Leaving PhD to apply to medical school.

[Prettypuff1]

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I am about 95% sure that i am leaving my PhD program in Pharmacology after my masters and applying to medical school I am trying to wait that long to ensure my decision is what i want to do but i am fairly certain that this is the way.

My reason for leaving is that I have always wanted to become a physician. I have shadowed a physician before in several settings( apart of a program of my masters degree) and i did enjoy it greatly. I am preparing to start volunteering in the hospital here and will begin working at a hospital. I am open to applying to Physician assistant/ MSN for non nurses programs if i am not accepted to medical school. I have kind of gone alongside medicine but after working along side it, i decided that i need to just go for what i really want. I was going to apply to medical school after i finish my PhD anyway so I am willing to just go with it now.

The issue i have with research is the everyday life of a professor is not what i want to do. Grant writing, writing papers are the bulk of the job and thats not what i want. The interaction with people and the public is what i want. The life of academia is not what i thought it would be. My naivety' about research stem from coming to a major research institute from a smaller liberal arts school. At the liberal arts college while we did conduct research, the main focus was student development and teaching. That is not the focus here and frankly those teaching positions aren't opening up.

With that said. I want to know how does this look to applications? I dont want to continue to get the PhD just because of how it will look. But with that said i will if i have to. I have spoken with a few people at the medical school here who said that as long as my grades were good, it wouldn't negatively impact me

 

[cliquesh]

How much longer would it take to complete your phd? Having a phd helps when applying for residency.

 

[Prettypuff1]

How much longer would it take to complete your phd? Having a phd helps when applying for residency.

It will be about 4.5/5 years.. I would have 2 masters degrees ( one is really like a second BS in biology) . I was looking to apply in the 2014 cycle for entrance n 2015.

 

[MedPR]

I am about 95% sure that i am leaving my PhD program in Pharmacology after my masters and applying to medical school I am trying to wait that long to ensure my decision is what i want to do but i am fairly certain that this is the way.

My reason for leaving is that I have always wanted to become a physician. I have shadowed a physician before in several settings( apart of a program of my masters degree) and i did enjoy it greatly. I am preparing to start volunteering in the hospital here and will begin working at a hospital. I am open to applying to Physician assistant/ MSN for non nurses programs if i am not accepted to medical school. I have kind of gone alongside medicine but after working along side it, i decided that i need to just go for what i really want. I was going to apply to medical school after i finish my PhD anyway so I am willing to just go with it now.

The issue i have with research is the everyday life of a professor is not what i want to do. Grant writing, writing papers are the bulk of the job and thats not what i want. The interaction with people and the public is what i want. The life of academia is not what i thought it would be. My naivety' about research stem from coming to a major research institute from a smaller liberal arts school. At the liberal arts college while we did conduct research, the main focus was student development and teaching. That is not the focus here and frankly those teaching positions aren't opening up.

With that said. I want to know how does this look to applications? I dont want to continue to get the PhD just because of how it will look. But with that said i will if i have to. I have spoken with a few people at the medical school here who said that as long as my grades were good, it wouldn't negatively impact me

Quitting one professional program to apply to another is never looked upon favorably.

 

[Prettypuff1]

Quitting one professional program to apply to another is never looked upon favorably.

I understand that. But i would like to know how deeply terrible it is. is it 100% deal breaker, or is it " why did you decide to change and how can we know you are 100% about joining us here". I believe by taking time to complete shadowing and volunteer experience( two things i am currently doing) and working closely in a hospital setting in addition to handling things well with my current university, it will not be a complete negative..

is the latter true?

 

[DocRooster]

Sure it is. I quit two.
Ph.D. In bioengineerig
Mech eng design for major engine manufacturer
Three, if you count the military. I was doing well before I left.

If you want it bad enough, you'll know it. And it will show.


Ph.D. in 5 years? Right.... What else did they tell you? You could pick your own research?






Edit:
If you get finish a Ph.D purely for the sake of residency...I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
Let me know so I can buy a rocket or something.

 

[advair250]

"What else did they tell you? You could pick your own research?" You mean you can pick research outside of where the grant funding tells you too research? 😛

 

[Prettypuff1]

Sure it is. I quit two.
Ph.D. In bioengineerig
Mech eng design for major engine manufacturer
Three, if you count the military. I was doing well before I left.

If you want it bad enough, you'll know it. And it will show.


Ph.D. in 5 years? Right.... What else did they tell you? You could pick your own research?

