But Tristan Burnett, a University of Otago fourth-year medical student and part-time model, is happy to trade one work environment for the other, and make the most of his good looks while he can.
He will move to Italy later this month after being recruited by Independent Men, a top international male modelling agency.
Mr Burnett (22) has been modelling for four years and has appeared in advertising campaigns for Farmers, Icebreaker, Just Jeans and Rembrandt Suits.
Modelling was not always on his radar, though, and he described the first random approach by a scout in his Victorian home town Melbourne as "pretty creepy".
However, when he moved to Dunedin to study he was spotted on campus and signed with AliMcD Modelling Agency.
"I thought, new uni, new country; I should give it a try.
Within two or three weeks I had a paid job at iD [Dunedin Fashion Week]," he said.
Working as a model allowed him to travel and experience different things, but he classed it as "an aside" from medicine.
"Modelling is almost for the person who does not have a diary - you are literally at the whim of the powers that be."
Mr Burnett was doing a biomedical science thesis for his honours degree, looking at how pregnancy affected the pancreas.
He has withdrawn from classes for next year, in the hope work in Milan, and further afield in Europe and the United States, takes off.
- Another AliMcD male model making waves in New Zealand is Krystian Heath, recently announced as one of four faces of R&G, by Rodd & Gunn, after a competition which attracted more than 200 entries.
He recently travelled to Turkey to shoot the latest season's advertising campaign.
