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- May 1, 2014
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Hello all,
I am currently an MS-1, and I have been considering pursuing an MD/PhD well before I got into medical school. I ended up not applying to MD/PhD programs at the time due to a host of issues. Nonetheless, my experience and passion for research seemed to have come across while applying as my interviewers asked me why I didn't apply to MD/PhD programs.
As I'm going through my first-year of med school, the enormous memorization required makes me realize how much I miss thinking like a scientist. Career wise, I know that I want to conduct basic science research, and I intend to follow the 80/20 model. My dream is to apply for an NIH R01 grant and run my own lab and occasionally see patients during the week. It's not that I hate patient care (I actually enjoy working with patients and empathizing with them), I just enjoy research a lot more. I have also secured a summer research program at my school, and I recently got a co-author publication (IF=6) and will have 1 or 2 more publications this year hopefully.
I'm still thinking about applying internally to my school's MD/PhD (non-MSTP) program because I think that I could benefit from a long-term, protected research time to learn how to work (and think) on my own and learn some advanced skills/lab techniques. However, I have heard from some MD's and PhD's (and even an MD/PhD friend) that it's not necessary to do both and to stick with the MD and do some research training later in residency/fellowship or afterwards. Additionally, I am currently 27 years old (I was a nontrad back then). Assuming 4 years for the PhD portion, I would start residency at 35. I read a recent thread here about starting an MD/PhD in the late 20s, and personally, I'm not concerned about the age--I look and feel young, and I have no intentions of starting a family anytime soon. Also, the level of graduate training at my school is decent, but not world-class or anything. I mention this because I have heard that the reputation of the PhD school and PI are really important later on. However, there are a couple of PI's here that I've looked up that do research in my field of interest, have active grants, publish regularly, and have given major talks at national conferences. While I have experienced the ups and downs of research and am comfortable with the idea of experiencing failure all the time, I don't know if I'm talented enough to be in research. I went to a national conference last year, and was just amazed at the number of bright people out there doing extraordinary work. It also doesn't help that I'm just an average medical student, although I attribute that to my lack of enthusiasm for memorizing everything thrown at me in class.
I know that alternative pathways for me to become a basic physician-scientist include doing year out programs (HHMI, NIH MSRP, etc.), research residencies/fellowship (that include protected research time), or a post-doc after fellowship. However, I feel that these are super competitive for me, especially the year-out programs.
So after doing all my research, I'm still confused if pursuing an MD/PhD is right for me. I admit that occasionally after shadowing a private-practice doctor, I feel comfortable with "just being a doctor." However, the desire to ask the big questions and understand the why and how still strongly motivates me to pursue a research career.
I am currently an MS-1, and I have been considering pursuing an MD/PhD well before I got into medical school. I ended up not applying to MD/PhD programs at the time due to a host of issues. Nonetheless, my experience and passion for research seemed to have come across while applying as my interviewers asked me why I didn't apply to MD/PhD programs.
As I'm going through my first-year of med school, the enormous memorization required makes me realize how much I miss thinking like a scientist. Career wise, I know that I want to conduct basic science research, and I intend to follow the 80/20 model. My dream is to apply for an NIH R01 grant and run my own lab and occasionally see patients during the week. It's not that I hate patient care (I actually enjoy working with patients and empathizing with them), I just enjoy research a lot more. I have also secured a summer research program at my school, and I recently got a co-author publication (IF=6) and will have 1 or 2 more publications this year hopefully.
I'm still thinking about applying internally to my school's MD/PhD (non-MSTP) program because I think that I could benefit from a long-term, protected research time to learn how to work (and think) on my own and learn some advanced skills/lab techniques. However, I have heard from some MD's and PhD's (and even an MD/PhD friend) that it's not necessary to do both and to stick with the MD and do some research training later in residency/fellowship or afterwards. Additionally, I am currently 27 years old (I was a nontrad back then). Assuming 4 years for the PhD portion, I would start residency at 35. I read a recent thread here about starting an MD/PhD in the late 20s, and personally, I'm not concerned about the age--I look and feel young, and I have no intentions of starting a family anytime soon. Also, the level of graduate training at my school is decent, but not world-class or anything. I mention this because I have heard that the reputation of the PhD school and PI are really important later on. However, there are a couple of PI's here that I've looked up that do research in my field of interest, have active grants, publish regularly, and have given major talks at national conferences. While I have experienced the ups and downs of research and am comfortable with the idea of experiencing failure all the time, I don't know if I'm talented enough to be in research. I went to a national conference last year, and was just amazed at the number of bright people out there doing extraordinary work. It also doesn't help that I'm just an average medical student, although I attribute that to my lack of enthusiasm for memorizing everything thrown at me in class.
I know that alternative pathways for me to become a basic physician-scientist include doing year out programs (HHMI, NIH MSRP, etc.), research residencies/fellowship (that include protected research time), or a post-doc after fellowship. However, I feel that these are super competitive for me, especially the year-out programs.
So after doing all my research, I'm still confused if pursuing an MD/PhD is right for me. I admit that occasionally after shadowing a private-practice doctor, I feel comfortable with "just being a doctor." However, the desire to ask the big questions and understand the why and how still strongly motivates me to pursue a research career.