This was blind faith.. most of the people in the department finish about there..5 or 5.5 years.. They told me i could pick my own research but I was greeted with a paper that was missing data that i need to finish asap( as in before i started)...

Please elaborate on the programs you left..

I spoke with a counselor who said he quit a phd in psychology at 40 to go to medical school... he said it didn't really hinder him that much

 

[TriagePreMed]

Quitting one professional program to apply to another is never looked upon favorably.

PhD is not considered to be a "professional program." It is considered to just be graduate school. Professional programs are MD, JD, MBA, DVM, etc. It won't be looked as badly as quitting a real professional program.

OP, don't worry about it. There have been other people that have done the same as you before. Sure, you will have to answer as to why you quit and how you are committed, but if you have enough shadowing and volunteering in the field, it's credible that you won't jump ship from medicine. Besides, you're making a clean cut with a masters rather than no degree at all or years into your research.

I don't know why people are making fun of the 5 years for PhD? At least in California, the pharmacology programs do usually run just 5 years.

 

[costales]

Nobody cares about your not pursuing a PhD after your master's. You'll be fine.

 

[TriagePreMed]

Nobody cares about your not pursuing a PhD after your master's. You'll be fine.

The issue will be that he's leaving a PhD program. He'll have a masters because he'll request the terminal degree which only happens if a) you request it by leaving the program, or b) you get kicked out because you can't pass your oral tests to become a PhD candidate.

 

[Prettypuff1]

That's not true. The department does give admission to an MS degree. 4 people are enrolled in the ms option.

 

[TriagePreMed]

That's not true. The department does give admission to an MS degree. 4 people are enrolled in the ms option.

I misunderstood then. I thought you were in the PhD program? If you were in the MS program all along, it wouldn't matter because you entered a terminal degree program. If you're in the PhD program and get the MS, things still work under the scenario I described regardless of there being another program that's MS only.

 

[Prettypuff1]

Nobody cares about your not pursuing a PhD after your master's. You'll be fine.

I misunderstood then. I thought you were in the PhD program? If you were in the MS program all along, it wouldn't matter because you entered a terminal degree program. If you're in the PhD program and get the MS, things still work under the scenario I described regardless of there being another program that's MS only.

I was in a phd and decided to change to an MS.

 

[costales]

I was in a phd and decided to change to an MS.

Nobody will question your decision. Go for it.

 

[cliquesh]

It will be about 4.5/5 years.. I would have 2 masters degrees ( one is really like a second BS in biology) . I was looking to apply in the 2014 cycle for entrance n 2015.

If you had 1 or 2 years left I'd would have said finish the phd. Just go to medical school.

 

[TriagePreMed]

I was in a phd and decided to change to an MS.

Oh, then probably nobody will even know that you were in the PhD option first, so you don't even have the "quitters" stigma to deal with.

 

[Digsbe]

It's rough swapping out programs, I think if you can explain why you are dedicated to medicine then it shouldn't hurt you, in fact your additional knowledge may help you. Get some shadowing hours and maybe some volunteer/work experience in a medical setting. I'm in a similar situation, I'm in a professional program (PharmD) and I'm strongly considering of applying to DO schools before I graduate (for financial reasons, I would finish my PharmD and then go on to earn a DO if it wasn't going to cost me hundreds of thousands in debt if I got both degrees), my goals and interests are changing and I'm hoping that adcoms would realize that I am committed, which is hard to convey. That's a challenge I am facing too. Good luck to you in whichever decision you make.

 

[Prettypuff1]

It's rough swapping out programs, I think if you can explain why you are dedicated to medicine then it shouldn't hurt you, in fact your additional knowledge may help you. Get some shadowing hours and maybe some volunteer/work experience in a medical setting. I'm in a similar situation, I'm in a professional program (PharmD) and I'm strongly considering of applying to DO schools before I graduate (for financial reasons, I would finish my PharmD and then go on to earn a DO if it wasn't going to cost me hundreds of thousands in debt if I got both degrees), my goals and interests are changing and I'm hoping that adcoms would realize that I am committed, which is hard to convey. That's a challenge I am facing too. Good luck to you in whichever decision you make.

I was considering a PharmD before I applied to my current program..

I got a small amount of experience shadowing one and i didn't really like what they did.. I have about 200 hours of shadowing from My masters program and I start volunteering next month.. Hopefully i can get going in this med scribe position as well but if not.. I can still shadow

 

[Digsbe]

I was considering a PharmD before I applied to my current program..

