Chrismander said:
Yeah, I guess my question is whether having been in an MD/PhD program and then exited puts me on the level of someone who never tried for it in the first place, or lower, since I'm a "quitter", and because research is near and dear to the hearts of path people--whether they'll question my committment to pathology as well, since it's a lab science. Thoughts?
I know how you feel but at the same time, I think you may be overestimating the attachment pathologists have to research. That being said, a few people may care but I don't think dropping out of your MD/PhD program will necessarily hurt your chances IF you dropped out for the right reasons. For instance, some folks realize during grad school that research is not right for them. That's fine and understandable. On the other hand, if one dropped out of the program right after completing the first 2 years of med school and not having done any grad school work, some may question your character.
Now, does quitting the MD/PhD program put you at a level of a straight MD candidate who never enrolled in an MD/PhD program. Well, that's tough to answer and it probably depends on the breadth of your research experience. If you did quite a bit of research before dropping out, I don't think your research will be discounted by residency programs. Especially, if you published or presented some of your work during your curtailed PhD training, that will help you. If not, that may be a different story. Remember, a subset of straight MD folks who apply to pathology do summer research or even a year of research. I think your competitiveness may be at a similar level to this pool of applicants but you should still have an edge over straight MD folks who did absolutely no research (not like that is some requirement for pathology residency because at this state of "competitiveness" for path programs these days, it certainly is not a huge issue).
You may still feel uneasy about this but let me put this out there. I know two people who dropped out of their MSTP programs and matched into path the same year I matched. One of them was still interested in doing some research--basic or translational--in the long run. And that's great because you certainly don't need no PhD to do science...you can do this as an MD. The other person was not. They didn't seem to be at a disadvantage and they matched at great programs (granted, my sample population to base this on is only N=2).
You're right, pathology is a laboratory based field. But pathology is NOT lab SCIENCE. Pathology is lab MEDICINE. If you finish med school and are genuinely interested in pathology (and you communicate this during your interviews), people should not question your commitment to residency. Remember, pathologists who commit themselves to signout work are clinicians, not scientists. They deal with patient care issues and their work is service work.
Science and clinical work are very distinct realms, even in the context of pathology.
