Advice for Medical School Application

[bonswag25]

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Hey guys, I am a 25 year old international student. I did my undergrad at a big public university in the US - majoring in Biology, and I am currently doing a PhD in the biomedical field at the same institution. I think I may be able to defend my thesis in 2 or 3 years. I work with MD/PhDs and I love the work they can do, interacting with patients on a day to day basis while also doing innovative research. I'm starting to get really interested in working with patients to complement my research, and I think getting a MD or DO would allow me to combine my enthusiasm for research with my personal need to serve and help patients. I've heard that it is very very difficult for international students to get accepted into medical schools. Is getting into medical school viable for me?

My undergrad stats:
cGPA: 3.74
sGPA: 3.73
My grad school experience:
Multiple publications, a few first author papers.
I don't have much clinical experience, and I will try to rectify that during the coming years. I do have a lot of experience volunteering within my school's community, as well as holding leadership roles and teaching classes.
MCAT:
I recently took a practice test and got a 505, I think I should be able to get the score much higher - I forgot a lot of physics and chemistry.

 

[Dral]

I can't talk specifically to your chances as an international student. However, I did a PhD before medical school and I'll say that having the PhD can be attractive on one hand (especially to MD schools who seem to value research more than DO schools). However, it can also be a hinderance. Once you get interviews, you'll have to prove that you are applying to medical school to be a physician and not to just jump ship from the PhD/research world. Also, you'll have to be careful with what you say about wanting to do research as a physician if you already have a PhD.

While you can craft a good story about wanting to be able to see patients AND do research (which many adcoms find attractive from those applying straight away to MD/PhD combined programs), you'll get the question "Well, if you want to do medical research, you can do that as a PhD that you already have. Why do you need a medical degree?" It's a valid question...why exactly do you feel the need to also see patients when you can easily collaborate. What makes being able to prescribe and treat important if your main goal is research?

You don't have to answer those questions here. I am just laying them out there so you know you will have to address those types of things. Why give you a spot in medical school when that spot can be given to someone who will go all in and see and help patients full time instead of just mixing it a little bit with mostly research?

Again, I'm not trying to be disparaging in terms of your desire to be a physician. I just want you to think about how you will approach ad coms who will ask you those types of questions in an attempt to elicit your motivations and intentions.

 

[bonswag25]

I can't talk specifically to your chances as an international student. However, I did a PhD before medical school and I'll say that having the PhD can be attractive on one hand (especially to MD schools who seem to value research more than DO schools). However, it can also be a hinderance. Once you get interviews, you'll have to prove that you are applying to medical school to be a physician and not to just jump ship from the PhD/research world. Also, you'll have to be careful with what you say about wanting to do research as a physician if you already have a PhD.

While you can craft a good story about wanting to be able to see patients AND do research (which many adcoms find attractive from those applying straight away to MD/PhD combined programs), you'll get the question "Well, if you want to do medical research, you can do that as a PhD that you already have. Why do you need a medical degree?" It's a valid question...why exactly do you feel the need to also see patients when you can easily collaborate. What makes being able to prescribe and treat important if your main goal is research?

You don't have to answer those questions here. I am just laying them out there so you know you will have to address those types of things. Why give you a spot in medical school when that spot can be given to someone who will go all in and see and help patients full time instead of just mixing it a little bit with mostly research?

Again, I'm not trying to be disparaging in terms of your desire to be a physician. I just want you to think about how you will approach ad coms who will ask you those types of questions in an attempt to elicit your motivations and intentions.

Thanks for the reply! Those are good points, I think I do need to answer those questions for myself. I think getting some clinical experience and patient interaction will help me better understand.

I don't want to be too intrusive, but do you do research as a doctor currently? What inspired you to go into medicine after doing your PhD?

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Dral]

I don't do bench research like I did during my PhD but I do some clinical type research here and there.

I intended to go to medical school before I started the PhD I took MCAT late and had a gap year. I needed to do something with the year so I started a research job. I ended up really liking it and continued on. An intended masters degree turned into a PhD. Once I was finishing that up I retook the MCAT and picked up where I left off with applying to medical school.

So my story was that I had the interest before grad school and it continued on through grad school instead of developing the interest during grad school. I had two MCAT attempts in undergrad which helped verify that narrative. One could say I gave up on med school and did grad school instead, but then decided to come back...but that is still consistent with a genuine interest before grad school even started. Plus I didn't go through a med school app cycle before grad school which fit in with my narrative of landing into the research world and finishing it up (PhD) before med school.

By the time I had about two years under my belt, it just made more sense to finish up the PhD and then go to med school as originally planned opposed to doing a combined MD/PhD.