I got a small amount of experience shadowing one and i didn't really like what they did.. I have about 200 hours of shadowing from My masters program and I start volunteering next month.. Hopefully i can get going in this med scribe position as well but if not.. I can still shadow

I love the idea of clinical pharmacy, but I'm learning that depending on which hospital/clinic you work in your scope of practice may be limited to office work or nothing but chart reviews. The idea of helping manage a patient's pharmaceutical care, going on rounds and being a member of a patient's care team is extremely appealing but I know that I do not want a desk job. Realistically I think I may have better chances of getting into a DO school and going for an oncology residency versus finishing my PharmD, doing a heme/onc pharmacy residency and getting my pharmacy dream job. My main deterrent from wanting to go to medical school was that I didn't necessarily want to diagnose people or deal with surgery, I'm finding now that my interests are changing and the diagnostic aspect of things has become highly appealing to me as I'm learning about certain diseases and their diagnostic tests.

As others have said, I think if you get the masters and can say with truth that you were in a masters program it may actually help you get into medical school. I'm sure if you rock an interview and can show that you have a passion for medicine and won't drop out then you'll be fine. Best of luck to you, I'm still trying to figure out what I need to do with the hopes that a shot at med school isn't destroyed by me being in a PharmD program.

 

[cliquesh]

I love the idea of clinical pharmacy, but I'm learning that depending on which hospital/clinic you work in your scope of practice may be limited to office work or nothing but chart reviews. The idea of helping manage a patient's pharmaceutical care, going on rounds and being a member of a patient's care team is extremely appealing but I know that I do not want a desk job. Realistically I think I may have better chances of getting into a DO school and going for an oncology residency versus finishing my PharmD, doing a heme/onc pharmacy residency and getting my pharmacy dream job. My main deterrent from wanting to go to medical school was that I didn't necessarily want to diagnose people or deal with surgery, I'm finding now that my interests are changing and the diagnostic aspect of things has become highly appealing to me as I'm learning about certain diseases and their diagnostic tests.

As others have said, I think if you get the masters and can say with truth that you were in a masters program it may actually help you get into medical school. I'm sure if you rock an interview and can show that you have a passion for medicine and won't drop out then you'll be fine. Best of luck to you, I'm still trying to figure out what I need to do with the hopes that a shot at med school isn't destroyed by me being in a PharmD program.

Hah, the diagnosis, pathology and treatment are the coolest part of medicine. Unfortunately, that stuff will only take up 1/4 of your day. The rest of your day will be paper work and social work.

 

[Digsbe]

Hah, the diagnosis, pathology and treatment are the coolest part of medicine. Unfortunately, that stuff will only take up 1/4 of your day. The rest of your day will be paper work and social work.

Maybe so, although what I worry about in pharmacy is having very rare patient experience as a clinical pharmacist and not wanting to gamble with hospitals that may or may not let me out of an office to actually counsel patients and work on healthcare teams, I know as a physician I would definitely get to work with patients. Plus I'm becoming increasingly interested in diagnosing. I personally love pharmacology, but I could still apply my pharmacy knowledge as a physician, maybe even more than if I remained as a pharmacist. My main issue is the fear of applying, getting rejected due to being in a PharmD program and having my school discover that and then have my career possibly tarnished. The other is going through and completing my PharmD, graduating with an MD or DO after 4 more years and then having about 500-700k in student loan debt after all the interest has accrued during my time in residency. I wonder if the OP is in a similar scenario or if he was able to go to graduate school on a grant. I would so complete both degrees if money/interest wasn't an issue,

 

[DocRooster]

The program I left was a very well funded university research center, that collaborated closely with several other schools and medical centers in various states.
I was promised i'd be sent to the Cincinnatti Heart Institute to help re-design the Jarvik artificial heart.
-didn't happen
Then they promised I'd work on directly wiring neurons into electric circuits, using magnesium filament to stimulate neurotransmitter release.
-didn't happen
They promised my bone cancer bioreactor that I redesigned would lead to a patent in my name
-didn't happen

About the only thing that DID happen was helping to design a new orthopedic bone screw, and then helping develop the surgical procedure for implanting it for animal testing for the FDA. It was an ACL interference screw....I led the team to drill them into rabbit femurs in different ways.
(I'm proud of it. Sorry for bragging.)
I thought adcoms might be interested in hearing about some of it. They never even asked. Might have read it in my AACOMAS...who knows. Never came up.
I left because I couldnt stand watching surgeons take credit for my work, and get to use it on humans. Got tired of standing in front of a fume hood all day, talking to pipettes and beakers. And my preceptor reminded me of Kim Jong IL.

