- Joined
- Aug 2, 2014
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Good evening all - I hate to use this board as a "what are my chances" forum, but it seems like this is the best place to post for MD /PhD program specifics.
About me - I graduated from my state's university in May of last year, intending to apply MD in the last cycle. I decided to take an additional gap year after posting a thread last year basically outlining my anxieties about lacking some health related EC's. I ended up taking an additional gap year as recommended by some SDN heavyweights to gain some more clinical experience and volunteer work.
As the next cycle approaches, I've begun drafting my autobiography (required by school health professions office) and personal statement, but as I put my thoughts/feelings to paper, I have come to think that I may be a slightly better fit for pursuing a career as a physician scientist than just a physician. Bear with me, as I've only had these thoughts for a few weeks and haven't exactly given this a great deal of thought as of yet.
I have spent my time after graduation split between working as a medical scribe part time, TA'ing general chemistry lab at my old university, volunteering a few hours a week at a local soup kitchen, and continuing research with my undergraduate lab.
While I did thoroughly enjoy my time as an undergraduate researcher, and continue to enjoy the work I do today, research can feel uninvolved, unapplied, and too theoretical. Imagining a career in pure research, I would yearn for that direct contact that physicians experience with their patients and the ability to see the good you do unfold before your eyes. Having a career where I am working directly with people I can help is something that is very important to me.
On the flip side, physicians get to work directly with patients, and can help a large number of patients over the course of their career - but may never be able to affect as many lives as a physician scientist can by developing research that could possibly result in a new clinical treatment or even cure for a patients disease.
Finally, I have really come to love teaching, and although all physicians end up teaching throughout their careers, working in an academic medicine setting is something that appeals to me.
Sorry for the above 3 paragraphs, I suppose a lot of this is me thinking out loud.
Stats:
Major: Chemistry, with a Minor in Mathemathics
GPA: 3.925 overall, science >~3.9 (haven't exactly calculated it, my few B's are split evenly between humanities and sciences)
MCAT: 14P/11V/14B (august 2015 test date)
Research: Inorganic/solid state chemistry research for 4+ years, totalling.... I have no idea how many hours (1000 - 2000+). For most of my time working in this lab, the staff included only myself and an associate research professor, and as we added more people, I became the one responsible for teaching all the new grad and undergrad students. Currently, I have 2 publications in the Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, one as middle author with a few other undergrads, a much more recent one as first author. I know this is not medicine related, but I went with my heart when I started research, and really have loved the hypothesis based/problem solving aspect of my time in the lab. I completed an honors thesis project in my department graduating with highest honors. Will have two very strong recommendations from my PI and an associate professor who I have worked closely with for the past several years.
Volunteering: Played sunday morning services at a local church as the lead guitarist of a praise band for 2 years (roughly 200hrs). Involved with misc community service activities through pre med club. Regular volunteer at soup kitchen, ~100+ hours (current). Volunteer with high school Music Boosters Association freshman - sophomore year of college (I was very heavily involved in music in high school and took time to come back on weekends early in my college career and help with competitions, fund raising, practices, etc)
Clinical experience: Roughly 100-150 hrs shadowing experience (surgeon, plastics, radonc), ~1000+ hrs as an ED scribe.
Extracurriculars: Undergraduate TA for gen chem lab (similar to what I do now but for credit instead of pay, independently leading classes of ~20 undergrads), teaching intern with Honors Organic Chemistry Class, both paid (sophomore year) and unpaid/volunteer (junior - senior year) tutor for Gen Chem, Organic Chemistry, Physics, Calc I-IV (as I completed the classes). Competitive USAPL powerlifter 74 kg weight class (probably shouldn't even bother mentioning due to negative connotations). Grader for general biochemistry. Summer research intern with a small biologics LLC during which I performed experiments on a Benzoyl peroxide gel under physiological conditions.
I'm very sorry for the length of this. In short, based on my stats, should I continue to consider MD / PhD or forget about it? I suppose a final factor in my consideration of this career path has been my increasing interest in oncology. I came around to committing to medicine as my career path a little bit later than most (somewhere between sophomore and junior years of college), and since my uncle's diagnosis with small cell lung cancer a few years back, oncology has become increasingly interesting to me. If I pursue MD, I intend to go into oncology (either medical or radiation), but the idea of pursuing a career in oncology research, where I would get to interact with patients, teach, and develop treatments, sounds even more exciting.
