Advice please?

[astronaut135]

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Hi all!

I will be starting med school in the fall. Recently I was accepted to a school's 5-year MD/Masters program, where the fifth year is free. I was wondering if any of you could give me advice on the pros/cons of a program like this.

Part of me wants to get med school done in 4 years and move on to residency. I will be taking out a LOT of loans for my MD, so I'm worried that I might be just losing a year's potential salary by taking another year.

On the other hand, I am interested in going for a competitive residency (such as rad onc or derm). And perhaps down the line I will want to take the extra research year. Then this program would be perfect because it guarantees me funding. Also i have been hearing that the trend nowadays is that more students are taking time off between 3rd and 4th year to do research.
I guess my question comes down to this - how necessary is an extra research year for competitive residencies? How much would the dual-degree help me?

Thanks in advance 🙂 Any and all advice is appreciated!!

 

[Catalystik]

Hi all!

I will be starting med school in the fall. Recently I was accepted to a school's 5-year MD/Masters program, where the fifth year is free. I was wondering if any of you could give me advice on the pros/cons of a program like this.

Part of me wants to get med school done in 4 years and move on to residency. I will be taking out a LOT of loans for my MD, so I'm worried that I might be just losing a year's potential salary by taking another year.

On the other hand, I am interested in going for a competitive residency (such as rad onc or derm). And perhaps down the line I will want to take the extra research year. Then this program would be perfect because it guarantees me funding. Also i have been hearing that the trend nowadays is that more students are taking time off between 3rd and 4th year to do research.
I guess my question comes down to this - how necessary is an extra research year for competitive residencies? How much would the dual-degree help me?

Thanks in advance 🙂 Any and all advice is appreciated!!

Hard data from NRMP Program Director Survey Results, 2014 about importance of various factors in Interviewing and then in Ranking candidates for Residency spots: http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/PD-Survey-Report-2014.pdf See p 20 for Derm and p 110 for Rad Onc.

 

[astronaut135]

Thank you! So the categories to look at would be "involvement in research" and "gaps in medical education"?
I know I will be doing research regardless of taking a year off or not. So I'm still not sure how big a difference an extra year + masters will make. And if it's worth it.

Hard data from NRMP Program Director Survey Results, 2014 about importance of various factors in Interviewing and then in Ranking candidates for Residency spots: http://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/PD-Survey-Report-2014.pdf See p 20 for Derm and p 110 for Rad Onc.

 

[Catalystik]

Looking at that data, for Rad Onc, research seems to have a bigger impact on decision-making. Of course, one can do stipend-supported, full-time research after the MS-1 year and then (if it was at your home institution) less intensely through the remainder of med school, once one has hooked up with a PI, without being a masters candidate.