Future Plans

[Leviwc]

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I'm not sure if I'm considered a non-traditional student, but due to my chosen path I believe I'm a nontraditional student.

I recently graduated and now have a Masters of Engineering in chemical engineering. Throughout college I often studied anything medical I could get my hands on (and had the time for!) I was always interested in both chemical engineering and medicine so in high school I decided that it would be a good idea to use chemical engineering as a 'pre-med' since I wanted to do engineering and medicine (who needs pre-med, right? haha). I wasn't the highest rank in my class(not even top 10%) in high school, but I vowed I would do something different and do better.

Well I've made it this far with the plan I came up with in high school, but I figure this is the hard part. I would like to continue with work towards an MD and DPT. Despite no actual pre-med, I believe I can do this; My MCAT total score was 31 and I had 4.0 GPA for my ME. I wanted to couple MD and DPT if possible, because I thought it would foster an overall better understanding of the body and I don't like the idea of just treating people by medicine because many times problems can be solved with more holistic solutions. I would like the knowledge of both. Do you think this would take too much time/effort and I wouldn't be able to complete such a double?

Thank you for your time and hopefully advice.

 

[wholeheartedly]

I don't think you should do both MD and DPT, as that's overkill. I don't know that a Doctor of Physical Therapy program is going to give you as much of the holistic approach as you're thinking it is and I don't think the MD is going to be as lacking in holistic medicine as you think it is. What specifically do you envision holistic being in your practice?

If it's important to you, you'll be able to do as much holistic medicine as you want and are willing to learn with the MD if you make it a priority and choose a practice setting that allows it. It would be a really big financial cost to do both as well.

Have you done any shadowing of either of these areas or talked to people who are in each career? That would be a good place to start if you haven't.


Usually medical people who are interested in both medicine and physical therapy do a residency in PMR, which is physical medicine and rehabilitation. People who've done it really seem to love it and PMR docs work very closely with the DPTs. That would be the sanest combination of those two fields, so you might want to check that out as a possibility.

Also, not having a pre-med background isn't a problem as long as you've taken the pre-reqs and performed well. Your undergrad gpa is more important than your master's gpa and you'll need clinical experience/shadowing, and some volunteering as well if you don't have those.

 

[theseeker4]

I'm not sure if I'm considered a non-traditional student, but due to my chosen path I believe I'm a nontraditional student.

I recently graduated and now have a Masters of Engineering in chemical engineering. Throughout college I often studied anything medical I could get my hands on (and had the time for!) I was always interested in both chemical engineering and medicine so in high school I decided that it would be a good idea to use chemical engineering as a 'pre-med' since I wanted to do engineering and medicine (who needs pre-med, right? haha). I wasn't the highest rank in my class(not even top 10%) in high school, but I vowed I would do something different and do better.

Well I've made it this far with the plan I came up with in high school, but I figure this is the hard part. I would like to continue with work towards an MD and DPT. Despite no actual pre-med, I believe I can do this; My MCAT total score was 31 and I had 4.0 GPA for my ME. I wanted to couple MD and DPT if possible, because I thought it would foster an overall better understanding of the body and I don't like the idea of just treating people by medicine because many times problems can be solved with more holistic solutions. I would like the knowledge of both. Do you think this would take too much time/effort and I wouldn't be able to complete such a double?

Thank you for your time and hopefully advice.

There is no point in doing both. A DPT is no more "holistic" than an MD, and if you are interested in learning physical therapy and practicing that type of medicine, do a residency in PMR as already mentioned. What advantages do you think having both degrees would provide? What do you think "holistic" means? Why do you think MD's are less holistic than DPTs? What knowledge do you believe you would miss out on by doing an MD and then a PMR residency but not doing the DPT?

On to practical concerns, what was your undergraduate GPA? That will matter more than your graduate GPA.

 

[Leviwc]

I'm not sure, I figured that it would be overkill. That is why I asked the opinion of the board members here. I thought a DPT would offer some education that would be lacking as MD, and would complement each other otherwise (additionally, having two doctorates would just be awesome). However, if the same or more information is covered during the path to MD then I understand how it is overkill. My undergrad GPA was 4.0 as well. Thanks for the advice, I will look into PMR in the meanwhile.

 

[abolt18]

I'm not sure, I figured that it would be overkill. That is why I asked the opinion of the board members here. I thought a DPT would offer some education that would be lacking as MD, and would complement each other otherwise (additionally, having two doctorates would just be awesome). However, if the same or more information is covered during the path to MD then I understand how it is overkill. My undergrad GPA was 4.0 as well. Thanks for the advice, I will look into PMR in the meanwhile.

Also in DO school you'll learn OMM (definitely not DPT, but you'll get a unique and thorough understanding of the body.)