Pre-law students are more likely than pre-medical students to choose their respective career tracks because of potential earning power, according to a new survey.
In the past two months, Kaplan, a national educational services company, questioned 914 pre-medical and pre-law students about the factors that impacted their career choices.
Almost half of the pre-medical respondents said future earning power influenced their decision to work toward a career in medicine “very much” or “somewhat.” About 70 percent of the pre-law students said they factored earning power into their decision to pursue law “very much” or “somewhat.”
Kathy Smith, mathematics and general studies sophomore, said she wants to go to medical school because she enjoys working with children.
“It’s not worth the eight or so years if you’re just doing it for money and if you don’t really want to do it,” Smith said.
Tim Wynn, political science sophomore, said money is not his main reason for becoming pre-law.
“[Money] kind of influenced it a little bit, but not much,” he said. “Whenever people think that lawyers are rich, they’re mostly thinking about civil attorneys who handle lawsuits. I’m more interested in working for the government, which is a bit more meager, but it’s still a lot.”
Matt Fidler, director for pre-health programs at Kaplan, said many pre-medical students decide earlier in life to pursue medicine than students who want to study law. He said both groups put a lot of time and effort into their studies, but pre-medical students seem to have their career path ingrained in them from an earlier age.
David Fuller, music sophomore, said he wants to go to medical school because he enjoys science, especially biology. He said he is fascinated with neuroscience.
“I don’t know what I’m going to end up doing,” he said. “I think I’m going to be forging my own weird path. And money is important – you can’t deny that – but it wasn’t my main driving force.”
According to the survey, the top three reasons pre-medical students attributed to their career choices were the “desire to help others and make a difference,” “an interest in and/or affinity for the sciences” and “personal experience with medical issues.”
“That’s not to say that you won’t find pre-meds who seek out high-paying, lower-stress specialties, or that there aren’t law school graduates who pursue work with public interest or advocacy group,” Fidler said. “In fact, a separate Kaplan survey of pre-law students a few months ago indicates they may be interested in a different sort of public service.”
Fidler said 42 percent of the pre-law respondents in the second survey said they would “probably” or “definitely” think about running for political office.
“But for many pre-meds, it seems, mission weighs more heavily into their career choice than money,” Fidler said.
—-Contact Angelle Barbazon at [email protected].