Why I became a computer scientist instead of a doctor
When I dropped out of medical school in 2007, it happened in two stages: the first, administrative and fairly straightforward; the second, emotional and more complex. When I made the decision to drop out, I was a 20-year-old medical student at Tehran University, finishing up my second year. (In Iran, you start medical school directly after high school and study for seven-and-a-half years.) A year later, I enrolled as a freshman at MIT. Logically speaking, I could have done pre-med and gone on to medical school in the US. This stage could have been merely an administrative change. I was swapping my school and country, not the ultimate goal of becoming a doctor. However, when I started at MIT, I was utterly disappointed with the pre-med culture and requirements—as well as the way biology was taught—even at this top technical school. If you are not familiar with pre-med culture, here is my take on it: As a pre-med student in the US, you generally have to take two years worth of courses an
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