Strategies and/or advice for PhD to MD preparation

[adeterminedmonkey]

Hello all,

I'm currently a PhD student (early on in my PhD) who is interested in attending medical school after I complete my PhD. I knew from the beginning of undergrad that medical school was a serious possibility, so I've already completed all the pre-med curriculum. However, I wanted to be absolutely certain about med school before applying, so I began a PhD program first rather than committing to an MD/PhD. The idea was to see if I could be content with a career solely doing research first, and if I couldn't to then head down the medical track subsequently. I'm very passionate about my research, and have every intention of giving my PhD my all and completing it, but I've realized that for personal reasons solely doing research won't fulfill me without a clinical and medical aspect to it. Shifting over to clinical research without the hands-on medical practice won't do it either, again for personal reasons. I put in a couple hundred hours of shadowing in undergrad, so I believe I know what I'm signing up for (at least, as well as anyone can before actually starting med school/residency/practice, of course).

All this to say, I'm wondering what I can be doing during my PhD to prepare me to become the best possible physician-scientist. Any advice you all might have would be greatly appreciated! I apologize if this is a duplicate of another post, but all the other posts I saw were from people much later in their PhDs who had then decided to pursue medical school. Given I'm early on, I have more time to prepare, so I expected the advice might be different. I'd like to be as proactive as possible to maximize the utility of my PhD years.

Thanks again!

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[deleted972488]

Hey, so I am a PhD to MD and was in a similar position. I had a hard time choosing between MD and PhD in undergrad and my PhD project ended up being very translational with clinical components. I’m in the process of applying to MD programs now so I can tell you what I wish I knew earlier.

Anyway, the best thing you can do now is show you have a continued interest in medicine. If your graduate school is associated with a hospital, see if you can get a clinical volunteering position. I did this starting about two years before my graduation date, but if you can start earlier that’s even better. It would also be helpful to find some sort of long-term non-clinical volunteering position.

Other than that, just make sure to do well on the MCAT. I took it while finishing my PhD, which basically meant I was studying whenever I wasn’t working. There’s lots of good advice out there on what resources to use (especially on /r/MCAT) but know that you might need longer to study than most people if you’re trying to juggle lab work on top of studying.

 

[PipetteDreams]

Copying advice I wrote in a previous thread. I'm an M1 PhD-to-MD who also decided to go down this path fairly early on in my PhD. I focused on being very productive in my PhD, finding physician scientist mentors and doing small side-projects with them, doing a lot of service that utilized my skillset (i.e., not just hospital volunteering), and focusing on teaching (as an outside professional interest to develop):

"Now, I'm going to tell you the advice that I was given when I decided to apply. All of this is what my mentors told me, and one of them was the director of an MSTP for over fifteen years:

1. You need to demonstrate 'why medicine.'

Yes, this is true for everyone. But, you're coming to medicine away from basic sciences. Many people will think you are running away from science. You need to show them that, instead, you are passionately running to medicine. It's not that you're afraid of being a lab rat, running in the R01 wheel; it's because your career would be incomplete without working to improve the health of patients - whatever that means to you.

So, briefly tell me - why medicine? Once you earn an MD, do you see yourself working with patients? Why or why not?

2. You need shadowing experience.

You will not get into medical school without shadowing.

To anyone else without experience: One of my biggest weaknesses when applying was my lack of shadowing experience; I had around 50 hours in four different specialties. I also volunteered 600+ hours at a hospital during my undergrad, and collaborated on multiple projects (in clinic) across multiple specialities. Note: you should aim to shadow before you take the MCAT. Why? Because you need to show you made the decision to apply to medical school based on a deep understanding of what it's actually like to practice in medicine. Again, you're running to medicine.

However, I see you have a LOT of shadowing experience - why was that not enough to convince you to do an MD? What's changed? Again, you'll need a coherent narrative.

3. You need to take the MCAT.

What is your plan for taking it? Are you able to take time off to study for it and what is your baseline?

Note: you don't need a stellar baseline, just a good plan on how to improve. I started from a pretty low place, as I had never taken a biochemistry, sociology, or psychology course. But ended up doing well after creating a focused plan and sticking to it (also happy to share).

4. You need to show that you love helping others.

There's a certain stigma around scientists. Faculty may think you want to use patients merely as subjects for experiments. My mentors have seen applications with this goal. They have also seen interviewers criticize applicants with PhDs, assuming that was their intent - whether or not it was true. You need to show genuine empathy and compassion towards others. Again, you are doing this to help your future patients. You are not doing it because - or in spite - of your science.

It's really great that you're volunteering at a hospice - that definitely shows that you care about serving others! Do you have a history of leadership or any incidents of working as a team? Or perhaps did you engage in teaching and mentoring throughout graduate school? Anything to show that you engage with your community will strengthen your application.

Best of luck to you!"

 

[Naruhodo]

I agree with the above advice. If your institution is affiliated with a hospital, figure out how you can do some shadowing/ volunteering there. If you can also get your lab work to align with some clinical interests/ meet collaborators in medicine, all the more power to you. Start a few low hour commitments early (2-3hrs per week doing something) over a long period of time, and you'll probably get more out of it and it will look better than trying to cram a lot in during a short period. Look for ways to give back to your community that you enjoy and that boost your spirits.

Take care of yourself, mentally, physically, and socially during grad school. Maybe you're feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed right now, but grad school is hard on most people (ditto for medical training) and starting some good self-care practices will serve you well. This is a marathon, not a sprint, so keep your eye on the prize and try not to be discouraged by setbacks if they come up. I had a pretty brutal grad school experience (not the worst that I've heard, but far from ideal) and had to come to terms with the fact that I did not have the bandwidth to put together a compelling med school app while finishing up my PhD program. But I ended up finding a fantastic postdoc that exposed me to an area of medicine that I am now passionate about, and where I was surrounded by supportive mentors. Even though it took 2 more years, I think the eventual outcome was far more successful than if I'd tried to rush things. Great that you're thinking things through early on and I wish you luck!