if you could do it over, would you?

[drcushing]

MD/PhD is a long road as we all know it. I'm curious what MD/PhD graduates/residents think? Would you do just an MD if you could do it over again? Current students can comment also..

I'm in the middle of my graduate training and I ask myself that question more often knowing that a research career is increasingly difficult (ultra competitive funding enviornments)...

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[greg12345]

Funny this thread has no responses while similar threads in the general residency forum generate like 1000+ responses (of which ~75% seem to be negative). I'm glad I did it, am proud of my pubs, and love the no debt...but am 50-50 over whether I would do it again. Got out in 4 years but adding on that extra 4 years to a training track that for me was already going to be at least 10 years (including med school) may have been too much. I'm just getting tired I guess and missing out on the best years of my life. Actually, I am probably just tired because I am getting killed intern year. Only 5 more years before I get to be a junior faculty struggling up the academic mountain! Yeah!

 

[Neuronix]

Funny this thread has no responses while similar threads in the general residency forum generate like 1000+ responses (of which ~75% seem to be negative).

The number of MD/PhD graduates who post on the MD/PhD forum is somewhere close to 0.

 

[gbwillner]

MD/PhD is a long road as we all know it. I'm curious what MD/PhD graduates/residents think? Would you do just an MD if you could do it over again? Current students can comment also..

I'm in the middle of my graduate training and I ask myself that question more often knowing that a research career is increasingly difficult (ultra competitive funding enviornments)...

I'm betting that the MD/PhDs who did/will finish the PhD would be the only ones that read this forum and will bias your results... and I still bet 50% would not do it over again. From what I've seen, many people are burned out in research and realize it provides no monetary advantage whatsoever, and will inevitably focus solely on they MD careers. I think this has been especially true of the graduates that go into the more specialized and competitive fields.

Some of us are glad that we did the PhD and would do it again... but I think that we are the sort of people who would be extremely bored doing only clinical work, and don't like the prospect of ever having a "real job".

 

[j-weezy]

don't like the prospect of ever having a "real job".

that's encouraging for me at least - I never want a job...I figure another 15 years of 'training' while getting paid is a win-win situation!

 

[gbwillner]

that's encouraging for me at least - I never want a job...I figure another 15 years of 'training' while getting paid is a win-win situation!

great! You're in.

 

[Neuronix]

This is now a cross-post, but an understandable one. I encourage you all to visit:

http://drslounge.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=502314

for further responses.