Does MD/MBA dual degree hurts my chances for residency?

[warrior209]

Hey all, I wanted to get a bit more insight from current med students about the prospects of a great residency match while completing a dual degree. I am very interested in an MD/MBA, and I was recently accepted to a medical school that also has a top 10 b-school. I still have the ambition of practicing medicine in my career, but I also love entrepreneurship and know that an MBA from a target school would give me good prospects and an alumni network to move into VC or biotech startups later in my career.

That being said, I also know how competitive top residency programs are too, and upon doing some research, I read that the longer the gap between med school and residency, the less competitive you become as an applicant. This makes sense since good recommendations and networks with faculty and PDs have a relatively short shelf life in terms of residency admissions, but does a 1 year gap impact my chances that greatly? The MD/MBA program at the school is 3-1-1 (M1-3, then B1, then M4), so prospects at away rotations and electives take place after b-school. Any advice or insight on this topic would be greatly appreciated!

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[Dr Blue]

no, in fact it may (probably will) help

 

[mxmd]

you've been trained in medicine AND business. that's GOLD since most doctors don't know the first thing about the business side of medicine. It will help you a lot!

 

[Stagg737]

People take gap years for dual degrees or research years all the time. It won't hurt you in that aspect. The only way it will hurt you is if the extra time commitment affects your grades or your board scores. A lot of times the extra cost is also not worth the knowledge/connections you get out of it, but considering it's a top 10 business school, I don't think that would be a problem in your case.

 

[ButterfingerBBs]

as long as you can spin it the right way, it will absolutely help you stand out as an applicant, regardless of the field you pursue. health care economics are a hot topic right now and MD's with an MBA skillset are definitely in demand.

 

[doc05]

it won't hurt. nor will it help - the MBA adds value, but that value is zero when it comes to a prospective intern/resident.

best of luck.

 

[surg]

For that style of MD/MBA program it will not appear to have a gap between medical school and residency, so in terms of timing, I would not stress overly much about that decreasing your match chances. If you did a 2 year MBA after medical school before matching, I think that would be a negative.

In terms of whether it would improve your chances, I would say it depends on the story you can tell in terms of why you chose to do it. The one thing a residency does not want to do is hire someone who is likely to quit. It is a pain to find a resident to fill the spot, especially if you quit abruptly. Thus, you don't want to give off the vibe that you'll do residency, but the minute you find a great startup or a VC comes calling, you'll be out the door. That is a death knell for your application. Personally, I also find it a big turn-off when interviewing someone if they give me the vibe that they have no idea why they did it, and look at is as a resume padder for applying for residency, which is not the case for you, but something that gets asked on these boards a lot in terms of whether they should do an MBA to improve their chance at residency.

The biggest question I would ask is whether doing the combined MD/MBA will get you where you want to go. VC is one of the toughest areas to crack, especially fresh out of business school, and the ones who go into it tend to pursue it with energy similar to someone trying to match at a top residency. Can you juggle both things at once, or will you back-burner your interest in VC/startup to do the things you need to do for a top residency (interacting with attendings, research often, interest groups, etc that you may need to get those great recommendations). If you do intend to back-burner the VC/startup thing until after residency, perhaps it would be beneficial to also delay your MBA as well? A top 10 B-school is a key component to building the right network to go after entry-level VC positions, but I have also seen a number of MDs who transitioned from practicing medicine directly into VC firms who highly value their clinical knowledge and use a support system around them to build all the deal structure until they get familiar enough with it alone. Just like medical knowledge, business knowledge and contacts grow stale unless you are constantly refreshing it. Doing the joint degree now may give you a platform to launch your career, or it may end up just being a few extra letters after your name. It is hard to guess that at this point in your career, and thus the ROI on the investment of ~$300,000 (~$50k for extra tuition + $250k for opportunity cost of missing out on one year of being an attending) is very speculative.

 

[J ROD]

I think it is has been helpful for me personally. Like to understand the biz of medicine. As far as residency goes, I guess it depends. I got mine before med school and worked several years in HR.

 

[mats7]

Go for it. So many opportunities to innovate in medicine, particularly if you're near Boston, NYC, or SF.

 

[justadream]

For that style of MD/MBA program it will not appear to have a gap between medical school and residency, so in terms of timing, I would not stress overly much about that decreasing your match chances. If you did a 2 year MBA after medical school before matching, I think that would be a negative.

In terms of whether it would improve your chances, I would say it depends on the story you can tell in terms of why you chose to do it. The one thing a residency does not want to do is hire someone who is likely to quit. It is a pain to find a resident to fill the spot, especially if you quit abruptly. Thus, you don't want to give off the vibe that you'll do residency, but the minute you find a great startup or a VC comes calling, you'll be out the door. That is a death knell for your application. Personally, I also find it a big turn-off when interviewing someone if they give me the vibe that they have no idea why they did it, and look at is as a resume padder for applying for residency, which is not the case for you, but something that gets asked on these boards a lot in terms of whether they should do an MBA to improve their chance at residency.

The biggest question I would ask is whether doing the combined MD/MBA will get you where you want to go. VC is one of the toughest areas to crack, especially fresh out of business school, and the ones who go into it tend to pursue it with energy similar to someone trying to match at a top residency. Can you juggle both things at once, or will you back-burner your interest in VC/startup to do the things you need to do for a top residency (interacting with attendings, research often, interest groups, etc that you may need to get those great recommendations). If you do intend to back-burner the VC/startup thing until after residency, perhaps it would be beneficial to also delay your MBA as well? A top 10 B-school is a key component to building the right network to go after entry-level VC positions, but I have also seen a number of MDs who transitioned from practicing medicine directly into VC firms who highly value their clinical knowledge and use a support system around them to build all the deal structure until they get familiar enough with it alone. Just like medical knowledge, business knowledge and contacts grow stale unless you are constantly refreshing it. Doing the joint degree now may give you a platform to launch your career, or it may end up just being a few extra letters after your name. It is hard to guess that at this point in your career, and thus the ROI on the investment of ~$300,000 (~$50k for extra tuition + $250k for opportunity cost of missing out on one year of being an attending) is very speculative.

Very interesting and informative post!

Assuming OP does the MBA as s/he has suggested (namely, as part of a 5 year program):

Would you suggest for OP that, despite his/her actual intent on using the MD/MBA to try to break into VC/startups, OP should "make up" some more "acceptable" reason for pursuing the MBA when talking to residency programs?

By "acceptable," I mean something that makes it seem like OP will use the skills from the MBA in academic medicine (e.g., "I did the MBA to help me pursue healthcare administration in academic medicine).

It just seems like in medicine, there is a very fine line between showing interesting in business and being dinged for not having enough true interest in medicine.