graduate student looking for advice

[stayBlue]

Hi guys, first I want to say I am glad to have found this forum. It looks like there is a lot of great information here. I would love to pick your brains a bit and hopefully get some advice/suggestions from you guys as I’m debating whether to take the MCAT exam again.

I posted a thread in the pre-med page yesterday but I think this sub-forum may be the more appropriate place.

I’m in graduate school right now (year 2 of 3 of my DPhil). I have been interested in medicine for some time but my decision to go to medical school has only recently come together.

When I started college I was really keen to study medicine. During my last year in high school I had started volunteering at a local rescue squad, which I enjoyed a lot. I spent the summer before college taking an EMT course. And after I got my license I continued helping out around the squad for a while. Gradually though the work lost its appeal. I can’t point and say exactly why. It became tedious I guess, and I think I realized there were other disciplines and career paths I wanted to explore.

I went on to study physics and eventually got my bachelors in that.

During the last semester of college I did an internship with a medical physics group. I had spent the previous 2 years doing biophysics research, which I liked a lot. I figured medical physics would be similar.

This internship in medical physics was a turning point for me. I really enjoyed it’s applicative nature, straddling both medicine and physics. I was graduating around then so I became interested in graduate programs of that subject area.

At the time, I looked mostly at phd programs in medical physics, though I did also come to learn about md-phd programs. But whether medical school was something I needed I wasn’t sure. I didn’t apply to any md-phd programs. But, since I did take the full range of premedical science courses during my studies. I took the mcats the summer right before grad school. It could only help, I thought. I got an 30 (12 physics, 10 bio , 8 verbal).

I’m currently in the UK pursuing a DPhil in magnetic resonance physics.

Now, being involved in MR physics research for almost 2 years now, I realize how powerful a medical background can be. We work with clinicians constantly. They come in and we talk about what sort of a scan they want (what sources of contrast they want to see, in which parts of the body) and we engineer the pulse sequences for the mri scanner to obtain those images. To be able to hold both sets of knowledge in one head would be absolutely balling. There’s a few MD-Phds in this field who are dominating it because they know exactly how and when to apply their technical expertise to clinical problems. I guess I look towards them as inspiration

All this is to say that I now believe that going back to medical school is be the right thing for my career.

So which program? Yale’s MD program looks extremely appealing. It is research-oriented and their radiology department has a strong focus on MR physics. I want to apply there early-decision next year.

My concern is my MCAT score, which is on low side. My question to myself is whether I should take my them again before next June.

I would love to get hear some comments (pros and cons) from you guys. I’ll list one ‘con’ right off the bat. I have try really hard to squeeze out time. DPhils in England are 3 years so they expect a lot done over a short time. Finding that time to prepare will be difficult.

Another option I am also considering, though I don’t want to, if this Yale-EDP thing doesn’t work out is this: I work for a year or two after my degree, save some money, find the time to take this exam again, then go to med school. But I’m not too keen on waiting for another 2 years.

I’ve briefly outlined below what the rest of my application would look like more or less. Many thanks in advance SDN!

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Research Interests: computational physics, magnetic resonance physics, biomedical physics

Education:
Grad: Top 2 school in the UK. Named scholarship, in full. DPhil in MR Physics.
Undergrad: Top 30 school in the US. Attended on 100% tuition remission.
Degree in Physics. GPA 3.81

Some awards from undergrad
1. Goldwater Scholarship Nominee.
2. Full scholarship for a summer research program in Vienna, Austria
3. College grants for independent biophysics research
4. sigma pi sigma physics award.

Work experience:
1. Executive committee member for the Global Scholars Network (the student body for Churchill, Oxford-Clarendon, Marshall, Rhodes, Gates-Cambridge, and Commonwealth scholars)
2. Graduate MRI Physics tutor.

Publications:
1. first author of a biophysical journal paper (undergrad)
2. editor for an undergraduate text in general relativity

Clinical experience: volunteered as an EMT-basic for 2 years

Programming Languages: Python, Matlab, Mathematica, Latex

Extracurricular: Middle distance track (mile & half-mile)
1600 m, mile PR, 4:43.7
800 m, half-mile PR, 2:07

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[QofQuimica]

Are you an American citizen or permanent resident? If not, you will face an uphill battle to get into an American school, although you may be reasonably competitive for the top private schools that accept internationals if you could raise your MCAT a bit. If you are an American, then the same app strategy principles apply to you as to everyone else: apply early, apply broadly, apply to your state schools, etc.

I suggest that you wait to apply until you after you complete the DPhil and return to the US. It will make the logistics and expense of applying a lot easier.

 

[stayBlue]

Are you an American citizen or permanent resident? If not, you will face an uphill battle to get into an American school, although you may be reasonably competitive for the top private schools that accept internationals if you could raise your MCAT a bit. If you are an American, then the same app strategy principles apply to you as to everyone else: apply early, apply broadly, apply to your state schools, etc.

I suggest that you wait to apply until you after you complete the DPhil and return to the US. It will make the logistics and expense of applying a lot easier.

That is a valid point.

I'm American. I was thinking more along the lines, apply to Yale EDP and to no other schools next year. If I get in then beautiful. If not, I'll work a 1-2 years after my DPhil, save up some cash, retake the mcats again, then apply.

 

[QofQuimica]

That is a valid point.

I'm American. I was thinking more along the lines, apply to Yale EDP and to no other schools next year. If I get in then beautiful. If not, I'll work a 1-2 years after my DPhil, save up some cash, retake the mcats again, then apply.

In general, applying ED is an option best considered by students with all around stellar apps, including stats that are at (or ideally above) the target school's averages. Your UG GPA and ECs are excellent; if you had a 35+ MCAT, then applying ED from abroad during the last year of your DPhil could be a reasonable strategy. However, with a 30, you are significantly below Yale's MCAT average, making you less likely to be competitive for an ED admission. Applying ED to Yale and failing to get admitted either through the EDP or via the regular admissions process might put you at a further disadvantage the following year, since you would then be applying as a reapplicant. Given that your MCAT is reasonably competitive for you to be able to gain admission to med school if you were to apply broadly (including to UConn, assuming CT is your home state), I would advise against you applying ED to Yale next year in favor of applying broadly the following year.