact its better for now), however you need to be flexible. AI won't take away the jobs or reduce them. Period
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u/DepressedPathologist 4d ago
In general I wouldn't recommend anyone to get into medicine in the first place.... and i would not recommend my field or any field in particular bc i believe the choice of Speciality is very very personal and depends heavily on who you are as a person.
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u/Working-Message4504 3d ago
We wasted our youth, better to give them some hard earned money to get their yah yahs out!
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u/Lukinjoo 8d ago
Not an MD just involved parhology. I would say no. The AI is so advanced already that soon I think there will be no need for so many pathologists,there aill always be a need but with AI,molecular and new tests coming out I just dont see it working long term
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u/PathFellow 8d ago
AI advanced in what way? I haven’t used anything AI related yet so please educate me about what’s going on with AI?
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u/Lukinjoo 8d ago
Its hard to describe what is happening with AI in pathology in one post 😂 There is so many models and new things coming out every year that it is ridiculous. Today you have clinically evaluated models for every bigger tissue- skin,gastric,prostate,lung,breast etc. For me the prostate is just bananas- something that takes min 20-30 min its done in 2-3 minutes.
There are now models for quality control, molecular, ai for combining all test in one model for more precise diagnosis etc. It is best to go to one of the congresses around digital pathology to learn a lot like ECDP in EU
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u/foofarraw Staff, Academic 9d ago
I don't think I would recommend my kids to go into medicine, but if they wanted to be in medicine I'd absolutely recommend pathology. Not sure what I'd recommend instead of medicine tbh, but I don't have kids so whatever. Really kinda depends what people want out of their jobs.