Would a PhD make it easier to get into medical school?

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sunyplatt

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Hypothetically, if someone obtained a PhD from a brick and mortar institution, wouldn't it be far easier to get a medical school to admit you even with a low gpa?

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Hypothetically, if someone obtained a PhD from a brick and mortar institution, wouldn't it be far easier to get a medical school to admit you even with a low gpa?

Depends how low the GPA. Advanced degrees are definitely a positive, but if you have a low GPA the way you need to remedy that is to take more classes and raise the GPA. You need to tailor your credential rehabilitation to what the problem is, not try to replace a hammer with a screwdriver.
 
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Getting a PhD is a really long way to rehab your application.

There are much better ways (eg SMP) to rehab your application if you need it. You should pursue a PhD because you want to, not for a checkbox for med school.
 
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You could be doing a lot better things in that time to enhance your application - getting outstanding EC's, studying and acing the MCAT, research as well as doing 2 years of GPA repair to get it up into a respectable level. At most, that should take 4 years, which is less than a PhD.
 
Good luck suffering through the training required for a PhD if all you really want is an MD, dude. What everyone is telling you is true. There are much better ways to rehab a GPA that does not involve committing 4-6+ years of your life to an advanced degree. I'm also not quite sure you understand exactly what is required in order to obtain a PhD, especially one in the biomedical sciences. It's not something to take lightly. Also, I'd be willing to wager that a lackluster grad career can hurt you just as much as a lackluster undergrad career. If you're not fully committed, it's easy to have a lackluster grad career.

I applied this application season with a PhD. I'm absolutely sure it helped, but it didn't magically open doors. I still had to jump through every single hoop that all other pre-meds have to jump through: Clinical work, shadowing, non-clinical volunteering, research, etc. Prior to applying I was told my PhD would be nothing more than a really nice EC. I'd say that wasn't too far off the mark. I will say, however, that I was cut some slack on my MCAT score as I was invited to interview at a couple of OOS places where my numbers were not competitive for an OOS invite. But I'm also still pending a decision from the school I actually interviewed at with uncompetitive OOS numbers... so it may be that the invite doesn't mean much.
 
By the time you finish PhD you are likely to be 30. Persuing medicine and establshing ypourselves will take another 10 years. You will be 40. It is going to be tough, and a high risk plan.
 
By the time you finish PhD you are likely to be 30. Persuing medicine and establshing ypourselves will take another 10 years. You will be 40. It is going to be tough, and a high risk plan.

This. The years really start making a difference as other commitments (spouse/kids/house/saving for retirement/YOUR LIFE) get delayed due to school.
 
Someone I know applied this cycle with a PhD and sadly hasn't gotten any acceptances thus far. I'm sure having a PhD helps, but as someone else said, it doesn't magically open doors (e.g. won't make up for a low MCAT).
 
Many good points in this thread but I want to say that having a PhD is not a good thing. If anything, it will be a negative towards your MD application. It is too easy to come across as 1) A degree hunter; or 2) a 30 year old who still doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up. The PhD-->MD route is discouraged even for people who want to be physician scientists.

Check out this thread. It has many PhD --> MD experiences that you can read and learn from.
 
I have to agree with StoicJosher, I had a friend that did a chem PhD, decided two years in he wanted to do medicine. He stuck it out and then applied after he graduated. He only got accepted to one school... he did have a lower GPA outside the sciences, and his MCAT wasn't that great (Didn't do well on bio and verbal).

I think if you are a good applicant without the PhD and get one, all the better, but as rehab, its not good.
 
Good luck suffering through the training required for a PhD if all you really want is an MD, dude. What everyone is telling you is true. There are much better ways to rehab a GPA that does not involve committing 4-6+ years of your life to an advanced degree. I'm also not quite sure you understand exactly what is required in order to obtain a PhD, especially one in the biomedical sciences. It's not something to take lightly. Also, I'd be willing to wager that a lackluster grad career can hurt you just as much as a lackluster undergrad career. If you're not fully committed, it's easy to have a lackluster grad career.

