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mokhoras
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It wouldn't hurt to take the MCAT and see how you fare on that to wait and make your decision... I'm not sure how it would look to DO adcoms as far as dropping out, I guess if your coursework in your PhD program is good I don't feel like they would knock you for that. I think if you want the best answer call up a school and talk to an admissions counselor about it, regardless of what people might say here they will know better than we do.
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Dude not to jump on you OP...but I fail to understand why people on SDN like saying **** like "i cheated...got caught.....can I go DO? Will they care?"
DO schools have lower stats but they arent going to let moral slip ups go. Alright? They place just as high of a value on morality as MD programs do.
With regard to your question. How much of your PhD do you have left? If its not much just finish it. ADCOMs are going to see you this way: "hmm a 4 year graduate degree takes a lot of thought to even apply.....so why would this person be a good fit for our school when there is the chance he is going to bail?"
So yeah take that MCAT, see how you do, and apply. Dont prematurely dig your grave. What happens when you bail on your PhD, get rejected from medical school...now you are stuck without a degree.
Finish what you started OP...unless it is going to financially kill you. What is a few years? I took 5 years between med school and undergrad/grad school.
DO schools have lower stats but they arent going to let moral slip ups go. Alright? They place just as high of a value on morality as MD programs do.
With regard to your question. How much of your PhD do you have left? If its not much just finish it. ADCOMs are going to see you this way: "hmm a 4 year graduate degree takes a lot of thought to even apply.....so why would this person be a good fit for our school when there is the chance he is going to bail?"
So yeah take that MCAT, see how you do, and apply. Dont prematurely dig your grave. What happens when you bail on your PhD, get rejected from medical school...now you are stuck without a degree.
Finish what you started OP...unless it is going to financially kill you. What is a few years? I took 5 years between med school and undergrad/grad school.
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Its not about grades....its about maturity and finishing what you started (again not judging you OP just putting myself in an ADCOMs shoes).
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Just leave after they give you a masters degree. Spend the time till that happens volunteering and studying for the Mcat.
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Do you have your prerequisites done (I would imagine for BME you would, but I don't want to assume)? Take the MCAT. Apply for MD and DO (you are likely competitive for both). Got to the cheapest best medical school you get into. I doubt anyone is going think negatively about you wanting to have a clinical career over a research or otherwise based career. It's easy to explain the desire to do clinical medicine and why it is (was) in your best interest to leave the PhD program. What you are going to need to do is make sure your program knows your intent, do your job well while you're doing it, make sure nobody is left in a lurch while you're transitioning out, and get some good letters of recommendation from faculty.
I have a friend who was in the same position in a PhD program in a biological science. She realized she really wanted to be a physician. She was well liked in her program so they didn't want her to leave, but they supported her and she got into medical school (DO where she had done undergrad).
This is really good advice. If you can manage to spend another 6 months and leave with a masters instead of a PhD and still get a good letter of recommendation from your supervisor that would be for the best. A lot of schools require letters from your graduate supervisor if you go to grad school and if you just bail I can't imagine you'll get a very good one. Don't burn any bridges just yet.
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You don't just "finish" a PhD. You realize that you can show up everyday and do your work everyday for 4-5 years and still be nowhere near done? It's not because you put in the time that you're going to have enough data for a thesis.
You need to see how each school you plan to apply to views this. There are some schools (both MD and DO) that require you finish any graduate program in which you are currently enrolled before matriculating. Some of the schools state this explicitly on their website.
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Every answer you're going to find to this question on here is an opinion. So, I'm not going to share mine. You need to call your schools of interest directly and see how they feel about this situation. Make sure you talk to someone who oversees the admissions process (not just the coordinator - the actual dean of admissions) as a lot rides on this.
There's no guarantee you're going to get into medical school, as you well know, so sit tight where you're at throughout the entire application process. You don't want to put all your eggs in one basket.
There's no guarantee you're going to get into medical school, as you well know, so sit tight where you're at throughout the entire application process. You don't want to put all your eggs in one basket.