The mech eng was part of my undergrad work. I have a thing for design (why I wanna be a surgeon). Unfortunately, mech eng design field is pretty saturated. A good-old-boy/alumni system I wasn't privy to. I got stuck in manufacturing design --keeping an engine plant running. Re-working the diesel engine block was necessary for changes to the production line, and I was the only person younger than 60 and knew how to use SolidWorks. Designed a new engine hoist for them, and some new tools, too.
Fun, but not really challenging.
Again, adcoms couldnt care less.

Walked away from a genetics research opportunity (California mastitis). Didnt have much fun.

Left the Army because I shot too many dads, uncles and brothers. Adcoms LOVED this.


Don't worry about being labeled a quitter. Really. The only place you'll hear that is in your own insecurities and from other students trying to shoot you down. Start owning your decisions and standing up for your interests. Consider that you've worked very hard on something worthwhile and, in doing, discovered how you really want to spend your remaining days on the planet.

And do your absolute best to learn to trust your own intuition instead of being led by others.

 

[Prettypuff1]

Maybe so, although what I worry about in pharmacy is having very rare patient experience as a clinical pharmacist and not wanting to gamble with hospitals that may or may not let me out of an office to actually counsel patients and work on healthcare teams, I know as a physician I would definitely get to work with patients. Plus I'm becoming increasingly interested in diagnosing. I personally love pharmacology, but I could still apply my pharmacy knowledge as a physician, maybe even more than if I remained as a pharmacist. My main issue is the fear of applying, getting rejected due to being in a PharmD program and having my school discover that and then have my career possibly tarnished. The other is going through and completing my PharmD, graduating with an MD or DO after 4 more years and then having about 500-700k in student loan debt after all the interest has accrued during my time in residency. I wonder if the OP is in a similar scenario or if he was able to go to graduate school on a grant. I would so complete both degrees if money/interest wasn't an issue,

i was able to secure full funding for my graduate coursework, but i still have heavy loans for undergrad as i paid for it all my self.

The problem you are describing is the one that i had with pharmacy, wanting more clinical direct interaction with patients. Most of what i saw was the staff pharmacist role, which wasn't for me. i was considering this route and i was talking to my physician( a DO orthopedist) who said i probably wouldn't like it.. He said he knew of two pharmacists who were back in medical school because they didn't like pharmacy at all.. He told me to really shadow and get experience. I listened.

have you thought about speaking to a career counselor?

 

[Prettypuff1]

The program I left was a very well funded university research center, that collaborated closely with several other schools and medical centers in various states.
I was promised i'd be sent to the Cincinnatti Heart Institute to help re-design the Jarvik artificial heart.
-didn't happen
Then they promised I'd work on directly wiring neurons into electric circuits, using magnesium filament to stimulate neurotransmitter release.
-didn't happen
They promised my bone cancer bioreactor that I redesigned would lead to a patent in my name
-didn't happen

About the only thing that DID happen was helping to design a new orthopedic bone screw, and then helping develop the surgical procedure for implanting it for animal testing for the FDA. It was an ACL interference screw....I led the team to drill them into rabbit femurs in different ways.
(I'm proud of it. Sorry for bragging.)
I thought adcoms might be interested in hearing about some of it. They never even asked. Might have read it in my AACOMAS...who knows. Never came up.
I left because I couldnt stand watching surgeons take credit for my work, and get to use it on humans. Got tired of standing in front of a fume hood all day, talking to pipettes and beakers. And my preceptor reminded me of Kim Jong IL.

The mech eng was part of my undergrad work. I have a thing for design (why I wanna be a surgeon). Unfortunately, mech eng design field is pretty saturated. A good-old-boy/alumni system I wasn't privy to. I got stuck in manufacturing design --keeping an engine plant running. Re-working the diesel engine block was necessary for changes to the production line, and I was the only person younger than 60 and knew how to use SolidWorks. Designed a new engine hoist for them, and some new tools, too.
Fun, but not really challenging.
Again, adcoms couldnt care less.

Walked away from a genetics research opportunity (California mastitis). Didnt have much fun.

Left the Army because I shot too many dads, uncles and brothers. Adcoms LOVED this.


Don't worry about being labeled a quitter. Really. The only place you'll hear that is in your own insecurities and from other students trying to shoot you down. Start owning your decisions and standing up for your interests. Consider that you've worked very hard on something worthwhile and, in doing, discovered how you really want to spend your remaining days on the planet.

