If you decide to leave a grad program, how long must you atone for changing your mind?

[lumpyduster]

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Just curious. I've seen a few threads of people wanting to leave grad school for med school, and the consensus seems to be it's a bit of a struggle because it looks bad to leave your program.

If you quit before you get your PhD (I really don't blame the people who do this, as it's not always in your control when you get to graduate) or masters, how long should you wait before applying? I guess I don't totally understand why adcoms don't like people who don't finish their PhD program. People should be allowed to change their minds. I get that not finishing doesn't look cool, but it's just a change in career the way I see it.

It seems like a lot of these people had an interest in medicine beforehand, some even went down the premed path but for whatever reason wanted to give grad school a chance (this is the part I don't totally get, but just a trend I see). But on the other hand, I can kind of see how since med school admissions are so competitive, people who have been 100% committed since day one are probably super common (I'm not one of these people haha - considered teaching for a while). I can see why they would go with someone with more obvious commitment.

But anyway, if someone is in a position where they want to quit grad school without their masters, and let's say their fortunate enough to have their advisors blessing (ie LOR), how do they make up for making the wrong choice the first time?

 

[stemingen]

I suggest to quit ASAP once you figure out graduate school training is not for you. In this case, staying on the graduate training track will be a waste of your time and your advisor's resource. Do plan ahead and find a job and leave no gap.

 

[LizzyM]

A masters degree is so short; why quit before you finish? At this point in the year (February), you could finish even a 2 year degree and still matriculate to med school 18 months from now.

To quit before finishing may indicate to some adcom members that you made a decision without considering all the consequences and the fear is that you are doing the same in medicine and will drop out mid stream and go to law school or something.

 

[Doug Underhill]

Most Ph.Ds in this country do not take additional debt to participate in these programs. A biology Ph.D is a lot of hard work and you get paid a stipend, usually about $30,000. You don't pay tuition or fees.

Med school, on the other hand, puts you in a lot of debt. A person who quits their Ph.D program isn't going to have a great deal of personal debt. A person who quits medical school will, and this could be highly damaging to that person. Furthermore, a slot that goes to a quitter could have gone to a non-quitter, and that non-quitter would have made a great physician who would provide a lifetime of service to their community.

It's bad for the applicant and for the school.

 

[Goro]

As the wise LizzyM pointed out, it's just that we worry that you'll bail on med school like you did on grad school. We accept that people do start down one path before they realize that their calling is on another.

So, if you haven't done so already, you're going to need to demonstrate solid evidence that Medicine is your calling. Meaning, demonstrate your altruism, your humanism in service for others; that you know what a doctor's day is like by shadowing; and that you know what you're getting into and that you really want to be around sick people for the next 30-40 years by doing patient contact volunteering or work.

If you quit before you get your PhD (I really don't blame the people who do this, as it's not always in your control when you get to graduate) or masters, how long should you wait before applying? I guess I don't totally understand why adcoms don't like people who don't finish their PhD program. People should be allowed to change their minds. I get that not finishing doesn't look cool, but it's just a change in career the way I see it.