Left Ph.D then decided med school is best, what now?

[Porter]

Hi,

So the story goes, I left the Ph.d program I was in after a year and a half. I knew why I left but didn't really have a next step. I Took a year of leave of absence and about 8 months in realized that medicine is actually the best choice for me. When it was all said and done I was told I could only come back to finish a Ph.D which I had no desire to do. I have spoken at a conference and have a publication from the whole thing. My Grad school grades are average.

Right now I am trying to organize a weight loss program for a free health clinic I volunteer at and working on studying for MCAT and getting shadowing. I am also prior enlisted.

How badly do you think leaving grad school will hurt me given everything else?

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[QofQuimica]

This question is impossible to answer without an UG GPA and an MCAT score. But if you're asking whether quitting in general will automatically sink your app, the answer is no. What have you been/are you doing with yourself job-wise since you left grad school?

 

[Goro]

We do recognize that people pick a path that they then realize is not the right one. However, you will have to explain why Medicine is the right one, and how you will not bail on medical school like you did with your PhD program.

Hi,

So the story goes, I left the Ph.d program I was in after a year and a half. I knew why I left but didn't really have a next step. I Took a year of leave of absence and about 8 months in realized that medicine is actually the best choice for me. When it was all said and done I was told I could only come back to finish a Ph.D which I had no desire to do. I have spoken at a conference and have a publication from the whole thing. My Grad school grades are average.

Right now I am trying to organize a weight loss program for a free health clinic I volunteer at and working on studying for MCAT and getting shadowing. I am also prior enlisted.

How badly do you think leaving grad school will hurt me given everything else?

 

[notbobtrustme]

I was pretty much in the same situation and it didn't hurt me at all, I don't think at least. My MCAT was strong, 37, and my uGPA was 3.6. I applied quite late in the cycle (complete late Sept/early Oct) and I still received 2 MD interview invites and 1 DO invites out of 4 MD and 1 DO applications. I was waitlisted at both MD schools (eventually accepted off one) and outright accepted at the DO.

Basically, you need to play the same game as everyone else. Good undergrad GPA, MCAT, volunteering. I'm assuming you were in a bio/chem/phys PhD, so you would have lots of bench research. The most important thing, IMO, is getting good LORs from your committee/mentor/PIs. That would assuage most fears an adcom might have.

 

[Porter]

Job wise I am an assistant manager at a place I worked in college. I wasnt really sure what I was gonna do with myself school-wise when I left and they offered me the position so I took it in order to just clear my head. Now I am volunteering at a free clinic and the VA clinic in the area (starting January) as a translator. It gives me a good amount of exposure to patient care. As I said before I am trying to start a free program for people wanting to lose weight with the free clinic and that should be up in spring next year.

uGPA 3.67 sGPA 3.77
Scoring mid 30's on MCAT practice exams at the moment with an upward trend so looking at maybe mid to upper 30's when I test in march.

edit; Yes I was in a ph.d program for molecular biology. My PI wrote me a letter, so thats good.

Goro, would you say this is best done throught the personal statement or through EC's or just a good combo?

 

[notbobtrustme]

Job wise I am an assistant manager at a place I worked in college. I wasnt really sure what I was gonna do with myself school-wise when I left and they offered me the position so I took it in order to just clear my head. Now I am volunteering at a free clinic and the VA clinic in the area (starting January) as a translator. It gives me a good amount of exposure to patient care. As I said before I am trying to start a free program for people wanting to lose weight with the free clinic and that should be up in spring next year.

uGPA 3.67 sGPA 3.77
Scoring mid 30's on MCAT practice exams at the moment with an upward trend so looking at maybe mid to upper 30's when I test in march.

edit; Yes I was in a ph.d program for molecular biology. My PI wrote me a letter, so thats good.

Goro, would you say this is best done throught the personal statement or through EC's or just a good combo?

Nice, you are well on your way. What I did was communicate why research no longer served my goals in my PS. Basically, I was tired of making minor, incremental advancements and I wanted to make a more meaningful impact on people's lives. I really enjoy physiology and biochemistry and I talked about at length how physicians use these principles to help them diagnose and care for patients. Finally, I did mention the research climate was becoming more and more hostile for the average, but well-achieving, researcher due to where the NIH budget system is going. Less money for grants means less money for researchers and this will impact the vast majority of researchers who don't stumble onto the next big thing.

I did some volunteering at a VA as well. One of my PIs was an internist at the VA, so it really helped having his letter in my application packet.

 

[QuantumJ]

Everything thats been said so far is great advice. My leaving the PhD program came up in most interviews but it's really just a longer explanation for why medicine. Your gpa is great and a mid 30s mcat means you should be able to get in somewhere with sufficient ec's and such .

 

[Porter]

Thanks guys, if I had found everything said here before I would have never needed to ask the question!