maths or medicine

Dahecall

Hi to all. In fifth year at the moment in a smallish country school. My favourite subjects are chemistry and maths. Due to this I was considering pursuing a career in either medicine or maths. Which of these careers would you consider better in terms of stress satisfaction and less so salary. I would also like to know If there are any other careers you think I should pursue. Thanks

ironclaw

Gavinmcgirl wrote: »

Hi to all. In fifth year at the moment in a smallish country school. My favourite subjects are chemistry and maths. Due to this I was considering pursuing a career in either medicine or maths. Which of these careers would you consider better in terms of stress satisfaction and less so salary. I would also like to know If there are any other careers you think I should pursue. Thanks

Firstly, they are completely different fields Chalk and cheese. Math is logical, clear thinking and by the book. Medicine is the complete opposite.

Maybe consider Engineering? If you like the medical field, you could take Biomedical Engineering. Best of both worlds really.

Jack Bracken

I wouldn't quite call medicine the opposite of logical, ironclaw.

OP: Best bet would be to talk to a few people in both courses, ask any questions you have about the work and their satisfaction with the course and what have you. Open days are a good chance to get to meet some of the lecturers and students from each year. There's a list of open days here. The Math open day is November 26. Looks like there's two 'visitng programmes' in March and April. Don't quite know what that means and they require registration, but could be worth a look.

There's also a Medicine Society and a Mathematical Society that might answer some of your questions.

ironclaw

Jack Bracken wrote: »

I wouldn't quite call medicine the opposite of logical, ironclaw.

Very true. I was just trying to draw a line between the two. But both have a strong analytical side at the same time. However the life style and career path of each are very different.

[Jackass]

Depending on what discipline you end up in, Medicine is an extremely tough career path. The long term rewards are obvious and when you put in the time in your youth, you can be set up with a very handy and very lucrative career as a private consultant, but junior doctors are notoriously over worked and under paid. Long long hours, very unsociable hours and very very tough, high pressure work - but again, the long term rewards are obvious.

Researching the employment prospects (i.e. Residency opportunities in hospitals etc.) is something worth considering also - there have been a lot of cut backs in health spending here and more to come - you may have to go abroad after study. (keep in mind that you are in 5th year, so you're considering how the economy might be in 7 or 8 years).

As for maths, there are some handy careers you could get out of it, teaching for example, have summers off, earn an above average wage, again, employment prospects are worth considering also. I know at the moment it is very difficult for teachers to find work.

Or there are some extremely lucrative but more high pressure careers you could get out of it. Finance for example, if you are highly quantitative, you will have absolutely no problem finding work. Particularly in investment banking, a lot of the maths involved is statistical analysis and probabilities to judge risk and to lower risk by spreading a portfolio over various investment types.

If you're interested in that kind of stuff, you can do very well out of it. Very competitive industry though, full of extremely mathematically minded people, starting out expect long long hours and extreme pressure, but similar to doctor, the more experienced you get, the less you will have to work for significantly more pay.

Cody Pomeray

In terms of stress, I can't imagine anyone would deny that medicine is more stressful.

It's unusual to hear a prospective student base his options on future stress levels, but the more I think of it, it's an entirely sensible approach, as long as you find both fields mentally satisfying.

So it has to be maths, really.

And before anyone says maths can be stressful, yes it can, but not in a "OMG there is a baby dying right here" kind of way.

Dahecall

Cody Pomeray wrote: »

In terms of stress, I can't imagine anyone would deny that medicine is more stressful.

It's unusual to hear a prospective student base his options on future stress levels, but the more I think of it, it's an entirely sensible approach, as long as you find both fields mentally satisfying.

So it has to be maths, really.

And before anyone says maths can be stressful, yes it can, but not in a "OMG there is a baby dying right here" kind of way.

Thanks for the advice however I think I may go for medicine due to the feeling of doing something that really makes a difference to people. If I was to go for this does anyone know how much hours a week there would be or would I be better doing premed

ironclaw

Gavinmcgirl wrote: »

Thanks for the advice however I think I may go for medicine due to the feeling of doing something that really makes a difference to people. If I was to go for this does anyone know how much hours a week there would be or would I be better doing premed

You should only consider medicine if you have seriously considered it in the past. Loads of people think 'Ah yeah, I'd like that' and drop out in year two. It is literally your life for about 10 years. You'll eat, sleep and repeat with the books. The stress is huge.

My best advice is to go talk to current students and try get some placement work. Its not a career to consider lightly as its not that transferable. i.e. Your a doctor or your not. Unlike Math where you could go into Engineering, finance etc etc. So your choosing a life, not a career really.

Dahecall

ironclaw wrote: »

You should only consider medicine if you have seriously considered it in the past. Loads of people think 'Ah yeah, I'd like that' and drop out in year two. It is literally your life for about 10 years. You'll eat, sleep and repeat with the books. The stress is huge.

My best advice is to go talk to current students and try get some placement work. Its not a career to consider lightly as its not that transferable. i.e. Your a doctor or your not. Unlike Math where you could go into Engineering, finance etc etc. So your choosing a life, not a career really.

Tbh it was a bit of a childhood dream of mine ti become a doctor just I find maths easy and enjoy it a lot. Also I only got 4 As and 7 Bs in the JC last year however I done nearly no study so I was wondering would I be able to get the high points needed.

ironclaw

Gavinmcgirl wrote: »

Tbh it was a bit of a childhood dream of mine ti become a doctor just I find maths easy and enjoy it a lot. Also I only got 4 As and 7 Bs in the JC last year however I done nearly no study so I was wondering would I be able to get the high points needed.

If you apply yourself, you can easily get the points. But be realistic! If you haven't a chance, you need to accept that early. Or go for the long haul i.e. Get general science and then do graduate medicine (A seriously long time in University but many do it)

The tricky bit is getting where you want to go and with Medicine, I believe you should be prepared to travel i.e. You should have no issue accepting NUIG if you miss UCD by 5 points. I know that sounds harsh but the points race for medicine is very competitive.

Get yourself a good look at the HPAT as well. Talk to people and learn how to approach it. Personally I believe you should avoid grinds in the HPAT as that defeats the purpose, but then again, people 'cheat' that exam every year.

Dahecall

ironclaw wrote: »

If you apply yourself, you can easily get the points. But be realistic! If you haven't a chance, you need to accept that early. Or go for the long haul i.e. Get general science and then do graduate medicine (A seriously long time in University but many do it)

The tricky bit is getting where you want to go and with Medicine, I believe you should be prepared to travel i.e. You should have no issue accepting NUIG if you miss UCD by 5 points. I know that sounds harsh but the points race for medicine is very competitive.

Get yourself a good look at the HPAT as well. Talk to people and learn how to approach it. Personally I believe you should avoid grinds in the HPAT as that defeats the purpose, but then again, people 'cheat' that exam every year.

I would probably actually aim for nuig as its far closer than any other college. Is there any difference between the two in terms of quality or is it just a reputation. Never had any career guidance so don't know exactly what type of Qs come up in hpat but know it requires logical thinking and reasoning so if you could give me some info about it or where to that would be a great help. Thanks

Ruski

Also depends what sort of maths you want to do. There's pure maths, applied maths, there's statistics and there's also theoretical physics.

With the last three you can find tons of applications in stuff like chemistry, biology, medicine, social science, and the list goes on and on. For example, I'm studying applied maths and my final year project is on medical imaging.

UCD also has a degree called Mathematical Science where you can mix and match pure maths, applied maths and statistics to your heart's desire.