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First I want to preface by saying I have been a long time reader of these forums, but more importantly have spent the last several months reading posts (on and off) forums about the grad to med school transition. The insightful posts summarized bv QofQuimiica have been tremendously helpful but I have a specific question about my specific case.
I am a 3rd year biochemistry PhD student in a very good program. My "vitals"
3.6 Undergrad gpa BS chemistry, taken all the premed curriculum, already spent ~4 months prep for the mcat, 3.6 graduate gpa, 3 years graduate research experience, 3 years undergrad experience. I have had several shadowing experiences but minimal volunteer experience.
Basically I went to grad school because I procrastinated in my Jr year to take the mcat, shadow, and volunteer and now I ended up in a program that will give me a good degree but the job outlook in terms of enjoyment would be miserable. I am like I said a 3rd year student, about to take my candidacy examination, and with all honestly will probably pass with flying colors but I am afraid that it just commits me to another 2-3 years in this grad program. My heart is set on med school but it wasn't until the end of year 1 in that I realized that leaving the program is not a viable option if I really want to goto med school, so I've sucked it up but now need some advice from the non trads.
Now, here is where my situation is unique, or so I feel. My advisor is part of 3 divisions in the university and frankly he doesn't know much about either 1. biochemistry or 2. my division. He is a poor advisor and on top of that he has appointments in several universities (in/out of the USA) which makes communication very difficult, and further is considering moving back to his original country after my class graduates. How do I leave this program, or mimize my time so I can get where I want to be? Do i tell him, which I know he will take personally and probably refuse to write a good LoR (which in actuality he would be too lazy to write and I would have to anyway), or do I try and fail my candidacy exam so I can leave with a terminal masters. I am probably one of the top students in my class, and I think the latter would be pretty hard to do. I do need to take the MCAT, which I would do around Jan/Feb with the amount of time I need and have to aloquot to studying. But if I continue in this program it will be 4-5 years realistically before I can get into med school.
I am a 3rd year biochemistry PhD student in a very good program. My "vitals"
3.6 Undergrad gpa BS chemistry, taken all the premed curriculum, already spent ~4 months prep for the mcat, 3.6 graduate gpa, 3 years graduate research experience, 3 years undergrad experience. I have had several shadowing experiences but minimal volunteer experience.
Basically I went to grad school because I procrastinated in my Jr year to take the mcat, shadow, and volunteer and now I ended up in a program that will give me a good degree but the job outlook in terms of enjoyment would be miserable. I am like I said a 3rd year student, about to take my candidacy examination, and with all honestly will probably pass with flying colors but I am afraid that it just commits me to another 2-3 years in this grad program. My heart is set on med school but it wasn't until the end of year 1 in that I realized that leaving the program is not a viable option if I really want to goto med school, so I've sucked it up but now need some advice from the non trads.
Now, here is where my situation is unique, or so I feel. My advisor is part of 3 divisions in the university and frankly he doesn't know much about either 1. biochemistry or 2. my division. He is a poor advisor and on top of that he has appointments in several universities (in/out of the USA) which makes communication very difficult, and further is considering moving back to his original country after my class graduates. How do I leave this program, or mimize my time so I can get where I want to be? Do i tell him, which I know he will take personally and probably refuse to write a good LoR (which in actuality he would be too lazy to write and I would have to anyway), or do I try and fail my candidacy exam so I can leave with a terminal masters. I am probably one of the top students in my class, and I think the latter would be pretty hard to do. I do need to take the MCAT, which I would do around Jan/Feb with the amount of time I need and have to aloquot to studying. But if I continue in this program it will be 4-5 years realistically before I can get into med school.