...How old are you now? MEd school is long...
I'm no spring chicken. Probably have 2-3 decades on the average poster/ whippersnapper on this forum. The average age of med students has been rising consistently the last several years. Most of the increase in average age is being driven by "non-traditional" enrollees who are entering second careers in their 30s and sometimes 40s. Its not unheard of for someone in their 50s to enter medical school these days.
Its not that long...for most graduates, med school itself in the U.S. is over at 26 years old on average. + a few years in a residency: not that big of a deal. Besides, as the baby boomers have defined a new paradigm wherein 70 is the new 50: a youthful rosy cheeked doc isn't taken seriously in the marketplace anyways so might as well get out as a still relatively young doc (but not too young) in the mid 30s.
Other than that I wouldn't go in Med school--since it's not as easy as the young INTP would initially think-- , med school journey/medical culture is just too draining and too stressful for us sensitive INTPs.
I would agree with you here (i.e. perhaps only a certain strain of INTP is going to be capable of hacking through the misery). Incidentally I'm hoping by 'sensitive' you mean intellectually sensitive and not the horrid sort of rats nest of sensitive that is the mind of the Feelers.
I chose medicine because I had no better choice at that moment... If philosophers/ social scientists had more respect and made 6 figures salary (and there goes my Fe), I would have done that for sure.
If you are in the U.S. (cannot recall if it was you or another who was posting from their experience in Europe) you can be an MD, make six figures (x2) and still be a philosopher.
As I eluded to in my earlier post, the largest impediment to an INTP blissfully practicing medicine these days are the armies of lawyers, accountants, insurance salesmen and MBAs who continue to parasitize deeper into the territory of the highest quality practice at the expense of an individual patient's particular problem. Their myriad layers of bureaucracy are mind blowing. Even more mind blowing is the growth of these parasites is only poised to continue to exponentially infest. It really is one huge distracting TUMOR growing completely out of control. Gregory House is a fictional character but the situations he is put into are often very real. Anyways...
another option for the INTP who wants to practice some sort of health care/ medicine less so much influence of the axis of evil (lawyers, MBAs, accountants) is dental medicine. So, to the OP and/or anyone else listening in, I'd also recommend looking into other health care career options including dentistry. Dentistry is still pretty much out of the reach of all those nasty things which would otherwise bother the hell out of the INTP physician.
Studies have demonstrated that med school is in majority suited for ISTJ memorizers and rule abiders. Other studies have also shown that med school teaching system/medical culture strongly favored extroverts and judders/assertiveness. SO yeah, we have basically nothing to do there... since medicine is for action oriented people.
I don't have time to look them up right now, but there are authoritative research studies (available on the internet) of the MBTIs of med students and graduates and you are generally correct. But, if my memory serves (and I did research this years ago before jumping in) there are still a fairly large representation (certainly statistically relevant) of introverts as well (something on the order of 40%).
I agree with you and the statement that "med school is in majority suited for ISTJ memorizers and rule abiders...". However, med school is not real life and once it is survived a vastly different world awaits (in many cases the introverted/ rule breakers/ abstract thinkers make the greater impact/ contribution to practice).
Certainly medical school is tough, not going to lie. But it can be survived. ISTJs are probably favored and INTPs the least favored. The biggest challenge isn't so much the overt difficulty of the material (though its not all exactly calculus a small portion does require extra intense concentration/ effort to understand); its the AMOUNT/ VOLUME that is required to be mentally digested in such ungodly short amounts of time.
I calculated once that we were completing something like a 4 credit undergraduate science course every 2 weeks. For four years nonstop.
But it can be done. I took notes on how to mentally cope from sources like navy seal training manuals (and followed up by implementing them). Strategies like "take every hour one hour at a time", "only positive self talk", specific daily goal setting etc..