I'm at a crossroads and need help! I'm 27 years old (undergraduate degree in biosystems engineering), and have 5 years work experience as an engineer. Through a lot of soul searching, therapy, research, and volunteer/shadowing experience I know I want to go back to school to pursue a career in healthcare, but I can't decide between DO school or perfusion. I'd be competitive for a perfusion program, (overall GPA 3.4, science GPA 3.7) and I believe with a decent MCAT score, I could also be competitive for a DO School. I've looked into Post Bacc programs to attend prior to applying to DO school, however, I've already taken all the pre-req's with the exception of Organic Chemistry, so I think I'm left with just finishing the organic chemistry classes at a community college (unless cc would be a death sentence and I need to do them at a 4 year institution), as most of the Post Bacc programs don't like for you to have more than 1 science course completed.
My question is, would DO school be worth it? 4 years of med school + 4 years of residency + $250k in debt. Say I get into med school by the time I'm 30, I'd be 38 before I begin practicing, but making ~$300k. Or I could go the perfusion route with 2 years of school, about $125k in debt, but practicing by about 32 and still making ~$100k a year.
Also, I should mention that my desire to attend DO school would be with the ultimate goal of becoming an anesthesiologist. While I realize that being an anesthesiologist comes with with a lot more responsibility, liability, and education breadth and depth, a perfusionist works in a similar environment and in a similar fashion, in terms of monitoring physiological parameters, etc. So I'm thinking perfusion might be able to fulfill me in a similar way as anesthesiology. However, I like the idea of anesthesiology because you get to be involved in all types of procedures, not just cardiac, and you get to do more with your hands like IV's, epidurals, etc.
I appreciate any insight anyone can give!!
My question is, would DO school be worth it? 4 years of med school + 4 years of residency + $250k in debt. Say I get into med school by the time I'm 30, I'd be 38 before I begin practicing, but making ~$300k. Or I could go the perfusion route with 2 years of school, about $125k in debt, but practicing by about 32 and still making ~$100k a year.
Also, I should mention that my desire to attend DO school would be with the ultimate goal of becoming an anesthesiologist. While I realize that being an anesthesiologist comes with with a lot more responsibility, liability, and education breadth and depth, a perfusionist works in a similar environment and in a similar fashion, in terms of monitoring physiological parameters, etc. So I'm thinking perfusion might be able to fulfill me in a similar way as anesthesiology. However, I like the idea of anesthesiology because you get to be involved in all types of procedures, not just cardiac, and you get to do more with your hands like IV's, epidurals, etc.
I appreciate any insight anyone can give!!