curious question about people with PhD's

[pooker]

I have heard from more than a handful amount of times from teachers whose dream it was to become a doctor. In my first year experience, advisors told us to look into getting a teaching licensure if our plans did not work out.

You also always hear advice about people entering into a SMP program, and completing some more EC's to counteract a low GPA. You never hear anyone really say anything about a PhD though. Would this be looked strongly upon by a medical school?

The only reason I ask is because I wonder why some of my teachers do not go back to med school when they act like it is their dream. It seems like a PhD could be a sure shot into a lot of schools, especially with these teachers who have conducted thesis, and have provided mass amounts of research.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[QofQuimica]

No, having a PhD is not "looked strongly upon" by med schools. It's also not a very good back door to get into medicine for several reasons.

First, it generally takes 4-7 years to earn a basic science research PhD, with 5-6 years being the average. That's a lot of delayed gratification for someone who ultimately plans to go to med school.

Second, the purpose of PhD training is to prepare you for a career in research and/or teaching, not to prepare you for medical school. As a PhD who subsequently went to medical school, I can tell you that the training paradigms are very different, even when you take what superficially appear to be the same classes (ex. biochemistry, pharmacology).

Third, many people who ask the question you asked are people who really want to know what they can do to make up for a poor undergraduate GPA. (Not saying you specifically fall into this category.) The answer to this question is that no, a PhD will *not* make up for a poor showing in college. If you have a low UG GPA, the way to do damage control is to either take postbac classes at the UG level, or do an SMP. (Special masters programs are geared toward students who need to rehabilitate their UG GPAs.)

Finally, adcoms will still judge you by the same academic and nonacademic standards that they use to judge traditional students who are coming straight out of college. In addition, you will need to provide a sound and logical reason as to why it is necessary for you to earn a second professional degree. In other words, what goal do you hope to achieve with an MD/DO that you couldn't achieve with just a PhD?

All of that being said, I don't want to give you the impression that having a PhD will hurt your chances of getting into medical school, because it won't. However, it will not make you a "sure shot" into *any* medical school. I would strongly try to dissuade anyone from planning to get a PhD as a stepping stone for medical school.

 

[NTF]

Total agreement with Q.

Having a PHD (even being an accomplished one) isn't going to make you a "sureshot" for med school. It'll more often elicit an "ok..why?" from an adcom than a "Wow!". And it won't necessarily overcome a low ugrad GPA or low MCAT.

Plus, I think many people may hint or in passing act like they'd like to go to medical school, but in reality they're quite content where they are or where they're going. They just want their pre-med students to know (or think) that if they wanted to go they could.

 

[pooker]

Very interesting! I didn't know that.

 

[ArkansasRanger]

Funny. I went to college as a premed, got carried away with extra curriculars including paramedic school, and chose to graduate early without finishing all the premed science I needed. Having a completely useless degree I got a teaching job and subsequently sat through a two week seminar which yielded a teaching license. I can't say that I liked teaching school, and when asked about occupational guidance I can't ever recommend teaching as a career. If I had kids they wouldn't go to public school. I'd work four jobs before I'd let that happen. I enjoy teaching individually, i.e. in law enforcement circles, student EMTs when I was doing that, and one on one with the kids back in school, but collectively classroom teaching...well...it sucked.

I thought I was too far beyond going back to medical school so a teacher said I ought to be an accountant because I'm anal as hell, highly meticulous, and because financial wizardry is a hobby of mine. I quit teaching, didn't have anything else going on, got into law enforcement, and enrolled in an accounting program. Took around six to seven business and accounting classes and totally ****** up my GPA because I had neither the time (and I mean literally) nor the sleep to do it. Also, realizing I was color blind and disqualified from pursuing federal law enforcement, the ultimate in LE, I lost all motivation to continue through with it. Accounting is a great background for feds so instead toward the end of that semester I initiated the process of getting into a more professional and better paying law enforcement agency which entirely prohibited my going to class.

How do I plan to rectify that? I don't. It was four years ago, and I really regret having wasted my time and money (spent more on gas commuting than tuition) in B school. I've since taken several science courses with all A's, and I plan to leave it in my past. If med schools hate me for it then so be it. I can't change that. Since finishing college I've constantly taken random classes out of interest. At this point, I have way too many undergraduate credits (over 200) to be able to bring my GPA even back up to what it was. I love medical stuff (always have), love reading about it, love seeing it, and love doing it. I can't think of a better thing for me to do than complete what I failed to do a decade ago. As you get it older the saying bears truth; "you don't regret what you did, you regret what you didn't do."