Advice needed

[Prop]

Hi all,
Looking for some answers, hopefully some of you can help me.

I just received my ECFMG certification, so now I'm ready to apply for peds. However, I just can't decide whether to apply or not.
Let me give you some background.

I'm an IMG from Scandinavia, graduated med school in january 2010, and then work for 1 year (which is mandatory here) in internal medicine and a family practice. I just started writing a Ph.D. in the department of pediatrics, and will spend the next 3 years on this. However, the area my ph.d. is on is not the subspeciality I want to end up in (I want to end up in neonatology). Considering I'm 30+ now, and will be adding 3 years for the ph.d., I would be 40+ years old before finishing fellowship - is that even worth it?
My scores a pretty much average (step 1 224, step 2 226), and everything was passed on 1st attempt. I will be submitting my first paper shortly, but other than that I have no proof of my time in research. I did 2 months of clinical rotations in the US during med school, getting honors in one of them (don't know about the other).

So my question is:
Would getting a Ph.d. help with my residency application, eventhough it would mean that my graduation date from med school would be 5 years prior to my application to residency?
Or would I be better off applying this year, hopefully getting into a good program, and then trying to get involved in some neonatology research while in residency?

Any advice or input will be appreciated.

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[oldbearprofessor]

Hi all,
Looking for some answers, hopefully some of you can help me.

I just received my ECFMG certification, so now I'm ready to apply for peds. However, I just can't decide whether to apply or not.
Let me give you some background.

I'm an IMG from Scandinavia, graduated med school in january 2010, and then work for 1 year (which is mandatory here) in internal medicine and a family practice. I just started writing a Ph.D. in the department of pediatrics, and will spend the next 3 years on this. However, the area my ph.d. is on is not the subspeciality I want to end up in (I want to end up in neonatology). Considering I'm 30+ now, and will be adding 3 years for the ph.d., I would be 40+ years old before finishing fellowship - is that even worth it?
My scores a pretty much average (step 1 224, step 2 226), and everything was passed on 1st attempt. I will be submitting my first paper shortly, but other than that I have no proof of my time in research. I did 2 months of clinical rotations in the US during med school, getting honors in one of them (don't know about the other).

So my question is:
Would getting a Ph.d. help with my residency application, eventhough it would mean that my graduation date from med school would be 5 years prior to my application to residency?
Or would I be better off applying this year, hopefully getting into a good program, and then trying to get involved in some neonatology research while in residency?

Any advice or input will be appreciated.

I'd skip the Ph.D. unless that field was something you wanted to do long-term research in. You won't match in pediatrics at one of the top ranked US News places, but you'll likely find somewhere and that can be the springboard to a neo fellowship, etc.

 

[TexasPhysician]

A PhD could actually hurt you. IMGs are often most competitive within the first few years after medical school. Then again, every residency program is different......

 

[Prop]

Thank you so much for your replies. I were actually leaning towards quitting the Ph.D. and applying for residency, so it's nice to be confirmed.
I like research, but I don't think I could do it full time for 3 years - I miss the patient contact way too much!

My plan is to apply to a lot of university programs, and maybe throw in some university-affiliated community programs. Do you think that would place me at an advantage come fellowship application time? And is it at all possible matching at a university-based program being an IMG with average USMLE scores, only 2 months of US clinical experience, and maybe a single posted paper - and of course no visa...?

 

[TexasPhysician]

I would apply to as many programs as you can afford. You can always turn down interview invites if you get too many. You can't make more appear if you don't get enough interviews.