And do your absolute best to learn to trust your own intuition instead of being led by others.

YES to all of this!!!!👍👍

The choice has been made and I am going for it.

 

[DocRooster]

Great. We could use more non-@ssholes.

If you don't get in (which you probably will...greater than 50% chance if you play your cards) then you can basically go right back to the Ph.D anyway. Heck, some of the schools in Cali will fly you over, wine and dine you for a chance to be their lab-slave.
But, if you have that little voice nagging at you to be a physician...it's best to listen. Believe me, it won't shut up. I've tried. You'll never be happy wondering what-if.

Your brain already decided a long time ago. It's just waiting for your confidence to catch up.
Next step is learning how to stand your ground against the rest of these jerks.



Edit: that last part is actually kind of important, though pessimistic.
A large percentage of the interviewers are becoming increasingly negative. Adversarial. They try to break down your confidence, to crack your reasoning and see you sweat. Bit of a shark tank, sometimes. Just a warning, because I get the feeling you'd make really tasty bait.

I recommend flaming Triage just for kicks. He can take it. Or a random RVU thread. That's basically their purpose.

 

[Prettypuff1]

Maybe so, although what I worry about in pharmacy is having very rare patient experience as a clinical pharmacist and not wanting to gamble with hospitals that may or may not let me out of an office to actually counsel patients and work on healthcare teams, I know as a physician I would definitely get to work with patients. Plus I'm becoming increasingly interested in diagnosing. I personally love pharmacology, but I could still apply my pharmacy knowledge as a physician, maybe even more than if I remained as a pharmacist. My main issue is the fear of applying, getting rejected due to being in a PharmD program and having my school discover that and then have my career possibly tarnished. The other is going through and completing my PharmD, graduating with an MD or DO after 4 more years and then having about 500-700k in student loan debt after all the interest has accrued during my time in residency. I wonder if the OP is in a similar scenario or if he was able to go to graduate school on a grant. I would so complete both degrees if money/interest wasn't an issue,

Great. We could use more non-@ssholes.

If you don't get in (which you probably will...greater than 50% chance if you play your cards) then you can basically go right back to the Ph.D anyway. Heck, some of the schools in Cali will fly you over, wine and dine you for a chance to be their lab-slave.
But, if you have that little voice nagging at you to be a physician...it's best to listen. Believe me, it won't shut up. I've tried. You'll never be happy wondering what-if.

Your brain already decided a long time ago. It's just waiting for your confidence to catch up.
Next step is learning how to stand your ground against the rest of these jerks.



Edit: that last part is actually kind of important, though pessimistic.
A large percentage of the interviewers are becoming increasingly negative. Adversarial. They try to break down your confidence, to crack your reasoning and see you sweat. Bit of a shark tank, sometimes. Just a warning, because I get the feeling you'd make really tasty bait.

I recommend flaming Triage just for kicks. He can take it. Or a random RVU thread. That's basically their purpose.

I have the nagging voice. its louder now.. more yelling and aggressive going " WTF are you doing".
I probably would make shark bait but I will prepare for an aggressive time. Hopefully I was expecting medical school to be a rough marriage, so the courting process wouldn't be any different..

 

[Digsbe]

i was able to secure full funding for my graduate coursework, but i still have heavy loans for undergrad as i paid for it all my self.

The problem you are describing is the one that i had with pharmacy, wanting more clinical direct interaction with patients. Most of what i saw was the staff pharmacist role, which wasn't for me. i was considering this route and i was talking to my physician( a DO orthopedist) who said i probably wouldn't like it.. He said he knew of two pharmacists who were back in medical school because they didn't like pharmacy at all.. He told me to really shadow and get experience. I listened.

have you thought about speaking to a career counselor?

