Just wondering but if a person has no problem during the first two years of medical school and does well in class and on boards but then realizes they do not enjoy clinicial medicine and would prefer research what options are open to them? Can they apply for transfer into pHD programs? I know most MD/PhD's begin their first 2 years in med school so I would guess they could with minimal delay but it is something I have wondered just in case things don't work out.......
Jump From Md To Phd
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b&ierstiefel
soglad said:
The first statement you make describes me in nutshell. I liked the first two years of med school...I loved the research phase much more...I hated clinical clerkships. During M3 year, I pondered many times about jumping ship and doing a postdoc...which is a feasible and easy option. Think about it, jumping ship is easier than getting on it!
Well, although it is rare, I've heard two stories of people dropping out of the MD portion of the program and just staying the graduate school program. From what I know, this is pretty easy--during graduate phase, you really don't have any correspondence with the med school and in essence, you are taking a leave of absence. However, both of those folks I know eventually came back to med school and toughed it out.
If you do go through with the clerkships during the last 16 months of the MD/PhD program, you'll probably end up disliking clinical medicine as much as I did...if you don't believe me, check out my Official Anti-Clinical Medicine Thread in the pathology forum. Anyways, it was tragic that I couldn't do a pathology rotation (although I had made up my mind to go into pathology long before that) until the last 2 months of med school! And if it wasn't for pathology, I would have definitely done a postdoc.
Pathology is a investigative research intense field...I mean it IS defined as the "study of disease." Maybe consider pathology as a possible career option if you're gonna stick it out and get that MD. In this field, you don't have to put up with BS of clinical medicine very much. And you're making conclusions on objective data (slides, unlike patients, rarely lie).
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soglad said:
Just finish your MD. You're almost there, and you can certainly use that degree to do research if you like.
Take a year off and do research between your third and fourth years, then do a postdoc after graduating. You'll save a lot of time. You'll probably have a bumpy start to begin with and have to learn some stuff on the fly, but at this point it may not be worth it to go back and get the PhD.
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I'd agree -- best to stick it out. If you transfered, you'd have to go through about 5 years to get a PhD, and then do a postdoc. If you really like research, you can go ahead and go straight to a postdoc after med school. At my school, a bunch of the PIs actually have MDs as opposed to PhDs. I don't think it really makes much of a difference. What makes a huge difference is having an MD/PhD, because you can get better funding. But since you're already so far along, sticking with the MD might be best for you.
btw, I'm in the exact opposite situation -- wanting to go to med school, but currently in grad!
btw, I'm in the exact opposite situation -- wanting to go to med school, but currently in grad!
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tigress said:
I do not necessarily agree that he would need 5 years. If he completed enough coursework in the first two years of med school to meet requirements of the graduate program he would transfer into, he could likely finish in 3-4 years (this also depends heavily on whether you go to graduate school at the same institution as the School of Medicine and could transfer credits intradepartmentally, or a completely different program at another school). You will likely still take some additional courses in your graduate department, but many basic courses, such as biochemistry, or pharmacology, etc, may transfer (you would have to find out to be certain). However, if you are already into your 3rd or 4th year of med school, I would also recommend finishing the MD, then follow up with a post-doc in a program that is interesting for you. As you enter a post-doc, you will have to change your mindset from more of a "memorization" approach that you have utilized in Medical school, to more of a mind to understand details, details, and more details, as well as application of the scientific method of hypothesis building and testing through experimentation. Best of luck on your choices.
