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Last semester jitters-Question and advice/feedback
- Thread starter mph876
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For a MD/PhD program, you need to impress the PhD admissions folks that you are a good fit for their PhD program and that you will find a lab that you'll work in for your PhD. The fact that you have a very defined interest is good but, on the other hand, unless that is a research interest of a PI at a given med school, you may be considered a candidate who isn't good fit. Do you have an idea of the schools where work on your research interest is being done? Are those schools you'd be interesting in attending (given location, culture, etc)? Do you have a strong track record in bench research? If not, drop the MD/PhD plan and go directly to MD.
While some schools will give MD/PhD students something of a pass when it comes to clinical exposure, some will not because they've been burned by students who didn't have much clinical experience, got into the MD/PhD and after some clinical exposure discovered that they loved the clinical side and didn't really want to go back to the lab! So, get some more clinical exposure and decide whether you really want to be 80% lab, 20% clinical in your professional life. If you wouldn't be happy limiting your clinical responsibilities to one day per week (or 5-6 days per week for 5-6 weeks per year) then MD/PhD might not be a good fit for you.
Your MCAT study schedule is too little, too late. You need to take a deeper dive into the application process and the beast that is the MCAT. You really won't be ready to start the other parts of the AMCAS application while you are preparing for the MCAT and early July might be optimistic in terms of being ready to submit. I'd suggest a gap year so that you have adequate time for the MCAT and don't rush into this. You could always get additional bench research experience which is always good for MD/PhD, or get a clinical job or earn an additional degree during that gap year.
While some schools will give MD/PhD students something of a pass when it comes to clinical exposure, some will not because they've been burned by students who didn't have much clinical experience, got into the MD/PhD and after some clinical exposure discovered that they loved the clinical side and didn't really want to go back to the lab! So, get some more clinical exposure and decide whether you really want to be 80% lab, 20% clinical in your professional life. If you wouldn't be happy limiting your clinical responsibilities to one day per week (or 5-6 days per week for 5-6 weeks per year) then MD/PhD might not be a good fit for you.
Your MCAT study schedule is too little, too late. You need to take a deeper dive into the application process and the beast that is the MCAT. You really won't be ready to start the other parts of the AMCAS application while you are preparing for the MCAT and early July might be optimistic in terms of being ready to submit. I'd suggest a gap year so that you have adequate time for the MCAT and don't rush into this. You could always get additional bench research experience which is always good for MD/PhD, or get a clinical job or earn an additional degree during that gap year.
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