"untraditional" md/phd

[5468]

Hi everyone,

I'm a canadian applicant who received a md/phd interview at a canadian school. Since there lacks md/phd advice on our forums, I was hoping to get some insight here.

If I am accepted into the program, I will be pursuing my PhD component in the field of education (falls under social science for us). I was wondering if there are individuals on this forum that are pursuing a md/phd in a non-lab/basic science setting. I was wondering if at the interview, did you receive any additional/different questions about how your field fits well with the combined program compared to students who are pursuing science based PhDs? I am worried about receiving extra scrutiny from the panel as my research based isn't within a traditional field. My interview will be a hour long 5 member panel interview with faculty, a md/phd student and the program director.

Also, I was wondering if MD interview type questions like what are your weaknesses and ethical questions are raised during the md/phd interview?

Thanks in advance!

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[DogFaceMedic]

What do you mean by a PhD in Education? Are you pursuing an EDD while doing an MD? And what is your intent with the degree combination?

 

[hopefuldoc97239]

Sorry, I don't have any advice for the OP

What do you mean by a PhD in Education? Are you pursuing an EDD while doing an MD? And what is your intent with the degree combination?

But DogFaceMedic: Just FYI, you can get a PhD in Education. Some schools offer an EdD, some offer a PhD, and some offer both with different requirements.

 

[Lil Mick]

I'm not doing a lab-based science for my PhD. Many of my interviewers weren't too concerned. In fact, many interviewers from non-traditional areas seemed to view it as a positive factor (diversity of PhD areas is one of the areas evaluated by the NIH for MSTP funding). However, there aren't too many schools that allow for a non-science or non-lab-science PhD, so I'd suggest researching your options before applying. Not every school that claims to allow students to pursue these areas of study will actually let a student do such...

As for questions, I don't think I had any ethical/MD-typical-interview sort of questions during the MD/PhD interviews, though some schools separated the day into MD interviews and MD/PhD interviews. Most of the questions relate to research and future plans in research. With education as your area of interest, I'd prepare to explain my choice (guessing it would go well with evaluating medical education methods or pre-med preparation/developing curricula--sounds like a cool area to investigate)...