Given the chaos Obamacare has injected into the American medical system, University of California – Los Angeles student Kunal Patel offers up a dose of common sense.

But after working at hospitals and interacting with doctors over the last three years, I am convinced that the path to medicine and the lifestyle of a doctor is not worth the personal sacrifices for me.

…For pre-med students’ undergraduate years, students are forced to compete mercilessly against other students for higher grades against the curve, internships and research opportunities to remain competitive for medical schools. And despite this, roughly half of UCLA graduates that apply to medical school do not gain acceptance to a single school.

For those admitted to medical school, students again compete against each other for grades and recommendations for specific residency programs that usually determine where doctors receive their first job offers.

Residency on top of undergraduate and graduate studies adds up to about 10 years of education before earning a real salary.

Now, I am not against working hard to reach difficult career goals. What I am asking is whether a decade of education and all the financial and personal sacrifices are always worth the benefits of becoming a doctor.

Even though doctors will still be make a stable salary in the coming years, they are expected to make less than they do now due to expected government cuts in Medicare and increased costs in health care, according to the American Medical Association.

A 2008 survey conducted by The Physicians’ Foundation found that only about six percent of doctors are happy with their jobs. Furthermore, 46 percent of doctors regret becoming doctors and would choose different careers if they could, according to a 2012 survey conducted by Medscape.

Considering the evidence from doctors regarding their incredibly low personal satisfaction with their jobs, it becomes even harder to justify choosing a career after nearly a decade of higher education that may be filled with a lack of satisfaction and regret.

For me, that mounting pile of evidence was enough to lead me away from medicine, despite my initial determination to become a doctor. However, I think the same sentiment applies to other students who select prestigious and lucrative careers.