Medical Can I do MD/PhD based on my stats?

[Goro]

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I recently joined a lab in wet research and fell in love with it, but im also really interested in working with patients in a clinical setting. From what I’ve heard, it’s more advantageous and time efficient to do clinical research (mainly case reports) in med school to be competitive for residency, vs in MD/PhD there is more flexibility in pursuing basic research. I’m currently sitting at a 3.3 gpa, havent taken MCAT yet, urm, hundreds of hours of clinical and non clinical volunteering. No pubs or posters, but I’ve been in 3 diff research labs over the course of 2 years. Could I still consider an MD/PhD, or will my stats hold me back?

What community do you represent? And please do not say "the Bronx".

Hard to advise without an MCAT score as well

 

[Goro]

1st generation East African. What mcat score range should I aim for?

513+

 

[lord999]

Ok, the idea of a physician scientist is one that gets debated from time to time, but I view the matter as a matter of personal will with their limited time than it is institutional a failure. If you want to practice, you'll make the time for it. If you want to research, you'll make the time for it. You've made the time for research, and I gather than you enjoy it enough. And you have enough time in your clinical volunteering to know that you're interested. The two questions to you is going to be as intense as medical school is just for the medical school portion, are you willing to go out of your way to add the PhD component because you like that research that much? The converse is the second question.

If you are going to do research at the MSTP level, you will need at least one pure advocate for you at the undergraduate level, probably one of your PI's, but sometimes one of the staff scientists. You can go in without publications or posters, though depending on the field, it's going to raise some big questions factoring in the substantial amount of time you've already committed.

I do have a grave reservation based on what you wrote. Are you pursuing research for the result or for yourself? The way I read what you wrote, you seem ambivalent about what research you do as long as it lands you that competitive residency. I'm not going to criticize that viewpoint, it can be realistic, but if that's the case, you need to get productive as it's just a numbers game at that point if that is your actual viewpoint. The grave reservation is that for the amount of time invested in research thus far, you have not shown any productive tendencies in it. That needs to get addressed if you are doing research with a non-research endpoint in mind as the intrinsic activity is not as important as what it gives you. I do not necessarily agree with this viewpoint, but I do acknowledge the pragmatic ends of it.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I will ask you what's wrong with just getting a Ph.D. in a clinical area in medical school? I was very impressed with Gerstner Sloan Kettering in NYC in their program which pairs many of their graduate students not just with a basic science mentor but also a clinical science mentor who helps trainees understand the human impact of the work they do. If you do some outreach with Ph.D. program directors and admissions staff (not to mention students), you might see that your interest in clinically impactful research may be available to you without having to deal with MD student debt. (Disclosure: that is my professional background though not at GSK.)