I applied this application season with a PhD. I'm absolutely sure it helped, but it didn't magically open doors. I still had to jump through every single hoop that all other pre-meds have to jump through: Clinical work, shadowing, non-clinical volunteering, research, etc. Prior to applying I was told my PhD would be nothing more than a really nice EC. I'd say that wasn't too far off the mark. I will say, however, that I was cut some slack on my MCAT score as I was invited to interview at a couple of OOS places where my numbers were not competitive for an OOS invite. But I'm also still pending a decision from the school I actually interviewed at with uncompetitive OOS numbers... so it may be that the invite doesn't mean much.

+1. I agree with all your points. However, I also applied with a PhD this cycle. I actually think it opened more doors (interviewed at all the places i wanted + almost full scholarships to my top 2)

BUT! To the OP- Dont get into a PhD program with the sole reason to improve your medschool application, it is not worth it, the frustrations etc, you really have to love science and the scientific method to do it. Just do a masters or a post-bac and tons of volunteering. I have seen people drop half their weight because of the stress that comes with it. Ask yourself if you would be satisfied if at the end of the PhD you still couldn't get into medschool. If your answer is no, then absolutely run away from gradschool

ONLY do the PhD if you actually forsee yourself being a PI later on, and if you do then apply MSTP! If i had to do it all over i would've done MSTP because I want both the MD and PhD....no regrets, but you always wonder what if right?
 
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While the PhD will not hurt you and will likely be a positive on your application, it will not make up for deficiencies in your undergraduate GPA; in fact, the general consensus is that, outside of Special Masters Programs (SMPs), graduate GPA does not matter much at all, especially in comparison to undergraduate GPA. Furthermore, a PhD is a 5-7 year commitment in which you will spend a significant amount of your time studying/learning, teaching (in many programs) and doing original research in one's particular field. It is not something one can just move through the motions of if they have no interest.

If your GPA is deficient for medical school admissions, there are much better, more effective and cheaper ways to remedy the situation, such as post-bacc work (taking more undergraduate courses after graduation with the intent to raise one's overall GPA) and/or an SMP. To add specifics to this, if your GPA is below 3.0, you will likely need to do post-bacc work to at least get it above that and then apply to SMPs. If your GPA is borderline (3.4-ish), post-bacc work may be enough. If you are willing to look into the option, DO schools allow for grade replacement, in which if you re-take a course, only the grade received in the most recent retake will be calculated into your GPA. For more information on SMPs and post-bacc work, check out this forum.
 
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You are better off scoring high on the MCAT and working to gather life experience and maybe taking some classes on the side if you have time.
 
Someone I know applied this cycle with a PhD and sadly hasn't gotten any acceptances thus far. I'm sure having a PhD helps, but as someone else said, it doesn't magically open doors (e.g. won't make up for a low MCAT).

Someone I know with a PhD got interviews EVERYWHERE, average stats. It was mind blowing.
 
Funnily enough it may not help a great deal for med school, but apparently a lot of residency programs in certain specialties won't even look at you if you aren't a physician scientist...rad onc for example...so could be useful if you are lucky enough to have nailed down what you want to be when you grow up.
 
A PhD is a lot of pain, even worse than medical school. You never know when you'll finish, whether your projects will work. You won't be judged by your grades but by your research, etc. Read this article by an eminent professor to understand what it means to get a PhD (http://jcs.biologists.org/content/121/11/1771.full

I'd like to suggest that our Ph.D. programs often do students a disservice in two ways. First, I don't think students are made to understand how hard it is to do research. And how very, very hard it is to do important research. It's a lot harder than taking even very demanding courses. What makes it difficult is that research is immersion in the unknown. We just don't know what we're doing. We can't be sure whether we're asking the right question or doing the right experiment until we get the answer or the result. Admittedly, science is made harder by competition for grants and space in top journals. But apart from all of that, doing significant research is intrinsically hard and changing departmental, institutional or national policies will not succeed in lessening its intrinsic difficulty.

Now you could be lucky and handed a good project, but don't count on it. It's very possible you'll have to toil for a long time on a "small" problem. I saw many grad students and postdocs in my lab suffer, but strangely they all enjoyed it. I'm enjoying it as well and plan to do it for a career.

So unless you love pain, are extremely driven to do science and make discoveries, then you are allowed to do a PhD. If you don't have any serious interest in academic work or serious research, it's much better to apply to medical school three years in a row if you don't succeed in prior years.
 
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