You can do medical school with minimal to no debt from many state medical schools.  No way any one rational should chose programming over medicine in terms of dollars per calorie spent working, given they can get admission to medical school.  Chose it because you like programming and can&#x27;t stand the sights and smells of medicine.  Not for the money.  An average doctor makes more than an average programmer, with better job security, and more prestige, more choice of where to live, less politics at work, less selling your soul for money.  Even free time is improving.  Many medical sub specialties now offer shift work, part time work etc.<p>Edit:  there are literally medical gigs available where you can sleep all night and get paid $100 &#x2F; hour while sleeping (specialty surgical hospitals, where many nights there may not be a patient overnight, but they require an md on site). Many emergency rooms in rural areas may not see 2 patients at night, but need an er doctor on site.