Not Sure if I want to continue statistics

[Notsure12]

Hello!

Currently an undergrad at a random ivy league applying to Stat Ph.D. programs. I'm currently debating whether or not to continue with stats and transition to med school.

I started doing stats in undergrad because I thought it was pretty interesting, but now I'm realizing that there's a high chance I end up being some random consultant or making dashboards for people, which I am definitely not interested in. There's definitely a lot of interesting things being done in the field, but when I see who's doing them I realize that those people are just insanely smart. In more theoretical stats you have a lot of former physics majors and IMO medalists and I can't compete with them. I thought that statistical machine learning was really interesting (as we all know that machine learning is very trendy right now), but there are so many young Yann Lecun's or mini Ian Goodfellows and I'm not sure if I can really make any solid contributions to the field. 

There's also the issue of job security (perhaps you guys have a better experience with this having been in the work force). Even if I do become successful and go on to be a research scientist at Meta or Google I could always be fired the next day or during a recession. 

Also, not to sound shallow or anything, but money is also a factor in my life. I have a very good gpa with some very tough courses, which means I'm still eligible to get into med school. I would just need to take some prereq courses at a local community college and study for the MCAT (this will take around 2 years or longer unfortunately). But getting into med school kind of guarantees you a salary of 350,000+ for the rest of your life if you are academically inclined and a hard worker. I would say I am a hard worker over being super smart, which sounds more in-line with becoming a successful doctor as opposed to a successful statistician or ML engineer. Becoming a doctor also sounds more fulfilling (although many of the forums I've come across talk about how many residents have lost their empathy and only care about being paid a fair wage). 

Everything in my life just seems to point me to leave stats, but I've already spent 4 years in undergrad studying this subject. I also haven't even gotten accepted to a phd program yet nor have I held a full-time job yet apart from several internships, so I thought it would be appropriate to ask you guys here what you think of my situation, and if getting continuing in stats is right for me? If I continue with stats I'll probably continue on with a Ph.D., assuming a get accepted this cycle, and I would probably want to be a research scientist in industry studying statistical machine learning. If I go to medical school I currently want to be some surgical specialty, but if all else fails I'll probably become an internist (which still makes 350k in some places).

[BL4CKxP3NGU1N]

I suggest you post this question somewhere on Reddit like r/statistics or r/PhD.

[bayessays]

Sounds like you understand the pros and cons pretty well.  I don't see anything in your post that makes me think you really want to be a statistician or even study statistics more.  Having an undergrad degree in statistics is not a reason to go to grad school for stats.

[compneuroer]

I went through this exact same decision-making process, and am currently doing a phd in a subfield of ML. I'm happy with it because I realized I would actually be bored as a doctor, and especially in med school--it's just not the type of intellectual work I'd like to be doing. A PhD in stats gives you a lot more flexibility than you would expect, and you don't have to work in your exact phd discipline later on. You also don't have to be a Yann Lecun to make contributions to a field. Just some other things to consider!