HS Student Interested in MD-PhD Programs

[Mary-Madison]

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My name is Mary-Madison and I am currently a senior in high school who is interested in (maybe) going the way of a research-physician, a possibility that I have only just discovered in the last three weeks. I was curious to see if there was any advice or information that you could give me to help me make a decision, such as:

• What should I know about myself that would indicate that this is the field for me?
• What BA majors are the best for these programs/field?
• When must I know for sure that this is my field of choice?
• What schools are "feeders" for these programs?
• What would you have said to yourself as a senior in high school, as a member of this field?

I'm looking for any kind of advice, as my mother and mentors don't have experience with this field.

 

[red doctober]

• What should I know about myself that would indicate that this is the field for me?

The best way is to go out and see for yourself. Join a research lab, volunteer in a hospital, shadow docs, talk to physician scientists if you can.

• What BA majors are the best for these programs/field?

Typically you'd want to major in something related to biology or biomedical sciences (biology, chem, biochem, biomedical engineering, microbiology just to name a few.) There are a few MD/PhD programs that allow students to pursue the PhD in the social sciences or humanities, but those are rare.

• When must I know for sure that this is my field of choice?

By the time you apply. That could be as early as senior year of college or like many others, a year or years after graduating from college.

• What schools are "feeders" for these programs?

You can get into an MD/PhD from practically any college as long as you have good credentials (GPA, MCAT) and a lot of meaningful research experience. It will be easier to get involved in research at a large research university rather than say a small college, but there are summer research programs at research universities and medical schools for students from small colleges who want to get research experience.

• What would you have said to yourself as a senior in high school, as a member of this field?

Just that these programs exist and how they work. Lurk around these forums and talk to physician scientists and you'll be up to speed in no time.

Don't stress out about this too much, you have plenty of time to figure out what you want to do. I wasn't aware that MD/PhD programs existed until I was a sophomore in college.

 

[StIGMA]

General guideline: Focus on getting as close to a 4.0 as you can during your first 2 semesters in college. During your spring semester, look for a lab for summer research, either at your university (if you want to take a few summer classes) or as part of a summer research program elsewhere (eg: SURF). Focus on labs that use molecular biology techniques to study basic cellular biology problems or human disease processes, which includes the majority of NIH funded labs. You can decide what interests you the most (neurobiology, cancer, basic processes, immunology, and so on), but you should contact multiple professors, including finding them in person if they do not respond to your e-mails (they are busy and get many emails for student researchers). You need to be willing to put in serious time (20+ hours/week, potentially for 3 years). Focus on professors that have more than 1 graduate student and post-doc and are involved in publishing more than 1 research article/year.

Once you get initial summer experience (and initial training), you can decide if research suits you or not. If it does, prepare to spend the rest of your undergraduate years conducting research part-time (ideally 20-30+ hours/week) to be competitive (3 years research) for MD/PhD programs. If the initial lab does not suit you, it will be much easier to find a new lab because you have some skills. Always focus on your GPA/tests first (eg: to put in serious lab hours and keep your GPA high, you will need to be very intelligent and work hard), because you should keep your GPA above 3.8 or so. Your junior year, you will prepare for and take the MCAT. This guideline is if you plan to matriculate immediately following a 4 year undergraduate program.

There are many variations to this, but if you follow it you are likely to do well in the application process. Your major does not matter, but it should give you a strong scientific background. If you enjoy research (not just tolerate, but enjoy research- eg: you stick around in lab even after the work is done) and are also suited to medical school (shadow physicians, have an innate desire/need to practice medicine), and are willing to spend 7-9 years in an MD/PhD program even if you will never do research after that (but initially want to spend the majority of your life conducting research), then you are suited to an MD/PhD program.

 

[mTORC]

I just want to say what StIGMA and red doctober touched upon but did not emphasize; unlike normal medical school admissions, many (if not most) MD/PhD programs require that you have a science major. There are some exceptions (as in programs that allow you to do epidemiology, anthropology, etc. PhDs with your MD), but they aren't nearly as common. I was actually surprised when I found this out since it's considered dogma that medical schools do not care about your major.

 

[Neuronix]

• What should I know about myself that would indicate that this is the field for me?
• What BA majors are the best for these programs/field?
• When must I know for sure that this is my field of choice?
• What schools are "feeders" for these programs?
• What would you have said to yourself as a senior in high school, as a member of this field?

I'm looking for any kind of advice, as my mother and mentors don't have experience with this field.

1) You like devoting your whole life to being in a hospital or research lab.

2) You should do a BS in a biomedically related science or engineering. You can dual major if you're interested in something else as well, but I wouldn't recommend it.

3) You don't. The nice thing is that you can be a pre-med and start doing research as a freshman in college. This will be a good test of your commitment. Can you get As in everything and stay in the lab with the rest of your free time and still be happy? You might be suitable, because that will be the rest of your life.

4) No such thing. My advice is to go wherever has a reasonable science department and accrue as little debt as possible, i.e. state school.

5) I dropped out of high school as a sophomore and have a GED. But regardless, don't go to the most competitive pre-med programs. Don't spend a lot of money or get yourself into a lot of debt as an undergrad. Get straight As throughout college and be sure to prep hard for the MCAT. Your GPA is more important than anything else. "Honors" doesn't matter. A hard courseload doesn't matter. A harder major doesn't matter. Get involved in research early and often. And if you follow all of that and decide you just want to be a physician, you will still have a strong application to medical school with a little rounding out with other, relatively easy to obtain, ECs.