Career Choices

BARILLIAN

And not-so-subtle bragging.
Those who read [hp] leaves' thread would know that both of us entered entry exams to high school/college. Those who witnessed my spam of AWESOME on the channel would know that I did pretty well at it, enough to get into pretty much any university in Turkey I want.
But what university do I want? I narrowed my choices down to two, namely Molecular Biology and Medicine, and so request help from fellow users.

Hacettepe University, Medicine
Pros
Medicine is extremely prestigious in Turkey.
"Worth" my score, they've taken around #500th student (I'm #399).
Government supported university, so I can get scholarships from a variety of sources.
I can study in Turkish if I desire, English is also avaliable.

Cons
Medicine study takes 5 years instead of the usual 4.
Two years of obligatory service to all doctors, in eastern parts of Turkey, where the tempature frequently drops below 0. Not fun at all for someone used to about 30 Celcius.
Don't like the idea of having someone's life depend on my skills.
I'm terribly antisocial, something doctors need to get over I think.
No innate scholarship offers, I have to apply.

Bilkent University, Molecular Biology
Pros
I aspired to be a biologist since I was 6 or so.
Private school, they offer me not paying any studying fee, a free place to stay and 350 New Turkish Liras (Roughly 230$ I think) per month.
About 4000 computers on the campus, even I can't have all of them malfunction in my four years of stay there.

Cons
Private university means many sources will not give me further scholarships, though I'm not sure that's the right word.
No pets allowed on the said place to stay.
They took student #2400 or so.
Must study in English (Save Turkish/History lessons etc) though this isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Not as prestigious as Medicine, but pretty solid still.

I intend to pursue an academic career in both fields. So all in all, what are your opinions on what I should choose? Opinions from people who are experienced with the subjects would be very welcome!
 
To me, it seems that the medical field's cons show how your personality doesn't mix well with that career. The biology field sounds like what you really want to do rather than the most "prestigious" of careers.
 
Molec biology is insanely interesting. The results interest me more, but it's still lots of fun working with things like...DNA!! (sounds of thunder crashing)

It's much better than medicine, with all the whiney patients complaining of a sore throat.
 
Molecular Biology seems to be the obvious choice and I think it is what you want. Don't feel pressured by prestige, do what you think you will enjoy and succeed at.
 
High job satisfaction is essential for enjoying your life, and as others have said, it seems that you prefer molecular biology. As long as it's a solid career that you can make a living from and you like it, choose it.
 
Well, to be fair, the odds of obtaining a claim to fame in MCB or even just MolBio in general is pretty much nonexistant, given that the latter has excelled far past its theoretical days. Everything is experimentally driven, so, at best, your name appears on a few patents and papers. To rise to the top, you have to be an office-politics shitflinger, which is ridiculous.

Ultimately, if your depth of interest gravitates towards MCB, then, regardless of whether you earn MD or a pHD, you will still be working on exactly the same thing--one just affords you more patient time, while the other is more laboratory collaboration and bookkeeping.
 
Well I'd say to go with molecular biology, I mean, if thats been one of your career aspirations for almost all of your life then you should follow your dream. This is especially if you are afraid of cracking under the pressure of saving someone.
 
That is the thing, though. Even if you go to medical school, you can STILL do molecular bio, since everything is integrated these days. Just because you get an M.D. doesn't mean you have to be a clinical doctor. That is general misconception.

Take it from me; many of my co-workers are M.D.s yet they spend most of their time working alongside me at the bench, and the only patients they have are those that are directly relevant to their areas of focus (for example, we're working on gonadal stem cells, so one of the M.D.s has got four patients on hold with testicular cancer).
 
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