Is MD/MPH worth the time trade-off?

[rugger4]

I will be starting MS1 in the fall and I'm trying to decide whether or not the MD/MPH program at Tulane is worth it. I don't have a clue what specialty I want to do or where my medical career will head, but will an MPH help me get into a more competitive residency? Or would it be more beneficial to put the time that I could be putting into MPH into research or things of that nature? It seems like something I would be very interested in and would like to put into practice in my career, but I don't want to tie up my time in something that could limit my options when I finally decide what field I want to do. Any opinions on whether or not it is worth the time trade-off? Thanks.

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[mcloaf]

I would hold off until you have a concrete idea of what you want to do and how it will help you get there.

 

[rugger4]

Problem is the deadline for the MD/MPH application is March 15...... and I don't think I will have a very concrete idea of what I want to do in medicine until after year 1. I just want to make sure I make the most of my time while I'm still deciding. If an MPH won't help me be more competitive later on then it might not be something worth doing. Have you heard of anyone getting the residency they wanted because they had an MPH with a lower board score than their non-MPH peers? Or does it really not matter that much?

 

[mcloaf]

Most schools give you the chance to apply for a year out program after M2 or M3 and get a graduate degree. Seems weird to me that you need to apply so early.

 

[rugger4]

It's a 4 year MD/MPH program so I believe they want you to start taking classes the summer before MS1.

 

[Psai]

doing something because you think it might make you more competitive rather than doing it because you want to do something with it is an incredibly stupid waste of time

 

[Low Flow]

It's a 4 year MD/MPH program so I believe they want you to start taking classes the summer before MS1.

The Master's in Public Health is just that, a Master's degree. It will not take 4 years. Agree with Mcloaf, most schools should let students enter at a later date. Try and ask some upperclassmen if you can get ahold of them, or just go to the Tulane-specific school thread and ask.

 

[MalibuPreMD]

The Master's in Public Health is just that, a Master's degree. It will not take 4 years.

It's a 4 yr combined MD/MPH.

If you are on the fence I would recommend holding off as others have said. One of the real upsides of taking a full year to get an MPH is that you can use some of the skills your learning w/ research. If you start the MPH after MS3 you'll have a pretty good idea of what you want to go into for residency so you can tailor your research and have a very productive year.

My rec: learn SAS/STATA/R and linear/logistic regression & find out what registries are used in your department-of-interest--> market your new skills to residents/fellows --> crank out data from registries (don't waste time going through charts!), write methods/results and have them finish the paper (intro/discussion & revisions) --> high number of pubs in short amount of time. That is how to make an MPH worth your time, doing it little by little over four yrs will not benefit your residency application.

NB: increase efficiency by using premeds also enrolled in the MPH. Since they're learning same stats as you have them do the data cleaning and put together the tables, which is 80% of the work anyway. They'll work hard for authorship too!

 

[NickNaylor]

Since you yourself admit to not know what you want to do, I wouldn't do it yet. An MPH is something that can be done with relative ease either later on or even during residency. No one is going to be impressed with an MPH (or any second degree) if you don't actually intend to use it in some capacity in your career.

 

[sazerac]

Look, Tulane does a big sales job on the 4 year combined MD/MPH degree. But if it isn't important to your career right now, don't bother. Save your summers, and your money, for things more relevant.

You have a FOMO that the MPH could have squeezed you into a slightly better residency. Don't fear. It doesn't work that way.

Later on, if you think you really did need that MPH, it's just a masters degree and you could pick it up later with ease.

 

[mdeast]

I think a 4-year MD/MPH sounds awesome. I did a epi research year and sometimes regret not doing the MPH/Masters route instead. I was super-productive and loved my year, but in thinking of future jobs and the type of research I want to do...I'm going to have to get a MPH or Masters in Epi degree at some point and it would have been nice to have already had it before residency. While I think you can learn most of what the skills that you learn in a MPH program without the formal program, it's nice to have the degree by your name if you ever are considering a career in academic medicine and eventually want to apply for grants/etc. Without formal training, you're much less likely to get grants approved as they'll question your competence in being able to complete a project.

The beauty of epi/biostats research is that you can often crank out very impactful research in a short amount of time. If you're thinking this route, I'd suggest MPH year over research year. You can do epi/biostats research during an MPH year. Probably less than a dedicated research year, but you'll accomplish something. Kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

 

[Doctor Bob]

My med school had a tuition grant for med students to get an MPH; if your GPA was high enough you could apply and if accepted you could get a concurrent MPH tuition-free. The downside was the classes were most nights per week for the second half of M1, all of M2, and scattered parts of M3 year.

It was nice to get the MPH, but I haven't done much with it since graduating (other than research stuff... but I probably could have done most of it anyways without the MPH), and it would have been nice to have all of those evenings free rather than sitting through additional lectures.