Currently about to start on the MD-only track this fall. I've been very into research for a while (3 years in undergrad + 2 gap years) and was on the verge of applying MD/PhD, but ended up going with MD only since my scientific interests are more clinical/translational (clinical neuroimaging) and might not require a PhD, combined with reading some stuff on this site that is rather down on the funding environment/opportunity to "make it" as an 80:20 physician scientist. I reasoned that if I wasn't 100% sure of what I wanted to do in the end, I should just fall on the side of MD only.
The problem is that over the course of the application cycle, I feel like I've been moving closer and closer to the idea of eventually pursuing grants and spending a reasonable chunk of my effort on research, in a lower compensation specialty (psych/neuro). However, I'm set to take on a good chunk of debt as well, probably somewhere around 250k over the course of four years. In talking with young faculty that I know, I was only recently made aware of how low compensation can be (i.e. like 90k as a new assistant professor and maybe like 180k as an associate professor with your first R01), and it seems like it would really be tough to pay that debt back. I know there are NIH loan-payback grants and the 10 year not-for-profit service thing, but who knows whether those will last long enough for me to get through training and use them.
I know the conventional wisdom is not to do MD/PhD for the financial reasons, since it takes you 3-4 years longer to reach your attending salary and balances out, but some of my MD-only physician scientist mentors have been sort of pushing me to try to transfer into my school's MSTP program for a financial benefit. They argue that even though it "evens out" having less loans makes choosing your research interests less stressful and allows you to make investments/portfolios that build money for retirement. Does this sort of argument hold weight/is it worth considering trying to transfer in?
The problem is that over the course of the application cycle, I feel like I've been moving closer and closer to the idea of eventually pursuing grants and spending a reasonable chunk of my effort on research, in a lower compensation specialty (psych/neuro). However, I'm set to take on a good chunk of debt as well, probably somewhere around 250k over the course of four years. In talking with young faculty that I know, I was only recently made aware of how low compensation can be (i.e. like 90k as a new assistant professor and maybe like 180k as an associate professor with your first R01), and it seems like it would really be tough to pay that debt back. I know there are NIH loan-payback grants and the 10 year not-for-profit service thing, but who knows whether those will last long enough for me to get through training and use them.
I know the conventional wisdom is not to do MD/PhD for the financial reasons, since it takes you 3-4 years longer to reach your attending salary and balances out, but some of my MD-only physician scientist mentors have been sort of pushing me to try to transfer into my school's MSTP program for a financial benefit. They argue that even though it "evens out" having less loans makes choosing your research interests less stressful and allows you to make investments/portfolios that build money for retirement. Does this sort of argument hold weight/is it worth considering trying to transfer in?
