There is a huge shortage of doctors in the U.S. and it getting worse as the need for doctors goes up as the population ages.

There is indeed a glut of JD's and MBA's, but even within that supply and demand plays a role. There is no glut of say Harvard JD's or Wharton MBA's. You can tell, for the price of taking the LSAT or GMAT, what you odds of getting a job after graduation will be. No such assurances in fields like media or advertising, where luck plays a huge role in getting a job and no just pedigree.

There are shortages in areas, but often those are in smaller cities and rural areas. Primary care is probably the least palatable medical position to be in at this time. If you want to go into specialized medicine, there are indeed bigger opportunities, but often bigger time and money investment requirements. Nurses are also taking over some of the responsibilities of classically trained doctors.

Medicine is probably one of the more stressful work environment to be in, often with work/life balance suffering, so while positions may pay well, it may not actually lead to a happy life.

Politics and luck play a part in practically every career field. Having parents who can help support and bankroll you into a high-end medical or law school is lucky in and of itself.

> There are shortages in areas, but often those are in smaller cities and rural areas.

It's true there is no shortage of doctors wanting to live in Manhattan or San Francisco, but most of the country lives in smaller cities and rural areas. Even parts of Chicago have doctor shortages: http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/2013/20130227-doctor-shortag...

See: http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/publications/notes/looming-d...

> There is a huge shortage of doctors in the U.S. and it getting worse as the need for doctors goes up as the population ages.

This is true to an extent - the shortage is in primary care, but at the moment there are two issues with the field: the huge costs of medical training in the US and the fact that the cost of healthcare in the US is twice that of the rest of the OECD nations, tendency rising. Something will have to be done, but it's impossible to predict what is going to give.

Combined with the fact that medical training lasts ten years, it is an uncertain proposition.

Huge glut of lawyers, yes, but not doctors.

Shortages are often in poor areas, rural areas or smaller cities/towns which results in less pay. Shortages can probably also be found in specialized medicine. Nurses are encroaching on more general areas such as primary care, and there has been a definite upswing in the amount of people in nursing schools.

Parents should probably shift from just saying their child is going to be a doctor or a lawyer, and focus on what kind of doctor or lawyer their child is going to be, as that could influence their salary and quality of life many times over.