Admission Question please reply

[soglad]

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I am an M.D who graduated in 2008 from a top school in the Northeast. I had a good but not great academic record at my school. I honored several pre clinical classes and a few rotations. Got a 35 on MCAT. Did some research in between first and second year did not get published but might eventually (the project is ongoing). did above average on my board exams. I have decided I want to get a PhD and Neuroscience next. Will I have a hard time getting into a PhD program? Can someone who actually knows what they are talking about give an opinion. Just curious. Thanks to all

 

[Neuronix]

Will I have a hard time getting into a PhD program?

Well, knows what they are talking about is subjective. There are few PhD only types around here.

I can say based on my experience that you will NOT have a hard time getting into a PhD program. They are generally not competitive, except for top programs, and even then you have a great shot with good GRE scores. You have interesting prior experience that propels you well ahead of most undergrads applying to graduate school. It wouldn't hurt you to contact some admissions offices at graduate programs of interest, but I don't see much of a problem as long as your medical school performance wasn't a total disaster.

I know you didn't ask for this, but I feel compelled to tell you I think that you should stick with your MD training and do a residency. Do Pathology for example if you really like benchwork and don't like patient-work so much. Get involved with research later and potentially get your PhD. I can't recommend to anyone to go to PhD given the job market for PhDs and difficulties in obtaining the degree. You'll have many more career opportunities both in research and medicine if you stick it out and become board certified.

 

[Doctor&Geek]

There are several good residency programs which contain research programs that help you get a PhD concurrent with residency and fellowship. A couple of examples:

Yale Investigative Medicine
UCLA STAR

 

[QofQuimica]

I am an M.D who graduated in 2008 from a top school in the Northeast. I had a good but not great academic record at my school. I honored several pre clinical classes and a few rotations. Got a 35 on MCAT. Did some research in between first and second year did not get published but might eventually (the project is ongoing). did above average on my board exams. I have decided I want to get a PhD and Neuroscience next. Will I have a hard time getting into a PhD program? Can someone who actually knows what they are talking about give an opinion. Just curious. Thanks to all

I am a PhD-to-MD (chemistry, not neuroscience). In my experience, getting into grad school was about as complicated as filling out the application form and slapping a stamp on the return envelope before trotting out to the mail box. (Or, I suppose these days, hitting the "submit" button.) This is assuming that you have decent GRE scores and some kind of research experience. Whether you should do a PhD at this point in your career is another question. I tend to agree with Neuro that even if you think you don't want to practice, you should at minimum complete an internship so that you can become licensed.

 

[soglad]

I may do an internship year or full residency eventually, but the truth is I really hate clinical work. I came to Med School to get into research. In retropsect I probably should have applied for a PhD spot after second year. I guess I was not 100% sure yet which way I wanted to go until this year. At this point all I want to do is do research in neuroscience and teach. I just need to find a program willing to admit me and also not make me repeat a bunch of classes that I have already taken. Thanks for your advice.

 

[Doctor&Geek]

Do a CP (no AP) pathology residency and neuropath fellowship.

 

[gbwillner]

Do a CP (no AP) pathology residency and neuropath fellowship.

To OP: if you know for a fact you do not want to do clinical work or have any clinical responsibility, there is no need to do a residency. I am a pathology resident and I can tell you that even in pathology you will have a lot of clinical responsibility, even though it may not include doing physical exams. During AP (anatomic pathology) training there is really no time for research either.
CP is a good field for those who want to have a research type career and flexibility in their clinical responsibility. It is typically 3 years and allows for a full year of research. CP career opportunities can be anything from signing out molecular reports only to running an apheresis clinic or blood bank and rounding on those patients. Unfortunately for you, most programs that have CP-only training have "good" CP training and that still means patient contact and clinical responsibility.

While the wisest course of action is probably to finish residency and do a PhD in your fellowship, if you know FOR A FACT that you don't like clinical medicine and want no patient responsibilities, wanting instead to spend all your time focused on lab work.... what would be the point?

PS- I don;t think you can do a CP + NP fellowship- thouse run through AP.

 

[Doctor&Geek]

PS- I don;t think you can do a CP + NP fellowship- thouse run through AP.

Uh, yeah, that's what I "meant". 😀