I've talked with family members extensively about my decision, but I fear talking with the career counselors at my school due to the fact that I wouldn't like my pharmacy school to know that I'm considering medicine until I've actually been accepted somewhere, if they knew I was planning on leaving eventually then I fear there may be bad consequences as far as school life and opportunities go (and understandably so). I plan on shadowing some physicians to see how I like it before making decisions, but I do have that nagging voice in my head that grows ever louder saying "you should have gone to med school." Before going to pharmacy school I talked with some clinical pharmacists face to face about their job and what they liked about it. Everything seemed appealing to me, I just wish that I knew that the odds of actually having a more "clinical" position is completely up to how your individual hospital operates and that those jobs are very few within the pharmacy world. Schools tend to overplay things and it seems all the faculty want us to go on and do residencies after graduation (and since pharmacy residencies are very limited I believe only abut 45% of those that apply get matched) and enter this booming clinical field that isn't the holy grail of pharmacy that everyone wants to talk about. I feel like I should apply now before I've wasted years in pharmacy school and tons of money in tuition, but the consequences of applying and not getting in while having that made known to my school would be dire from what I fear. Thankfully though I did finish all the pre-reqs in undergrad and got a bachelors before starting pharmacy school. I'm trying to find and talk to some PharmD/MD/DO individuals that may be able to share their experiences or even students that successfully swapped programs.

 

[JoAyi]

I am about 95% sure that i am leaving my PhD program in Pharmacology after my masters and applying to medical school I am trying to wait that long to ensure my decision is what i want to do but i am fairly certain that this is the way.

My reason for leaving is that I have always wanted to become a physician. I have shadowed a physician before in several settings( apart of a program of my masters degree) and i did enjoy it greatly. I am preparing to start volunteering in the hospital here and will begin working at a hospital. I am open to applying to Physician assistant/ MSN for non nurses programs if i am not accepted to medical school. I have kind of gone alongside medicine but after working along side it, i decided that i need to just go for what i really want. I was going to apply to medical school after i finish my PhD anyway so I am willing to just go with it now.

The issue i have with research is the everyday life of a professor is not what i want to do. Grant writing, writing papers are the bulk of the job and thats not what i want. The interaction with people and the public is what i want. The life of academia is not what i thought it would be. My naivety' about research stem from coming to a major research institute from a smaller liberal arts school. At the liberal arts college while we did conduct research, the main focus was student development and teaching. That is not the focus here and frankly those teaching positions aren't opening up.

With that said. I want to know how does this look to applications? I dont want to continue to get the PhD just because of how it will look. But with that said i will if i have to. I have spoken with a few people at the medical school here who said that as long as my grades were good, it wouldn't negatively impact me

If being a physician is what you really want, you really don't need to have a PhD.
Having a PhD doesnt help you for DO application, MD might like that. If you don't feel like spending more time in the graduate program, you may prepare MCAT while you are still in the program, I believe you get some tiny stipend as a PhD students, having some income is better than none while working on your MCAT. Besides, you are in charge of the experiments, you can arrange your exp well so you have time for MCAT. Or, if you are really fed up by PhD work, you can always quit and prepare MCAT full time and start shadowing/volunteering more. Having a 30+ in MCAT gives you a lot more options when applying for DO or MD. You can plan/think more when you have your score back.

Time flies fast, you only have few more months preparing for MCAT if you are shooting for class 2018. Applying early is a must for DO, it is a lesson for everyone here, apply early (June 2013) and broadly. I didn't apply for MD, so I am not sure if MD is a rolling based admission.

 

[Prettypuff1]

If being a physician is what you really want, you really don't need to have a PhD.
Having a PhD doesnt help you for DO application, MD might like that. If you don't feel like spending more time in the graduate program, you may prepare MCAT while you are still in the program, I believe you get some tiny stipend as a PhD students, having some income is better than none while working on your MCAT. Besides, you are in charge of the experiments, you can arrange your exp well so you have time for MCAT. Or, if you are really fed up by PhD work, you can always quit and prepare MCAT full time and start shadowing/volunteering more. Having a 30+ in MCAT gives you a lot more options when applying for DO or MD. You can plan/think more when you have your score back.

Time flies fast, you only have few more months preparing for MCAT if you are shooting for class 2018. Applying early is a must for DO, it is a lesson for everyone here, apply early (June 2013) and broadly. I didn't apply for MD, so I am not sure if MD is a rolling based admission.

I do get a small stipend with my current program and I have mapped out a small time line.
I am not sure if i am going to apply for class of 2018 or 2019.. i have all the pre-reqs but i would like to spend some time building the best application possible.. my undergrad gpa isnt stellar but hoped to build it up via EC, my grad school grades, and strong MCAT score.


- Now-April-MCAT studying and working as a medial scribe( i start training next week) I am going to use Kaplan course anytime to prepare( not sure thats what its called)
- May 2013-MCAT test

i wanted to take it early to try my hand at a few special masters programs for disadvantage backgrounds with entry to Med schools that require the MCAT. If i can get my work + shadowing up to 1000 hrs then i may apply in the coming cycle..

Well i am off to stalk a forum