Conflicted over applying for MD/PhD or MD

[Yorick]

I'm a senior hat plans on applying to medical school next year and I'm taking the MCAT next spring. I never really considered MD/PhD until this year.I hadn't realized until now how happy and accomplished bench research makes me feel and I truly enjoy.

My first question is would I even be competitive for MD/PhD programs? From reading here, they seem to be the most competitive graduate programs out there and definitely more so than MD programs. As I said, I've yet to take the MCAT and my GPA is currently a 3.64 in biomedical engineering. I have typical volunteering and shadowing experience and then my research experience will be having worked 4 years in a lab with a 2nd author publication out of it and 1 year in another lab with a poster presentation at a professional society's annual conference. I'll have great letters of recommendations from the two PI's in those labs (and then other letters of rec from some of my professors). If score highly on the MCAT, will I be competitive enough for MD/PhD programs to seriously consider applying?

The next thing is the time. I enjoy research immensely, but I'm not sure if I'm completely sold on spending 3 years or more getting my PhD, especially when I've heard of PhD students having to devote another 2+ years because something in their project went awry.

I would however like to have my own lab when I'm older and spend time doing bench research in addition to clinical practice if possible, or certainly clinical research too. I'm also worried that if I apply to MD programs and walk into the interview, they'll be asking why I didn't apply to PhD or MD/PhD programs since it seems I have a lot of research experience. Practicing medicine is certainly my number 1 priority, but I don't want to give up research either.

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[Fencer]

You are an apt candidate for MD/PhD. Depending upon you MCAT result and the strength of your coursework, your GPA might only hurt you marginally. Hopefully, you finish with a higher GPA than now to give you a greater chance for admissions. Most of the best candidates with your aspirations apply only to MD/PhD programs, but there might be other factors that you are not sharing, such as geographical preference, etc. Keep in mind that MD programs consider strongly state of residency, whereas most MD/PhD programs do not.

Good luck... PM me if you need

 

[Lucca]

I'm a senior hat plans on applying to medical school next year and I'm taking the MCAT next spring. I never really considered MD/PhD until this year.I hadn't realized until now how happy and accomplished bench research makes me feel and I truly enjoy.

My first question is would I even be competitive for MD/PhD programs? From reading here, they seem to be the most competitive graduate programs out there and definitely more so than MD programs. As I said, I've yet to take the MCAT and my GPA is currently a 3.64 in biomedical engineering. I have typical volunteering and shadowing experience and then my research experience will be having worked 4 years in a lab with a 2nd author publication out of it and 1 year in another lab with a poster presentation at a professional society's annual conference. I'll have great letters of recommendations from the two PI's in those labs (and then other letters of rec from some of my professors). If score highly on the MCAT, will I be competitive enough for MD/PhD programs to seriously consider applying?

The next thing is the time. I enjoy research immensely, but I'm not sure if I'm completely sold on spending 3 years or more getting my PhD, especially when I've heard of PhD students having to devote another 2+ years because something in their project went awry.

I would however like to have my own lab when I'm older and spend time doing bench research in addition to clinical practice if possible, or certainly clinical research too. I'm also worried that if I apply to MD programs and walk into the interview, they'll be asking why I didn't apply to PhD or MD/PhD programs since it seems I have a lot of research experience. Practicing medicine is certainly my number 1 priority, but I don't want to give up research either.

One thing you might consider doing in addition to Fencer's advice above is emailing some MD/PhD students at schools you feel would be a good fit for your goals/numbers/experience and talk to them about the process. It seems to me that the nature of the training is what is giving you second thoughts (which is good, this probably means that you are sane) so getting some insight from people further along and already graduated might be beneficial.

In either case, remember that there are other paths to becoming a physician scientist and maybe you should think about those as well. (MD + post doc, MD + research year).

 

[Neuronix]

Please read the sticky.

3.6+ is decent GPA.
4 years of lab experience is excellent.
Aim for equivalent of 34+ MCAT, preferably 36+

With that, you stand an excellent chance of MSTP admission considering everything else is strong (essays, interviews, LORs, etc).

 

[gutonc]

Pending a good MCAT there's no reason for you not to apply.

The bigger question is whether or not you would really want to do it if you got in.

 

[7331poas]

I am going to latch onto this thread I suppose. What exactly are the expectation for clinical volunteering for MD PhD vs just MD? Thanks.

 

[Fencer]

Comparison of just 100 hours for MD/PhD (any more is waste time away from the lab) as compared to "you didn't do 500 hours of clinical volunteering" for MD aspirants.

 

[starfun21]

@Fencer, is your offer to give advice via PM still available? Could I perhaps send you a PM in a few days if I still have some questions about this application cycle?

Thank you for all of your comments and advice on these threads!

 

[smithers12]

i had very similar stats and publication record to yours with a major in BME. there are some institutions that may screen you out based on your GPA, but i had a strong MCAT which got me interviews at top 5 and certainly many top 15 places. apply EARLY (i can not stress this enough) and with a solid personal statement, MCAT, and interviews you will surely have an acceptance next cycle.

if you are set on BME, definitely do your research with programs that are strong in this area. it is my personal opinion that there are some programs that "dont know what to do with" engineering students despite our contributions to medicine, and you may get funny looks on the interview trail because of that. most MSTP directors have labs in the "traditional" basic sciences and are still trained to select for students in those fields. the best way to do this is to look at the current BME students in the programs and see which PIs they have chosen. we are a minority but we surely exist. consider emailing program managers in places you are interested in attending to see how receptive they are to students in BME and if any students would be willing to talk to you.

keep your options open as far as who you may want to do your graduate work with as well. this is much easier if you for instance have a tissue engineering background with skills that can translate to a few different settings, but much harder if you are dead set on doing something super duper specific like prosthetics engineering.