MD v/s MD-PhD Advice

[DrSK]

Dear Friends,

Please help me in finding answer of these questions?

1. I have heard that usually people take more than 4 years of school and 3-7 years of Residency to become a Doctor with only MD.

2. Most of the medical students takes more than 5 years to pay their debts, Plus they pay Medical Malfunction insurance when they become doctor which means they don't save a great deal.

3. Are people able to finish their MD-PhD in 7 years as according to school curriculum? And then 3-7 years of residency.

It means if one is interested in research then one should go for MD-PhD because both degrees(MD and MD-PhD) take same amount of time to become an independent debt free doctor considering the fact that the guy with MD degree will get 3-4 years of more clinical experience similarly MD-PhD guy will get 3-4 year of deep theoretical research experience.


Thanks.

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[drizzt3117]

In many cases, but not all, the two paths have different functions. Generally, MDs are clinicians while MD/PhDs run labs (this is a huge generalization, but since the govt/school is contributing hundreds of thousands towards your training, youll be expected to do research) and also, ppl can easily take more than 3 yrs to finish the PHD.

 

[HumidBeing]

Dear Friends,

Please help me in finding answer of these questions?

1. I have heard that usually people take more than 4 years of school and 3-7 years of Residency to become a Doctor with only MD.

2. Most of the medical students takes more than 5 years to pay their debts, Plus they pay Medical Malfunction insurance when they become doctor which means they don't save a great deal.

3. Are people able to finish their MD-PhD in 7 years as according to school curriculum? And then 3-7 years of residency.

It means if one is interested in research then one should go for MD-PhD because both degrees(MD and MD-PhD) take same amount of time to become an independent debt free doctor considering the fact that the guy with MD degree will get 3-4 years of more clinical experience similarly MD-PhD guy will get 3-4 year of deep theoretical research experience.


Thanks.

Thanks for that "malfunction". You're the first person to make me smile tonight.

Drizzt is right. They are really two different paths. MD/PhD's tend to go into academic medicine, or into research, both of which tend have lower pay. One CAN go into research with only an MD. The combined degree is for people who are very driven toward research.....and medicine.

 

[DeadCactus]

I only noticed you ask one actual question:

"Are people able to finish their MD-PhD in 7 years as according to school curriculum?"

MD-PhD generally takes anywhere from 6 to 9 years to finish. (Generally closer to 8).

As for the rest:

"Most of the medical students takes more than 5 years to pay their debts, Plus they pay Medical Malfunction insurance when they become doctor which means they don't save a great deal."

What does Mal-practice have to do with anything? MD-PhDs pay that too unless they decide to go pure research; at which point you should be comparing MD/PhD to PhD.

And while they are paying off their debt for those 5 years, they are still making a fair amount of money; It's only a portion of their salary that is going to debt. It's not like they live like a resident for another 5 years to pay off the debt.

This issue of MD/PhD isn't who comes out of debt when. It's do you enjoy research enough to want to pursue a PhD and put off making more than minimum wage and finally being a physician for 3 to 5 years.

For most people the thought of living like a student and delaying finally treating patients for another 3 to 5 years is ludicrous.