Hi, I'm currently applying to medical school and was wondering if I could get some input about combined degrees. Specifically, do they help in getting a residency? I'm considering either MPH, MBA, or MS along with the MD. Which would improve my chances at the better residencies? I know it varies a lot, but for instance would programs care if I have an MBA? The MS that I would want to get is the bioengineering MS at UCSD. I'm really interested in cardiovascular tissue engineering, and would do some work/research in that field. Right now I'm thinking about invasive/intervential cardiology. Would that be wise to go for?
I am currently at a program that is mostly MD/PhD students (current M3 class has 30 MD/PhD'ers and 4 standard students), and I can tell you what they would all say: There is no way in hell you should enter a combined program if it is only to get into a better residency! Most all of them feel extra 4-5 years of life they have all given up + their youth,. passion, and self-esteem stolen away was far from worth it. That's not to say there aren't some people who are thrilled with their decision to get combined degrees. I'll let someone else tell you about that.
Well, I am genuinely interested in each degree (and they only take one extra year, as opposed to the 3-4 extra years). I am not sure which one I would be interested in most, and just wanted to to see if it makes a difference at all in residency so that I might factor it into my decision a bit.
Mikey, I'm sorry, I didn't notice that all the extra degrees you're interested in where masters programs and therefore only an extra year. I'm not sure how better a residency applicant an MPH, MS or MBA makes you, but I think they certainly help after the fact if you are interested in using them at that point. Since each is quite different from one another, I would think you need to decide which type of field you'd like to go into. You mention research, and an MBA would be of little help there, obviously. If you're interested in hospital administration or insurance medicine, an MBA is good idea, but not of much consequence during your actual residency.
I think you would be better off posting to a residency forum, but it has been discussed before. I believe the concensus was that the MS won't do much for you, since that is what you are primarily interested in. If you are looking into going into a competitive residency, research and pubs will help, but an MS won't do anything more than the research and pubs. An MBA or MPH might be a different matter though.
I think an MPH or MBA can be helpful in applying to residencies, however, be compared to work with the most competitive and often cutthroat people in your class should you choose this option. Nearly every gunner (and I'm not talking intelligent but likable gunner here) that I've met in my class and the class above mine is in one of the combined degree programs. Just something to think about..
the only additional degree that stands out for residency applications is the PhD... but first of all, you should not get an extra degree just to help out with residency applications, get the degree because you are interested in that field and you want to use that extra knowledge to apply it to the medical forum... to get into residency (depending on the specific field) you need board scores, grades, letters of recommendation, and research.... the MS is a waste of time, you will have an MD and you can do research in medical school, the MPH is a waste of time unless you are focusing on a career in public health as you will have basic public health and epi classes in med school, and you can take more if interested, the PhD shows a great deal of dedication towards science and can never hurt, the JD and MBA are unique in that they are relatively "new" in their association with MD's, so you could bring something extra to the table when you are done training, but they are not going to help you as a resident in your day to day care of patients, so i doubt they are that much more "attractive" to program directors....
