Quote:
Originally Posted by NeuroLAX
Conclusion: I would suggest not pursuing the PhD at this time and put intense focus on preparing to apply to medical schools. Retaking courses via non-degree seeking/post-bacc would take a year of an intense course-load, depending on how many you need to retake. Attending a Special Master's Program (Georgetown, UCinnci, BostonU, etc.) would help make you a more attractive applicant for MD schools, in particular. So you're looking at 1-2 years there. I know I mentioned DO a lot in this response, and I apologize if that bothers you. But as it stands, I agree with another poster that your GPA is more in line with this route. If you retake courses and do well, then there's nothing stopping you from applying broadly to MD and DO schools. I would encourage you to do so.
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I did my PhD in basic research and will be starting med school this year. From my perspective, the above advice is the best one, because 1) you don't have a good undergrad gpa and a good grad gpa will not help you, whereas a good pre-med master's program gpa will. 2) given your interest in clinical research (not basic or translational), I think a full-blown PhD (whatever the field) will be an unnecessary delay in reaching your goals. You can always enter a medical school that allows its students to take a year off to do research, enter a residency program with a lot of protected research time, or do a postdoc. It is always much much easier and favorably looked upon to get your foot in the MD world and add the research credentials later on, as opposed to starting as a researcher and deciding that you also want to be a clinician. One more thing that worries me a little bit is your age (I assume this is at least a little bit of a concern since you mention it), because I realize more and more after I passed my mid-20's that not everything is time-invariant, at least to me.