There's multiple factors at play, and the everybody-must-go-to-college bandwagon is certainly a big one.
I'd add a second one. It used to be the case that you could hire programmers without screening based on degrees. But that was back when programming was offputting and unappealing to anyone but nerds dedicated enough to become good at it.
Now STEM is hot in the collective conscious, programming is seen as a well paying job that's easier than becoming a doctor or lawyer, and corporate efforts are trying to recruit as many people into the candidate pool as possible.
LOL in terms of bang for buck, being a Developer/Cloud Ops person is way more lucrative more quickly than law or medicine.
Also keep in mind it's much more egalitarian. In law yes you can eventually make partner at a white shoe firm and make millions (and make FAANG money at a Xth-year associate) but the competition is staggeringly intense.
Let's say I'm 18, intelligent and ambitious, I live in the USA, and I want the quickest path to making $500k per year and my choices are law, medicine, and computer science.
I sincerely hope that for everyone on HN, the answer is a no-brainer.
The doctor making 200k stitching up chainsaw mishaps in some small city can live on several acres (or in the nicest suburb of that city if that's his preference), send his kids to private school, he drinks $2 milk and fills his car up with $2 gas. Try living like that in SF or any other "tech hub" on 200k.
I'm not saying tech isn't easier and doesn't start off making big bucks faster but doctor probably takes the lead around age 30 or so. If you wanna make big bucks without going into management doctor seems like the better route.
I suspect most MDs will never take the lead versus a programmer making FAANG level money. Just the health toll and lower quality of life alone from the studying and work requirements in residency, as well as having to work off hours and nights and whatnot put them behind. But also compounded returns on investment from income in 20s would require a lot of income to makeup for in 30s. Which doctors do make, but in the recent past, not enough to surpass top programmers.
Also, doctors have to deal with the byzantine paperwork nonsense in the health field, and work with the general public as well as in places that have infectious diseases floating around. And can't work from home as easily. I wouldn't trade not having to work with the general public for a couple hundred thousand.
200k is a 22 year old at a FAANG vs 30 year old MD.
I was a somewhat successful premed student (99.9th percentile MCAT, CS major), and I went the FAANG route instead. Physician and tech salaries are similar in that the top makes alot more than everyone else, although the bottom for physicians is a bit higher. For less competitive people who may only have only gotten into a single med school and whose job prospects with a biology degree are limited, the med route can make sense from a purely financial point of view.
I have a four year degree and have been employed for eight years now. A lady I knew in college just finally finished all of her residencies and got her first actual doctor job this summer.
Becoming a doctor is significantly more work than becoming a programmer.
Plus, I work a set schedule, with easy, predictable hours. Doctors get to deal with on-calls and 12 hour shifts.
Now I'm a software developer. Primary reason for the switch? It's so much easier for the same amount of pay.
I work the same hours, I get paid the same amount. The questions presented to me in both jobs were fascinating and the work was satisfying.
When I got home from being a lawyer I was dead to the world. Exhausted from a hard day's work.
When I get home from being a software developer I've still got enough vim and vinegar to take my son to the children's museum or the library. Every day.
Anecdotal yadda yadda yadda. But I assume the pool of people who have been both lawyers and programmers is, if not tiny, then small.
I'd add a second one. It used to be the case that you could hire programmers without screening based on degrees. But that was back when programming was offputting and unappealing to anyone but nerds dedicated enough to become good at it.
Now STEM is hot in the collective conscious, programming is seen as a well paying job that's easier than becoming a doctor or lawyer, and corporate efforts are trying to recruit as many people into the candidate pool as possible.