Graduating in 3 years with little transfer credit

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I had a meeting with an advisor and we discussed the possibility of graduating one year early. This has been posted several times on here, but most of those people had substantial transfer credit and so some people here advised them not to graduate early. My situation is different as I have about 4 courses from AP credit. I have already exceeded the amount of credits needed to graduate with a double major and a minor having taken 6-7 courses each semester. I will take a few courses this summer to finish the prerequisites.

I have been taking graduate courses over the last semester and was planning to do that next year as well. I am interested in MD/PhD programs, and in the US, I do not think most of my graduate coursework will transfer over. I have taken the MCAT. This won't affect my extracurricular activities since I have participated in them very actively over the first three years.

Would it be advisable to continue taking graduate courses which I will have to retake later, or should I consider graduating earlier?

 

[eteshoe]

I'm confused. If you've taken your MCAT and basically only have a few courses left, why can't you graduate early? Why would you need to retake grad courses? What was your MCAT and GPA? Do you have your other ECs in order?


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I'm confused. If you've taken your MCAT and basically only have a few courses left, why can't you graduate early? Why would you need to retake grad courses? What was your MCAT and GPA? Do you have your other ECs in order?


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I can graduate early, but until last month my plan was to stay and continue taking graduate courses in my last year. By "retaking the graduate courses", I mean that if I go to an MD/PhD program in a field related to my major, I think I will have to take the courses again even if I took them in my undergrad. MCAT was 42/525 and GPA is 4.0. I have a good amount of clinical and shadowing experience, and I wouldn't have added much to it even if I stayed for all 4 years. I have 3 years of research experience, including summer programs and some math and computer science competitions.

 

[eteshoe]

I can graduate early, but until last month my plan was to stay and continue taking graduate courses in my last year. By "retaking the graduate courses", I mean that if I go to an MD/PhD program in a field related to my major, I think I will have to take the courses again even if I took them in my undergrad. MCAT was 42/525 and GPA is 4.0. I have a good amount of clinical and shadowing experience, and I wouldn't have added much to it even if I stayed for all 4 years. I have 3 years of research experience, including summer programs and some math and computer science competitions.

Ok got you. You seem like a strong MD/PhD applicant (at least strictly by the numbers). As far as "retaking", it's really going to be program dependent: at my school, the PhD programs tends to waive a lot of course requirements due to the credits from the pre-clinical courses. Usually, you won't be saddled with too many course requirements for the PhD portion anyhow. If you do feel like staying an extra yr and you don't mind paying for the courses, I'd say you just take some "fun" grad courses the last yr (I was also a 3 yr UG and did that my last term). Or graduate early and take a short break before med school.

 

[LizzyM]

You will have 2 years of medical school before you begin taking graduate classes toward your PhD. In that time you may need a refresher in some of the courses, or their may have been advancements that would make your previous courses obsolete. So, I wouldn't worry too much about staying in school an extra year to take grad level classes.

two big questions that are asked of MD/PhD applicants: 1) is the applicant's skills/interests aligned with at least some of our labs/investigators? (will you fit here?) and 2) does this applicant have a genuine interest, tested with experience, to care for the sick?

You seem to have the grades and scores. You seem to have some research experience; a publication and/or major funding would be a cherry on top and it would be worth staying in school an extra year to accomplish that.

 

[Link2]

Dont overlook the other ECs you do need. If you have the time to build those up

I have heard people on hear say that after a certain amount of hours, more clinical or shadowing experience doesn't help much. I have a few hundred hours of both including different specialties, so I wasn't planning on doing much more of that next year. While it is very interesting, and I didn't want to do it just for the medical school admissions, it does get tedious after a while.

In terms of other extracurriculars, I have played a sport very competitively over the last 2-3 years, have research experience, and done well on competitions like Putnam (very high score) and ACM ICPC.

You will have 2 years of medical school before you begin taking graduate classes toward your PhD. In that time you may need a refresher in some of the courses, or their may have been advancements that would make your previous courses obsolete. So, I wouldn't worry too much about staying in school an extra year to take grad level classes.

two big questions that are asked of MD/PhD applicants: 1) is the applicant's skills/interests aligned with at least some of our labs/investigators? (will you fit here?) and 2) does this applicant have a genuine interest, tested with experience, to care for the sick?

You seem to have the grades and scores. You seem to have some research experience; a publication and/or major funding would be a cherry on top and it would be worth staying in school an extra year to accomplish that.

