As to your question
@ImTheDoubleGreatest! I started off just like you are now. I was pre-med, planning to be an orthopedic surgeon. I studied hard and got a degree in Biology with a pre-med track at a major state university. Because I was at the same time discovering dating and my SMV value (high) at the same time, I got distracted along the way (and had a blast in college). At one point I was in an engineering calculus section (calculus was required for pre-med) and I didn't get it and wasn't doing well at all. I forgot to drop the class by the deadline. Forgot. Maybe I was hungover that day, who knows but I didn't drop the class...and got an "F".
Now folks, few things screw up a GPA like an F. Never mind that I got a "B" in the class the very next semester. There was no convincing my academic dean to expunge the F. So my GPA went from a high 3.+ to a 2.5 or so. Pulling up a GPA is no easy feat. I got it back up to a 2.99 by graduation but this was one of my mulligans. I had effectively eliminated myself from getting into med school in the US without additional school. Awesome (NOT).
Along the way however, because I was very social and knew tons of people through Greek life, student government, and various leadership & volunteer roles I met tons of people at university as well as in the greater community. One of the families I got to know had a patriarch who was a renowned physician and a department chair at the medical school. I was doing self directed independent research in the Biology department trying to figure out what direction to go in after graduation. I liked research and told him so sitting by his pool while his kids and all my friends were playing water polo one afternoon during my senior year. So this doctor said to me that if I liked research I should call him. His department did various sorts of research. Two months later I did in fact call him. I came in & was interviewed and offered an internship in clinical research. I ended up going full time the Monday after I graduated and worked there for 6 years. That doctor was a global thought leader in his field. What an enormous privilege to work for him & with him. I STILL run into people who revere that man in my field, some 25 years later. I too still revere him. So yes, my social contacts and WHO I knew helped. Even though I had screwed up my grades a bit. And in those years I didn't make squat but the experience I gained was the springboard to where I am now.
I went from academia into industry and from industry into consulting for industry. Along the way I went back to graduate school (where I made a 4.0) and did get accepted after all to medical school. But 3 days before I was to leave for med school I had an epiphany. Medicine was changing 20 years ago. I knew too many doctors whose practices ran them, who had little free time, six figures of debt, and no freedom to go with the high income. They had spouses with enviable lives but they worked like dogs. That gave me pause. So I stayed in industry and gave up medical school. Looking at medicine in the US now I have never once regretted that decision. Private practices are falling away and only the big conglomerates (hospitals, academia and insurers) remain. Patients are seen as dollar signs and income streams by corporate medicine. I've seen friends get mowed over by the changes in healthcare. It's sad honestly.
I have well developed social acumen in addition to deep knowledge in my field. I currently take on clients to help them optimize their resources, staffing, and projects as well as serve as a liaison between industry and the medical community at an executive level. Not bad for a blond chick with a bachelor's degree who happens to be ambitious.
Now if money is what you are most interested in then the years and the dollars to pursue medicine may not be worth it. I hate to say it but being a physician is not what it was in my grandfather's day (he was a private practice doctor) from a financial standpoint. In addition it carries great risks of liability and insurance premiums (you do not want to know what mal-practive premiums run for your typical obstetrician or anesthesiologist.) Add to that the fact that most physicians any more are employees in corporate medicine in America, and that trend is only going to change if corporate medicine is barred from fleecing the taxpayer vis a vis Medicare and Medicaid. God help us if we end up single payer. But I digress.
My son plans to go through pilot training in the military and is expecting to attend one of the military academies. Pilots are not allowed to fly past 65 (I think) in industry and many of the Vietnam era guys are at or very near retirement age. That means there is a big draw by industry for military pilots and for private pilots as well. The trades are full of opportunity. Plumbers and electricians can make great money, as can specialized welders and other of the building trades. There is money in roofing, in contracting, in mechanical engineering fields.
I personally think the American education system has done a tremendous disservice by underfunding vocational programs. Not everybody needs a bachelor's degree. There ought to be more focus on things besides going into crazy debt to get a degree in English literature or sociology or some other liberal art that isn't going to create jobs or a business or employ people.
I mean somebody has to teach and all but there are way too many baristas at Starbucks with a degree in women's studies or some other discipline that doesn't translate into supporting oneself.
If I had it to do over again I don't know that I'd change much. I might get into being a sports agent or something like that where I could leverage my people skills more than I do now. Financial professionals can do very well but I was never that crazy about math. I do enjoy real estate, but it's simple for me to understand. Buy low, hold indefinitely to cash flow and sell high if ever. Maintain properties and provide excellent customer service. Watch the bottom line. There is always the oilfield too. I have a friend and colleague whose son started off to earn a degree in architecture. He hated school, just wanted to make money. He started off in the oilfield at 19 and has done very well. He is now 22 or 23 and moved into the service industry where he earns about 40K as the GM of a Chili's type chain restaurant.
Then there's my friend in Vegas who makes as much money as I do (300K +) running a 25M restaurant on the strip. He is the most intelligent person I know and has people skills that would run circles around Dale Carnegie. He is a college drop out. So was Michael Dell. Ross Perot never went to college. I'm not sure he finished high school. But all these people have ambition in spades.
Whatever you do, do not allow your ambition to be stifled. If you want to make it bad enough you can make it. The how has more to do with you individually. And you need a why, you need a big desire, a big dream. If you have ambition you'll find a way. It's what ambitious people do.
Jokes aside my sister is great, has a good head on her shoulders and is wise for her age.
