I think I interview pretty well. I've been thinking a lot about why I want to make the career change and am confident I can answer that question. But I absolutely intend to cast a broad net, and happy to hear from someone else with similar numbers is succeeding in med school.
Everyone thinks they interview well; far fewer actually do. Sitting on the other side, I can tell you that interviewing some otherwise very bright and qualified candidates can be incredibly painful. Make sure you do some mock interviews with someone who doesn't know you very well and will be appropriately critical. Another faculty member in your dept (not your PI) could be a good choice, and if they're an adcom, even better.
I understand medical school is a huge financial commitment and then still only making ~50K a year for 3-5 years, but it seems to have a lot more earning potential in the long run. A post-doc with 7+ years of experience still only brings in ~52K according to NIH standards, although there's usually extenuating circumstances for people doing a post-doc that long. Also I've talked to several post-docs who have tried getting a Research Associate Professor (RAP) position and still are only offered ~50K a year, without any guarantee of tenure (and that's after 4-5 years for the PhD and 5 years or more as a post-doc). Money certainly isn't my only motivation, but it seems a lot more financially beneficial in the long run to have an MD. Some faculty members I've spoken with from state/public Universities had their base salary cut 8-10% because of the economy, regardless of whether or not they are pulling in grants.
Considering how many years (four) you will be taking away from earning a salary of any amount and how much money you will likely be taking out in loans ($100,000+), I would caution you against going this route because you think you will come out ahead financially. Especially since you're not starting out at age 22, it is very possible that you will come out behind financially if you go to medical school. There are some excellent discussions of this issue in the nontrad forum if you haven't seen them yet. Go to the sticky in there and you'll find the links. (I'm a huge sticky afficionado, if you hadn't noticed.
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What do you guys think about securing a good residency, assuming I actually get into Medical School? I've spoken with a few MDs and MD/PhDs and have heard having PhD can help land a good residency because of "problem solving" skills. But that's just what I've heard through conversation so far.
This is highly specialty-dependent. In the research-oriented specialties most frequented by MD/PhDs like medicine, peds, path, etc., having a PhD can be a significant plus. In other, more procedural fields where there is heavy pressure to do clinical work to maximize revenue, it may be harder at many programs since they have a strong disincentive to want you there primarily as a researcher.
I'm a fourth year right now and should be applying this year, although I'm taking an extra year off first. But a lot of my friends are applying, and of course I've thought a lot about these issues myself. My general impression is that applying to residency with a PhD is kind of like applying to med school with a PhD, in the sense that it won't save your app if you aren't generally competitive anyway. But if you have good board scores and good clinical grades, it can be a significant boon at more research-oriented programs. ScottishChap or Bozo, you can feel free to disagree and/or provide more info, since you've already gone through the process.
Also, I've read a lot of threads saying some schools use computer programs to assign a 'ranking' to potential applicants and to weed out lower scoring applicant by their combined GPA and MCAT scores (i.e. score = 10 * GPA * MCAT).
I don't know how many schools do this. Mine definitely does not.
Is the Graduate School GPA not considered at all?
In the formula, or in general? Like I said, we have no formula at my school. We do consider grad school performance, but again, if you have an unacceptably low UG GPA, it won't generally make up for that. (NB, I'm not saying your UG GPA is unacceptable; this is a general statement.)
I've read some threads claiming that graduate school classes are easier, but I know for a fact some graduate schools actually have their students taking classes with the medical students.
Grad school classes aren't easier, but the grading is often easier. Very few people get less than a B in a grad school class. Especially if you're doing well in the lab, your PI wants to keep you, and you get your gentleman's B. Also, adcoms know that anyone with a grad degree must have a 3.0 or better GPA; otherwise, they'd have flunked out of the program. So a grad school GPA of 3.6 (which is the avg UG GPA for med school matriculants) just doesn't carry the same weight.
Is considering grad school GPA a case-by-case scenario for different schools? Not many schools I've found actually state they use this type of ranking system.
Probably.
QofQuimica - Sorry I didn't see your post until this morning. I guess we were actually writing our responses at the same time. Thanks for the 'welcome to SDN.' I read your post previously and several others as well (I actually already bookmarked that particular post) .
No problem, I hadn't seen your response to me either when I skimmed through your post. I appreciate knowing that you read the sticky; it was a lot of work for Neuro and me (especially Neuro) to assemble it.
I was just curious if there were other people with similar grades as mine from undergrad.
Definitely, and at the premed level, many people with grades far worse than yours.
And getting some more advice than just the typical - "volunteer and shadowing."
That advice may not seem very situation-specific, but it's true. You need to get clinical experience (an absolute *must*, something that you should treat as being a prereq just like a year of gen chem or physics is). And you need to do some significant ECs, which often includes community service. It makes sense when you think about it from the adcom's perspective, because medicine is a service profession. You don't have to be a saint to go into medicine, but I do think you need some streak of altruism to do it, because no amount of money alone will compensate you for the next 8+ years of sweat you'd be putting into training.
I'm looking at which schools to apply for (state, out of state, big, small, research oriented), what are my options in medical school and afterwards, scholarship opportunities,...strategy, etc.
You do need to consider these things, but first decide if applying to med school is even something you want to do at all. In general, you should apply to all of your state schools, especially if you're in a state like FL (where I'm from) that protects its seats for state residents. You should also target OOS schools that take residents from your state and that are research-oriented, assuming you want to continue on in research. All of this info can be found in a book called the MSAR. Scholarships are few and far between. I have one, but I was extremely lucky beyond what I can possibly express in words, and the vast majority of matriculants will unfortunately not get scholarships. As I said before, you should expect to take out six figure loans if you go to medical school.
(But if 3 PhDs joined this week, I'm not surprised. It is grant season for those looking to get pre-doctoral fellowhsips, and writing those suckers can be extremely jarring.)
Yeah, there are a few of us here and there sporadically. I've been on SDN for five years now though, and I haven't ever seen this many at once before.
I most likely will be applying to research-intensive sorts of schools as pseudoknot mentioned because of my background and for more 'translational' type research opportunities. However, I do have at least a year to 'beef-up' my application. So I'm just looking for as much help as I can get. And will continue to take as much advice as I can get.
Thanks again guys.
Keep reading, and keep asking. There's lots of advice to be had. This forum generally has higher quality advice than PA does IMHO, although you won't necessarily find as as many discussions that specifically pertain to your situation (i.e., PhD-to-MD) since most of the regulars here are attending or applying to combined programs. I think it would be worth your while to spend some time in nontrad too; that relates to you in the sense of being an older student switching careers.
Hope this is helpful, and best of luck to you.