For research experience, in biology, I wouldn't say it is very good. I have done research in it over a few semesters and in the summer, but it wasn't very significant. In mathematics and physics, I have exceptional research experience. I plan on pursuing something related to those three fields for research in medical school, so I hope this unbalanced experience isn't a problem.

 

[LizzyM]

For research experience, in biology, I wouldn't say it is very good. I have done research in it over a few semesters and in the summer, but it wasn't very significant. In mathematics and physics, I have exceptional research experience. I plan on pursuing something related to those three fields for research in medical school, so I hope this unbalanced experience isn't a problem.

You may be a good fit in schools that have med school affiliated labs dedicated to research in math and physics. The fact is, for MD/PhD programs, you need to find a school where there is a PI who is willing to pay your way for 7+ years in exchange for your work in his/her lab. If there isn't anyone whose work aligns with your interests and skillset, you won't get interviews. Choose the schools you apply to carefully.

 

[eteshoe]

For research experience, in biology, I wouldn't say it is very good. I have done research in it over a few semesters and in the summer, but it wasn't very significant. In mathematics and physics, I have exceptional research experience. I plan on pursuing something related to those three fields for research in medical school, so I hope this unbalanced experience isn't a problem.

Are you planning on doing a more math/comp bio PhD? Since there's quite a lot of interest in that direction. Before starting med school, I didn't have that much straight bio research experience (lots of engineering & physical chem experience) so I went and did a more biologically relevant masters first (for experience). Now, I work in a mixed lab where I have some wet lab mol. bio/analytical chem/metabolomic projects and a couple of computational/genomic projects. It may benefit you to tack on some bio experience so that when you're looking for potential labs you can leverage your quantitative skills in a more biologically relevant manner. Look in the biostats or biophysics departments for potential PIs and see if you like the scope of the projects they're doing.

 

[Link2]

Are you planning on doing a more math/comp bio PhD? Since there's quite a lot of interest in that direction. Before starting med school, I didn't have that much straight bio research experience (lots of engineering & physical chem experience) so I went and did a more biologically relevant masters first (for experience). Now, I work in a mixed lab where I have some wet lab mol. bio/analytical chem/metabolomic projects and a couple of computational/genomic projects. It may benefit you to tack on some bio experience so that when you're looking for potential labs you can leverage your quantitative skills in a more biologically relevant manner. Look in the biostats or biophysics departments for potential PIs and see if you like the scope of the projects they're doing.

If you remember, I made another thread on this. But I thought about this over the past few months and decided that I am interested in computational biology, so that is what I might end up doing. I am interested in all three of those fields and don't want to forgo any of them, so this might be the best way to combine mine interests. I will be participating in a research project in this area over the summer, so that might give me a better idea about my interests.

 

[LizzyM]

If you remember, I made another thread on this. But I thought about this over the past few months and decided that I am interested in computational biology, so that is what I might end up doing. I am interested in all three of those fields and don't want to forgo any of them, so this might be the best way to combine mine interests. I will be participating in a research project in this area over the summer, so that might give me a better idea about my interests.

Are there physicians publishing in the scientific area that interests you? Any labs headed by MD/PhDs with expertise in these fields? Those are the schools that would most likely welcome you into a medical science training program (MSTP) which is funded to train MD/PhD students.

What do you see yourself doing in your career when you have finished your training? How much time are you spending with patients and how much at the "bench" ? Have you shadowed physician scientists and do you have a feel for what they do and how they structure their weeks?

 

[Link2]

Are there physicians publishing in the scientific area that interests you? Any labs headed by MD/PhDs with expertise in these fields? Those are the schools that would most likely welcome you into a medical science training program (MSTP) which is funded to train MD/PhD students.

What do you see yourself doing in your career when you have finished your training? How much time are you spending with patients and how much at the "bench" ? Have you shadowed physician scientists and do you have a feel for what they do and how they structure their weeks?

I haven't look at specific physicians working in this area, because until recently I wasn't planning on applying to MD/PhD programs (not because of a lack of interest, but I was just uninformed about it). I was start looking in to that soon.

I like clinical work, based on the shadowing/clinical volunteering I've done, but I would prefer to focus more on the research part. My preference might change, but at this point I think something like a 80/20 split between research and clinical work would suit me. I haven't been able to shadow any physician scientists so far. In Canada it is difficult to find physicians who are willing to allow you to shadow them.