This is one career I had been considering somewhat. I am interested in medicine in general but one of the areas I was attracted to was cardiology, since I have personal experience with CVD. But when I was researching the career, I found that you have to have a 3 or 4 year bachelors degree, then four years of med school, then three more years in residency for internal medicine, then ANOTHER three years to subspecialize in cardiology. If you want to specialize in a certain area of cardiology, that's another one or two years. Yikes. So, if I went to school straight out of high school (which I plan on doing anyways) I'd be 32 - maybe older - by the time I graduated college. That's quite a bit older than I expected... I wasn't aware of the extra three years required to subspecialize, and didn't think that residency would be required to do that beforehand anyways. My stupid mistake.

But the salary is huge... the salary goes from $150,000 to over $500,000 a year. While I would like to enjoy my job, having a decent salary is also a priority for me. I could live with a maximum salary of $150,000, let alone a *starting* salary of that.

But is it really worth it to spend "the best years of your life" stuck studying? I guess I can see now why cardiologists all seem to be (no offense) old and balding... they didn't even get out of college until they were almost middle-aged! I am very interested in cardiology, but right at this moment I don't have like some super-burning passion for it to just brush off 14+ years of studying AFTER the 13 years (most) everyone spends in school up until then (elementary through high school). It's just like doing that all over again, in a sense.

Opinions? Experiences? Suggestions? And are there really any medical jobs that earn a fair wage that don't take a decade and a half to become qualified in?

Also, if I wanted to specialize in pediatric cardiology, would that mean that I would have to go to an extra year or two of school?

Oh, and I was thinking about being a non-invasive cardiologist, also... I know cardiologists do not perform open surgeries, but I still just don't think I'd trust myself enough to even do catheterizations.