doctorate program while in med school?

[o0rikio0o]

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i'm not sure if i'll get flamed for this, but i'll ask anyways...

i just got accepted to med school not too long ago. additionally, i just got accepted to a doctorates program in public health (DrPH). is it feasible to do both programs concurrently? the DrPH program requires class attendance whereas the MD program that i got accepted to is about 80% PBL. they are both at the same school, albeit different campuses (only about 5-10 miles away though). the DrPH program is a three year program, but i did about a semester's worth of classes while i was still a grad student. so in essence, i would have about 2.5 years, of which the last year would just be dissertation, which would coincide with the first half of MS3.

am i crazy for even contemplating it? and i'm not sure if i'll be accused of being a gunner or being overzealous, but thats not what my objectives are with the MD or the DrPH programs. trust me.

 

[Law2Doc]

i'm not sure if i'll get flamed for this, but i'll ask anyways...

i just got accepted to med school not too long ago. additionally, i just got accepted to a doctorates program in public health (DrPH). is it feasible to do both programs concurrently? the DrPH program requires class attendance whereas the MD program that i got accepted to is about 80% PBL. they are both at the same school, albeit different campuses (only about 5-10 miles away though). the DrPH program is a three year program, but i did about a semester's worth of classes while i was still a grad student. so in essence, i would have about 2.5 years, of which the last year would just be dissertation, which would coincide with the first half of MS3.

am i crazy for even contemplating it? and i'm not sure if i'll be accused of being a gunner or being overzealous, but thats not what my objectives are with the MD or the DrPH programs. trust me.

You won't be able to do them simultaneously (ie can't expect to attend your DrPH classes, read for med school in your "spare time" and pass the latter). Med school is a FULL TIME COMMITTMENT. No ifs ands or buts. If you plan to go to med school, you need to be able to focus in on it. You will not pass med school as a part time endeavor. Most people devote their full time to med school, and frankly if you aren't putting in that kind of time, you won't keep up. Some schools allow you to combine degrees with med school by letting you tack a year or two on to the program, so that you aren't trying to do both in the same years. But I sure wouldn't plan on doing an overlap. It doesn't work. You are DRASTICALLY underestimating the kind of effort required to do decently in med school. I don't think anyone would call you a gunner -- no gunner would do something that was so foolhardy and would so compromise his/her chances of doing well. Sorry.

 

[thesauce]

i'm not sure if i'll get flamed for this, but i'll ask anyways...

i just got accepted to med school not too long ago. additionally, i just got accepted to a doctorates program in public health (DrPH). is it feasible to do both programs concurrently? the DrPH program requires class attendance whereas the MD program that i got accepted to is about 80% PBL. they are both at the same school, albeit different campuses (only about 5-10 miles away though). the DrPH program is a three year program, but i did about a semester's worth of classes while i was still a grad student. so in essence, i would have about 2.5 years, of which the last year would just be dissertation, which would coincide with the first half of MS3.

am i crazy for even contemplating it? and i'm not sure if i'll be accused of being a gunner or being overzealous, but thats not what my objectives are with the MD or the DrPH programs. trust me.

That doesn't sound like a good plan. Med school will change their schedule on a whim and you'll have to readjust your schedule to fit theirs. I would just do the DrPH and come back to medical school later.

 

[thedelicatessen]

If the med school is mainly PBL, doesn't that require you to go to class? Med school and the DrPH program are both definitely a time investment, and I highly doubt it would be feasible to do them simultaneously unless there was some kind of modification in the curriculum. Since both programs are part of the same institution, perhaps you can talk to their administration offices and see what they can do for you. However, since both programs take several years to complete, I think in the end, you will have to just pick one for now.

 

[Reimat]

am i crazy for even contemplating it? and i'm not sure if i'll be accused of being a gunner or being overzealous, but thats not what my objectives are with the MD or the DrPH programs. trust me.

I think it sounds kind of crazy and cool - but the real question is why? What do you hope to achieve in the future with these 2 degrees that would merit going into 2x the debt? Also, if the DrPH program gives a stipend, they may have rules that you can't be doing another program at the same time.

But again, most importantly, why?

 

[njbmd]

PBL demands attendance which is why many medical students are not fond of this type of curriculum by itself. While you may not spend as much time in lectures as a classic curriculum, you have a pretty demanding outside of class commitment. Don't underestimate the amount of time that you will be spending on PBL medical school coursework because it may have less class time but in the end, the study time is about the same as a traditional curriculum plus the time that you have to spend researching the problems that you have outlined in class.

To the OP:
You are likely not going to be able to do these program simultaneously. You could opt for creating your own MD-Ph.D program between the two schools. This means that you do the first two years in your medical school and then do the coursework for the Ph.D program. When you return for your clinical years (likely two to three years later), you can work on your research at the same time or do an abbreviated research schedule during third year but use your elective time during fourth year to work on your research full time.

The biggest problem will be that you will be likely committing yourself to a minimum of six to seven year of coursework which might prove problematic when it comes to residency programs (they want you fresh from fourth year not from research or non-clinical course work). Another option would be to do your doctorate in public health after residency which could delay your graduate work three to five years depending on the residency.

 

[Tiger26]

Do you really know how hard med school is? I'm not kidding, things have always come pretty easy for me, and even though I do well, I'm studying or thinking about studying pretty much all the time (M2 year sucks)