Advice: PhD or MD/Phd: Computational Biology

[Oddich55]

Hey all!
I've been lurking on this forum for a while-just never asked a question, so decided to finally ask!

So I'm stuck in a crossroads now and trying to decide whether to apply PhD or MD/PhD and my competitiveness... I'm interested in the clincal-side, but coming from computational biology, I don't want to give up the computational/research side.

A little about me:
GPA: 3.65 at a mid-tier private school -> Bioinformatics/Biology double-major with minors in Biostats/CS
MCAT: Not sure (took it 7/9 -> will know in a month). Obviously if this isn't good, I'm limited to PhDs...
GRE: Unknown, but I got top scores on the ACT/SAT, so I expect this to be decent.
Volunteering: 50 hrs
Shadowing: 50 hours spread across multiple different types of doctors and such. Also an EMT...
Research:
- 2 Years in a Computational Biology Lab at my undergrad institution working on Computational Research. Will have a software (maybe two) published. 1 as a co-first author, the other as a first author (may not be until spring though). Also have 2-3 co-authorships on smaller papers from the lab. Had 2 posters from this lab too.
- 1 Year in a Computational Biology Lab at a medical school- Gave 1 talk to a research group at that school. Going to give a conference talk and potentially have another co-first author paper out of this.
- Summer Research Intern at a Research Hospital-> 1 second-author paper and 1 coauthorship out of this...

So I guess I'm looking for advice...
1) Apply MD/PhD or not? If so, any suggestions on where I would be competitive for Computational Biology/Genomics?
2) If not MD/PhD -> any advice for PhD applications/where to apply for medically orientated Computational Biology/Genomics programs? Where would I be competitive?

Thanks so much!

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[Neuronix]

Do you want to be a physician or not? That's the real question. Then you'll just have to find out if your MCAT is consistent with your goals (MD/PhD vs. MD) and if not, whether you want to re-take.

This is not a decision to be taken lightly. If you wanna go to med school, the best time to do it is now. Only you can decide on that.

 

[Oddich55]

Do you want to be a physician or not? That's the real question. Then you'll just have to find out if your MCAT is consistent with your goals (MD/PhD vs. MD) and if not, whether you want to re-take.

This is not a decision to be taken lightly. If you wanna go to med school, the best time to do it is now. Only you can decide on that.

I agree and I would. I can't tell you which speciality or what exactly I would want to do, but I definetely like the experiences I've had so far. I feel as though research is a higher priority to me though then medicine, so if I can't do both, I would lean PhD .

 

[Electricity]

Computational genomics is an example of a rare field which might actually have a relatively good career path outside of academia, because a) strong coding requirement helps you learn skills that can be translated to software engineering or data science in case you need to jump ship and b) genomics has the potential to explode over the next 10 years if everyone gets their genome sequenced and phenotype collection becomes more standardized.

Even if you think you definitely wouldn't want to pursue that, it still makes it a relatively better career path because academics are paid better in fields with industry competition. Look at salaries of PhD economists, as an example of that effect.

I'd only recommend PhD-only if you can get into a good program, but with your research experience, you should be able to find a stop at a top program.