Chances; 2 gap years?

[okemba]

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Hey guys. I am applying to MD/PhD programs.

a) Does it affect my future if I am accepted to MD/PhD programs, but decline, and apply to PhD programs in 1-2 years? (not this cycle)

b) I have a job offer in management consulting. This is utterly unrelated to biomedical research, and I assume it would look bad on my MD/PhD applications. Despite this, I would still like to take it, because it sounds like fun (and lucrative, student loans ftl). Can I apply this cycle, and defer for two years? Even if I take 2 gap years, I would still matriculate at 23.

Stats: : :
asian/male, native-born us citizen
Major: Biomedical Engineerifying
GPA: 3.98/4.00
MCAT: 37
school: top 30 or something
Research: 5 co-authored pubs, (2 third-author, 2 second-author, 0 first-author :/ ). I contributed exactly nothing to about half of them (I got this tricky protocol to work, but never actually ran any of the experiments for data that made it into some of the papers), but my PI really likes me.

Clinical experience: :
-shadowed in the emergency room, ~100 hours
-shadowed a neurologist, ~50 hours

ECs::::
-some little volunteering gigs

Pitfalls:
-no good ECs
-no leadership experience
-no first authors
-iffy shadowing

Applying to...:

case western
columbia
cornell tri-i
duke
emory
harvard
indiana
johns hopkins
kansas
north carolina-chapel hill
northwestern
stanford
penn
ucsf
u. chicago
u. virginia

Is this list reasonable? I MUST live in a big city.

 

[cpi89]

1) I don't think a PhD program would take issue with an applicant that had declined MD/PhD acceptances. The magic words there would be "I wasn't committed to medicine". But, why would you apply to MD/PhD programs if you intend to decline any acceptances you get?

2) Taking time off to be a management consultant will probably not end well for you in any future MD/PhD (or perhaps even PhD) applications. If you're going to take time off, it better be research related. Also, the "lucrative" part makes one question your motivations. If you're passing on research now to make more money, why would an MD/PhD program believe you won't pass on research later when there's even more money to be made in private practice.

I also doubt that many programs would allow this type of deferral. That being said, deferment depends on the school. Some will let you defer for close to anything, others will say only for such and such reasons (i.e. Rhodes).

Your GPA, MCAT and research sound fine. Just figure out what you really want to do, because it's easy to see right through people during interviews.

 

[okemba]

But, why would you apply to MD/PhD programs if you intend to decline any acceptances you get?

Well... I'm ambivalent about MD/PhD. It would probably be the best way for me to be involved with the hopefully-upcoming personalized medicine wave, or attempt to create a service that allows parents to pick specific sperm and egg cells to modify their offsprings attributes, or when optogenetics starts to be used in humans.

But I still don't know whether I really want to dedicate the rest of my life to it.

Also, the "lucrative" part makes one question your motivations.

Absolutely. I'm not trying to be callous, I just have (a terribly large amount of) student loans that I want to help my parents pay back. $60-70k/year - income taxes - living expenses = $25ish k/year off my student loan debt.

(or perhaps even PhD)

Definitely true. Uncertain. I know a lot of engineers who work in industry for a few years before getting a PhD, but management consulting might seem off-putting.

Idk. It seems like a unique experience that very few academics have had, and going against the crowd seems like a good idea. I know people who did management consulting and then went into econ/psych PhDs, but I'm not sure how it works in bme.

 

[SynBio]

1) I don't think a PhD program would take issue with an applicant that had declined MD/PhD acceptances. The magic words there would be "I wasn't committed to medicine". But, why would you apply to MD/PhD programs if you intend to decline any acceptances you get?

a) I agree with @cpi89 about PhD programs most likely not taking issue with this. But again, why would you apply if you plan on declining? Your already talking about ~$2200 for the MD-PhD applications just so you can decline (and you may want to add a few more schools)?? What do you mean dedicate the rest of your life to? Medicine, research, being a physician scientist? What are you ambivalent about?

b) IMHO, I would not take the position. I think we are attempting to go into the same PhD @okemba and the best thing would be to continue research (actually, this may be the best option no matter what PhD you are going into). Many applicants have student loans (including myself), but that doesn't mean you should drop a position (i.e. a research position) most conductive to your long-term career goals to make progress on a short-term aim (i.e. loan debt). Don't divert your energy from your research momentum and applications to make progress on your loans. Again just my opinion.

Your a strong applicant and I don't see you providing a strong reason why you would defer. If you don't like clinical medicine (I think 150 hours of shadowing is sufficient for an applicant to see if they like at least 1 or 2 things about clinical medicine), apply to the best PhD programs in the country this cycle and start ASAP. If you like clinical medicine and research, apply now to MD-PhD without planning to defer. I don't see any validity in you deferring since you are going to be in training another 15 years (MD-PhD, residency, fellowship). Assuming you want to go into academia (?), 2 years might not seem like a lot now, but when your 38 starting as a junior faculty you may wish you had started a little earlier (21 instead of 23).

 

[Student's T]

Your list seems a little top heavy. Also, you probably don't want to apply to UVA if you want to live in a sizable metro area. Why not apply to the other New York programs (e.g., NYU, Einstein) as well?

 

[SynBio]

...but to answer your other question, why not add:

Baylor/Rice
Boston University
UCLA
UCSD
Medical University of South Carolina
University of Alabama
University of Colorado
UT Southwestern
University of Pittsburgh/Carnegie Mellon
UTSA
Stony Brook
(assuming bioengineering PhD)