Career/Life Advice age (PA vs. MD. vs. PhD vs Job)

[Zapages]

Hi guys,

I really don't know what to do right now in my life. I mean I did well during my Undergraduate years with my double Bachelors of Science. Now I am doing my Masters in Biology with concentration y in Neuroscience and I am doing fine as well. But I am turning 25 this January...

Regardless I do like research a bit, but for some reason I getting second thoughts about it. As I talked with our family friends and they have told me that PhDs have a hard time getting jobs now a days. After looking some of the job positions available at some pharmaceutical companies require MD with clinical experience. So now I am considering MD again. I am consider doing PAs because it less years, a bit less in salary range, and less headache compared to MDs in terms of insurance and other issues that come with being an MD.

Lastly when a person is a MD, then he is married to the job instead of his family. In contrast PhDs, and PAs have more freedom or time off from work... Basically work does not follow them to their homes.

If I do a MD, then I would do a clinical MD then apply to pharmaceutical companies.

I was wondering what should I do in my life. What is your advice from the folks in these fields. Thanks. 🙂

PA:
Requires GRE
Needs 3 years for completion

MD:
Requires MCATs
About 10 years of your life including residency/fellowships etc

PhD:
Requires GRE
About 4 to 6 years of your life to complete.

My Undergraduate:
BS in Biology and Biochemistry with 3.5 GPA from 2008

Graduate studies:
MS in Biology and concentration in Neuroscience
GPA: 3.4 without my research credits. Graduate in May/Summer 2011

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[Palaver87]

what about pharmacy school?

 

[deleted6669]

before you think that pa is all warm fuzzies consider that many pa's work as much or more than the docs they work for.
docs hire pa's to do the work they don't want to do when they don't want to do it-
(early am rounds, nights/weekends/holidays, etc).
for example pa's in my em group work 18 shifts/mo while docs work 12-14.
pa's work more mandated night shifts than the docs...and we make 1/3 their salary....just keep it in mind....
there are pa joint degree programs if you are more academic. consider pa/mph as well as pa/pharmd. there is also a pa/phd program at wake forest now.

 

[Shifty B]

In my opinion, you're going about this all wrong. You shouldn't be thinking about all the different degree programs and which ones are available to you. You should envision what kind of career you want and then choose the training which is going to best get you there.

Of course, things will change and you may change your mind, but I think it's going to be much more difficult to choose a training program when you have no idea what you want to do when you grow up.

 

[24thGrade]

"In contrast PhDs, and PAs have more freedom or time off from work"

I'm not sure where you get your information from. What would you do with your PhD? The professors I've worked with are some of the hardest working people I've known and are putting in at least as much time as your typical MD. Some advice I can pass on to you is that if you're going to get a PhD you should be going to a damn good place. The degree means essentially nothing on its own and if you're not at a top place and doing great work, you will be a dime-a-dozen.

As someone else said... you're probably looking at this really wrong. People stuck with BA's in Business should be the ones choosing careers based upon the lifestyle it can afford them. If you have the brains to complete a MD or PhD you should realize
1. You’re going to have a decent salary with whatever you end up doing. You nor your family will be starving.
2. your career will be an important part of your life (even if you're only working 8-5) and it is probably worth choosing something you will actually enjoy rather than whichever has the highest money:time ratio. You're going to spend ~30-50% of your life working; it might as well be something you enjoy.
If you're an MD and don't enjoy the work, you'll be miserable for 10 hours a day (I'm being really optimistic here) but may have good pay. What kind of pay increase would justify that for you? There are plenty of PhDs who work 80 hour weeks regularly and do it because they love the work. At the same time they must cope with the fact that if their work fails, their funding may disappear. You could get a great PhD and maybe land yourself a nice high paying job in industry working regular hours but live with the fact that you're not doing real research, knowing your every decision is being watched, and do not have (and never will have) job security.

I'm a bit biased here 😀. Wages generally are what they are for a reason. I'm basically regurgitating the tons of advice I've gotten from many people about these issues. Bottom line is that if you choose something you really love to do it will be hard to look back at yourself in 20 years and regret your decision.