Thanks for your opinions, guys, and sorry for clogging up this board.
About me - I graduated from my state's university in May of last year, intending to apply MD in the last cycle. I decided to take an additional gap year after posting a thread last year basically outlining my anxieties about lacking some health related EC's. I ended up taking an additional gap year as recommended by some SDN heavyweights to gain some more clinical experience and volunteer work.
As the next cycle approaches, I've begun drafting my autobiography (required by school health professions office) and personal statement, but as I put my thoughts/feelings to paper, I have come to think that I may be a slightly better fit for pursuing a career as a physician scientist than just a physician. Bear with me, as I've only had these thoughts for a few weeks and haven't exactly given this a great deal of thought as of yet.
I have spent my time after graduation split between working as a medical scribe part time, TA'ing general chemistry lab at my old university, volunteering a few hours a week at a local soup kitchen, and continuing research with my undergraduate lab.
While I did thoroughly enjoy my time as an undergraduate researcher, and continue to enjoy the work I do today, research can feel uninvolved, unapplied, and too theoretical. Imagining a career in pure research, I would yearn for that direct contact that physicians experience with their patients and the ability to see the good you do unfold before your eyes. Having a career where I am working directly with people I can help is something that is very important to me.
On the flip side, physicians get to work directly with patients, and can help a large number of patients over the course of their career - but may never be able to affect as many lives as a physician scientist can by developing research that could possibly result in a new clinical treatment or even cure for a patients disease.
Finally, I have really come to love teaching, and although all physicians end up teaching throughout their careers, working in an academic medicine setting is something that appeals to me.
Sorry for the above 3 paragraphs, I suppose a lot of this is me thinking out loud.
Stats:
Major: Chemistry, with a Minor in Mathemathics
GPA: 3.925 overall, science >~3.9 (haven't exactly calculated it, my few B's are split evenly between humanities and sciences)
MCAT: 14P/11V/14B (august 2015 test date)
Research: Inorganic/solid state chemistry research for 4+ years, totalling.... I have no idea how many hours (1000 - 2000+). For most of my time working in this lab, the staff included only myself and an associate research professor, and as we added more people, I became the one responsible for teaching all the new grad and undergrad students. Currently, I have 2 publications in the Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, one as middle author with a few other undergrads, a much more recent one as first author. I know this is not medicine related, but I went with my heart when I started research, and really have loved the hypothesis based/problem solving aspect of my time in the lab. I completed an honors thesis project in my department graduating with highest honors. Will have two very strong recommendations from my PI and an associate professor who I have worked closely with for the past several years.
Volunteering: Played sunday morning services at a local church as the lead guitarist of a praise band for 2 years (roughly 200hrs). Involved with misc community service activities through pre med club. Regular volunteer at soup kitchen, ~100+ hours (current). Volunteer with high school Music Boosters Association freshman - sophomore year of college (I was very heavily involved in music in high school and took time to come back on weekends early in my college career and help with competitions, fund raising, practices, etc)
Clinical experience: Roughly 100-150 hrs shadowing experience (surgeon, plastics, radonc), ~1000+ hrs as an ED scribe.
Extracurriculars: Undergraduate TA for gen chem lab (similar to what I do now but for credit instead of pay, independently leading classes of ~20 undergrads), teaching intern with Honors Organic Chemistry Class, both paid (sophomore year) and unpaid/volunteer (junior - senior year) tutor for Gen Chem, Organic Chemistry, Physics, Calc I-IV (as I completed the classes). Competitive USAPL powerlifter 74 kg weight class (probably shouldn't even bother mentioning due to negative connotations). Grader for general biochemistry. Summer research intern with a small biologics LLC during which I performed experiments on a Benzoyl peroxide gel under physiological conditions.
I'm very sorry for the length of this. In short, based on my stats, should I continue to consider MD / PhD or forget about it? I suppose a final factor in my consideration of this career path has been my increasing interest in oncology. I came around to committing to medicine as my career path a little bit later than most (somewhere between sophomore and junior years of college), and since my uncle's diagnosis with small cell lung cancer a few years back, oncology has become increasingly interesting to me. If I pursue MD, I intend to go into oncology (either medical or radiation), but the idea of pursuing a career in oncology research, where I would get to interact with patients, teach, and develop treatments, sounds even more exciting.
Thanks for your opinions, guys, and sorry for clogging up this board.
