Letting fate decide your future career

It has become so competitive to get into any kind of professional program in Canada that a lot of people apply to 10 different professional programs and let fate (or the admission committees) decide what their life-long career will be. I am talking a lot about crazy pre-meds mostly though that end up applying to med, dental, PT, OT, Pharmacy, Optometry and even lab tech, ultrasound, x-ray tech. Yes they apply to ALL these programs in one year!

Now people can argue that a lot of these programs are all medically related and as long as they're satisfied does it really matter what they end up doing? Well that is one argument, the problem is often they are not satisfied and drive up the averages to the point where the people that actually wanted to do that specific specialty can't get into the program and only the people that chose it as a back-up can.

Now I do partially fall into this category but to my credit I did only applied to PT and did not apply to 5 different programs. On the other hand it could be argued they at least these people are sensible and realistic and do not keep trying to get into Med for 10 years and instead choose something different. I think the main problem that has occured in Canada is that it is so hard to get a decent paying job (not min wage) that people agree to do ANY career that pays decently and so most people are now motivated by money and not interests. The reality is that most jobs now require more and more education and having a bachelor's does not guarantee any job. Most people with a bachelor's end up either working min wage in sales, call centers, teaching english overseas, or doing a research master's that unfortunately does not increase employment skills since the projects are very very specific. Some lucky few with high enough marks are willing to settle for any professional programs as long as it has a decent wage. This just illustrates how great the economy is when everyone is forced to apply to multiple programs and don't care about what they end up doing in the end.

Now below I have illustrated the typical hierarchy of careers, and keep in mind all of usually require an A average in University undergrad courses to get into:

Med>dental>PT>OT>Pharmacy/Optometry>Lab tech/ultrasound, x-ray tech>nursing.