Hi omg….. first of all I kind of miss you, seems like everyone has been a little less active for the past few weeks. It is so cool though that you are a doctor now. I wanted to ask you some questions…. so like i’m in grade elevn rn and i’ve taken pcmb. I like bio, especially studying about the human body. However i decided not to give neet and become a doctor because it’s a very demanding lifestyle and i don’t know if i could do that. i also really wanna go outside india and becoming a doctor. 1

from any private university or outside india is super expensive. so i decided i can do biotech engineering or genetic engineering. but now i’m realising that these are more research based programs and i haven’t really done much creative work ig? like whenever there were scince fairs i didn’t really like makinf models or anything. i can remember things though so maybe doctor is my calling? but i am super confused about taking pcmb what i shd drop and what i shd do… i have joined coaching 2. for JEE but i can shift to neet if i decide against it.. ya omg basically i’m super confused and you have kind of done one of the options so maybe you can give me a little insight? Thank you so muchhhh this is so long i just realised i would be very great full if you answer this hahahahah 😭

Omg hi!! I miss you guys too🥺 Residency has taken over my life atm so that's why I'm spending so much less time here lol.

Now to answer your question. It's very common not to know what you want to do at this stage of your life. Firstly what you think a profession is going to be like is very different from what it actually ends up being. As someone who went to med school just because I hated physics I think I might be able to help you a bit.

Med school is very long. And expensive as you said if you are doing it from a private university. Yes it's very affordable if you do it from a government medical college but I don't need to tell you how cut throat the competition is. About 0.1-0.2% of all the people appearing for NEET UG actually make it to a GMC. You also need to keep in mind that unlike other professions you don't finish your education till you're in your late 20s.

I'm 25 now and I'm just starting my residency while my friends who did engineering or commerce have already started working full time and earning a lot more than me at this stage in their life so that does sting a bit. Also since the curriculum is so vast you have to keep studying throughout the next five years. It's....not easy to keep having to read more and more while your friends are getting the time to have a social life and you are having exams after exams. You also have to do an MD or an MS post your MBBS because just being a general physician these days doesn't have much value so that again means giving NEET PG like I did last year with insane cut offs all over again.

So when you say that becoming a doctor is your calling, there are all these factors you need to consider. Are you willing to commit yourself to about 10+ years of further education after your 12th?

I was pretty miserable during my MBBS because of all that I mentioned above and was considering quitting it and shifting to something else during my final year. The reason I decided to continue with my residency is because I genuinely liked psychiatry as a subject, thought it was something worth doing and it has fairly regular work hours so it gives me the life that I want.

Now for the positives. There is something really special having the ability to help others. It's only been three weeks since my residency started but it amazes me everytime how people come to me with so much faith when I'm just a baby doctor and listen to me. I have the ability to make their lives better - not only of the patient but their entire family. Yes it's stressful at times but as I said psychiatry has fairly regular hours so I am able to get my 8 hours of sleep.

Of course other clinical branches are way more hectic. My friends who are doing surgery and medicine don't have much of a life to speak of. They have 20 hour work days compared to my 12. So yeah it also depends from speciality to speciality.

Now for engineering. JEE is as insanely competitive as NEET for sure but private universities are a lot cheaper for engineering and most people can start working once they graduate so by 22-23. You mentioned that you thought that you weren't well oriented enough for the research aspect of it. Well, with the way our education system works no one is. But no only engineering, in most higher education (even medicine, law or literature) research and writing papers is an important part of the curriculum in some form or another. So I wouldn't be too worried about that.

A trend that I am noticing recently is the most people do an MBA after their btech and ultimately work in finance as it pays really well compared to pure engineering so most of the engineers I know are doing everything apart from engineering lol. So you may want to keep that in mind too. Also the working hours aren't the best. Even if on paper it's 9-5 it actually becomes a lot closer to 9-11 from what my friends tell me. Especially in the private sector where things are so competitive you have to give a lot more of your time than you might think.

Of course one very important thing that you must realise is that whatever stream you decide isn't absolute. You can change course as and when you wish. I know doctors who have gone on to start clothing lines and engineers who went on to do law. So whatever happens in the next four or five years of your undergrad you can always do something else later on. It's easier to know what suits you best when you're in your mind twenties compared to your teens because you're still growing as a person.

To be on the safe side you could do pcmb for now and decide during your 12th if you want to drop one of them once you're less confused. I hope this helps! If you have any other questions you are welcome to send me an ask anytime.

so bestie i had decided to take pvmb….i like bio and want to go into the research field, but there’s this biotechnology engineering which is kind of the same but from engineering and you don’t need to take bio for it…it’s also engineering to i’ll have to give jee and noe it’s like i don’t think it’s a good idea to take bio with jee but i <3 bio and want to take it

but even vmc people say to not take bio with jee but honestly i don’t want to do engineering…. i like bio tho and don’t wanna leave it now. everything is so confusing i’m sorry for ranting i just cried in front of my dad i’m so+

Okay firstly I'm giving you a mango and a cookie because you deserve it so here you go🥭🍪

So I'm assuming you're in class 11 from what you've told me. For people who are jee aspirants bio isn't recommended because the jee paper is difficult enough without adding a whole new subject to the mix. That's the general logic that people go by. Now I was in a similar situation because I loved maths and I was a neet aspirant so I took PCMB myself in my 11th and 12th. However at the same time I was very sure that engineering was something I didn't want to do because although I loved maths, physics was a subject I disliked a lot.

The way I see it you need to ask yourself a few questions

1. When you say you like bio do you like it enough to do a pure biology field like medicine or pharmacy? Now with this option I kind of don't see a lot of opposition from your parents because yk desi parents love medicine related fields etc etc

2. If you are planning on taking biotech engineering because it's the branch that gives you the most bio like experience while doing engineering I would really ask you to think again. I say this because you will have a significant amount of physics to study along with standard engineering stuff with a very minimal amount of bio (maybe like a 80:20 ratio). Hence it's very likely that you may regret your decision if this is the sole reason for taking it (again I could be wrong)

3. If your main objective is research you could do a bsc and masters and then do it (you'll get admission on basis of your board exam marks) but frankly it isn't an option I would recommend to do in India alone because we don't have good facilities for research here. If you choose this option then you will need to go abroad for your masters or doctorate and you'll have to see if you think your family will be willing to finance your education there

4. I'm not going to emphasize a lot here on your life a decade later because at 17 it's very difficult to know what you want to do and moreover visualize it (I'm saying this in the nicest possible way). It's much easier to decide what you definitely don't want to do at this stage. That's the way I did it myself. So make a list somewhere that out of PCMB what is the subject (if any) you definitely don't want to do/can't do

I don't want to tell you what to do either way but if you like bio that much take it. Atleast you have your options open. Do PCMB like I did. If you want to switch to PCB or PCM in 12th you can do that. I'm sure if you do well enough in your entrance exam practice tests your parents won't mind too much if you decide to switch tracks. Ik this is a very confusing and scary time and you're under a lot of pressure but I'm sure you'll figure it out in due course. I'm sending you my best wishes and if you ever want to message me regarding this you always can🌷