Epidemiology; should I go to med school and do an MPH alongside, or just go straight to an MPH?

[Vindiction]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forums so please tell me if I do anything wrong or incorrectly.

I had a few questions with regards to epidemiology, even though my entrance into the field is likely years away since I'm still just a senior in high school. I'll be applying for a B.S. in econ/math this fall at various colleges, and I'll hopefully be able to make it in, but I'm worried now about whether or not I should go to medical school if I want to enter epidemiology and do well in it.

I've always been a strong biology and life sciences student, but I've also always been fascinated by data and, from my experience, I've found that epidemiology seems to be the best marriage of these two fields. I've also studied the subject for Science Olympiad, albeit on a much simpler level than what MPH students do, but I nonetheless found it very captivating. As such, I want to hopefully enter the field after my undergrad by completing an MPH.

However, I've read in several threads that having a medical degree significantly improves your chances in the job market, but, if I'll be completely candid, I have no interest in going to medical school. I fear that it would add a serious burden to my coursework, perhaps limiting what I can and cannot take, and, if I were to get in, that it would be an extremely difficult experience, particularly because I would be doing it to earn an MPH alongside the medical degree. Then there is the issue of debt and the potential issue of having to finish a further residency instead of directly entering a DrPH program, both of which are also factors in why I'd rather not go to med school. Another issue for me is that I don't want to be a clinician, where I have to directly deal with patients on a daily basis. I would be fine with it for field research once in a while for the purposes of collecting data, but my bigger interest is in analyzing that data and drawing conclusions from it.

All that said, basically, what would you guys recommend for me if I'd like to be an epidemiologist studying broader trends and issues and, possibly, sources of disease. Medical school has a lot of trade offs I worry about, but I also worry about what impact not doing it would have on me, so I'm really in a conundrum about this.

I hope this post wasn't too convoluted or hard to read and I look forward to any advice you guys have!

*On a side note, health economics is another field that interests me, but I feel like this would be less life sciences and disease study-oriented than epidemiology, so I'm not quite sure about it.*

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[frosted2]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forums so please tell me if I do anything wrong or incorrectly.

I had a few questions with regards to epidemiology, even though my entrance into the field is likely years away since I'm still just a senior in high school. I'll be applying for a B.S. in econ/math this fall at various colleges, and I'll hopefully be able to make it in, but I'm worried now about whether or not I should go to medical school if I want to enter epidemiology and do well in it.

I've always been a strong biology and life sciences student, but I've also always been fascinated by data and, from my experience, I've found that epidemiology seems to be the best marriage of these two fields. I've also studied the subject for Science Olympiad, albeit on a much simpler level than what MPH students do, but I nonetheless found it very captivating. As such, I want to hopefully enter the field after my undergrad by completing an MPH.

However, I've read in several threads that having a medical degree significantly improves your chances in the job market, but, if I'll be completely candid, I have no interest in going to medical school. I fear that it would add a serious burden to my coursework, perhaps limiting what I can and cannot take, and, if I were to get in, that it would be an extremely difficult experience, particularly because I would be doing it to earn an MPH alongside the medical degree. Then there is the issue of debt and the potential issue of having to finish a further residency instead of directly entering a DrPH program, both of which are also factors in why I'd rather not go to med school. Another issue for me is that I don't want to be a clinician, where I have to directly deal with patients on a daily basis. I would be fine with it for field research once in a while for the purposes of collecting data, but my bigger interest is in analyzing that data and drawing conclusions from it.

All that said, basically, what would you guys recommend for me if I'd like to be an epidemiologist studying broader trends and issues and, possibly, sources of disease. Medical school has a lot of trade offs I worry about, but I also worry about what impact not doing it would have on me, so I'm really in a conundrum about this.

I hope this post wasn't too convoluted or hard to read and I look forward to any advice you guys have!

*On a side note, health economics is another field that interests me, but I feel like this would be less life sciences and disease study-oriented than epidemiology, so I'm not quite sure about it.*

Then don't do it (see bolded text above). I am sure you can achieve your dreams without an MD/DO behind your name.

 

[Vindiction]

Then don't do it (see bolded text above). I am sure you can achieve your dreams without an MD/DO behind your name.

But, I'm just mainly worried about how my job opportunities will be affected by that because, in the end, all of this is so that we can get a job, and I don't want to end up being held back because of something I didn't do. At the same time, I don't want to do something unnecessarily if it won't significantly help me and I really don't want to do it.

 

[EmilKraepelin55]

If you are interested in research, you could always try becoming a PhD in perhaps microbiology with a focus on infectious disease and get your MPH to inform your research. If, of course, you find micro to be interesting. That is just one area of epidemiology of course. There are plenty of options other than becoming an MD/DO that could satisfy those interests, and it sounds like a career in academia could serve you well.

 

[frosted2]

But, I'm just mainly worried about how my job opportunities will be affected by that because, in the end, all of this is so that we can get a job, and I don't want to end up being held back because of something I didn't do. At the same time, I don't want to do something unnecessarily if it won't significantly help me and I really don't want to do it.

See what @Quackery445 said.