Likelihood of MD/PhD acceptance, and a personal statement question

[Buskutsustah]

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Hi all,

I am a 25-year old female interested in applying to MD/PhD programs for the 2014 cycle. I am new to posting on SDN but have found a wealth of helpful information here thus far, so thanks in advance, everyone!

After talking to an MD/PhD resident, my PI, and an admissions counselor, and reading a fair amount about the program online, I believe it would be a great path for me and think I have a shot at getting in, but I want to get a few more opinions.

My goal is to run my own laboratory to investigate the neural mechanisms of autism. Most of my research experience has been with human subjects, so I am leaning toward the neurology/MRI/imaging side of this research, but as I have recently taken more advanced bio courses and biochem, I have realized that neuropathology might be a good fit too depending on how I like my med school biochem coursework and wet lab experience. But that is a bridge to cross later.

My primary motivations for pursuing the MD/PhD are, as one might expect, a genuine passion for science and research, as well as a strong desire to treat patients directly 20-30% of the time. I see the 80/20 split as an advantage not only because it provides physician-scientists with a comprehensive and unique perspective on both research and medicine, but because I enjoy the fundamental human experience that comes from clinical experience--that of helping others resolve serious problems in their lives, and being there to comfort them through that process. I am a very thorough person, so I have done a lot of research on this path and am convinced that if I am accepted to a program, it will be a great way to accomplish my specific goals--just the MD or the PhD would be fine, but this program emphasizes the dual doctor/PI career that I truly see myself involved in down the line.

The interesting part of my story is that I myself have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (Asperger's). Although people close to me always knew that I was "different" than others, no one could figure it out until a clever psychiatrist diagnosed me a few years ago. I have had a desire to be a physician and a researcher since I was young, but getting the diagnosis was devastating for me, and eventually led to my dropping the med school plan for a few years because I thought I couldn't handle the social demands of medicine. I worked in public health research after graduation, but after two years I realized that my true passion was in fact translational research and medicine, and that rather than using my diagnosis as an excuse to not face my problems, I should use the assets that the spectrum provides to my advantage--a brain apt at science, as well as extreme focus and determination--and become the autism researcher-clinician I have for so long wanted to become.

But this situation provides a unique challenge for me, especially when it comes to my personal statement. Obviously, if I did not have a passion for medicine and research, I would not be entering this career, but I feel that my diagnosis explains a great deal about what actually drives me to complete such an arduous path--the desire to help others who are faced with the same obstacles that I face. It also explains several of the parts of my application that might raise some eyebrows (see below statistics)--although I DO NOT by any means intend to use my diagnosis as an "out" for the weaknesses in my application--just as an explanation so that adcoms have a better understanding of why things turned out the way they did.

So that being said, my main questions are:
-Is it a good idea to include my diagnosis in my personal statement, or is that a death sentence? I know that my social skills are up to par for being a doctor, so I know I can convey that in my interviews, but I am just worried about being screened out early.
-With my stats below, do you think I'd be a competitive applicant? I haven't taken the MCAT yet, but feeling confident and hoping for score below.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this long post! 🙂

-GPA: 3.65 with sharp upward trend. I had a B-, a C, and a C- all in my first semester of Freshman year, and if you take out those grades, it's a 3.8. I am still worried it's a little low for MD/PhD, though.
-MCAT-taking in May, but hoping for 36-38.
-Research experience:
-currently a research assistant and lab manager in a translational neuroscience lab with a very well-known PI at Harvard Med School; running two independent projects and analyzing data for another; one independent project, which I helped design and implemented on my own, will be published by the time I enter med school, on which I will be first author; also assist PI with IRB, budgeting, intern mentoring/training, lab seminar organization, and other management responsibilities
-2 years public health research; was private sector so did not have much opportunity to run independent projects, but got two publications out of it by being in charge of data analysis for both projects
-2 years running subjects and processing data in an autism research lab under another well-known PI at Harvard Med School; self-funded a summer in this lab through a grant from my undergrad institution
-1 year designing and processing data in social psychology lab in undergrad
-1 semester processing data in emotional behavior lab in undergrad

My main concern is that although I am running independent projects now, I didn't do that as much in undergrad, partly because I was too shy to ask PIs if I could do a thesis with them (stupid--I know--currently kicking self) and partly because during my senior year I was exploring careers other than medicine and ended up dedicating my time more to that than to the more focused research I could have been doing while in the autism lab. I know this was a result of my spectrum perfectionism, which is a trait I've now learned to overcome, but I am afraid this will still raise eyebrows.

Thanks again!

 

[BigFatCat]

Hi!
I'm an applicant myself (matriculating this summer), so here's my mildly informed answers:
- It may be a good idea to leave the diagnosis out. If you can articulate why you want the MD/PhD without specifically talking about your diagnosis, it may be safer to do so. You can always talk about it during your interviews when you feel it's appropriate. I don't know how much control you have on how it'll come off when it's written on paper, you know what I mean? You can say you have social skills to offset any doubt raised by the diagnosis, but it's much more reassuring if you can actually show that during your interviews.
- Your stats seem fine, just apply broadly.
- I don't know how much the fact that your research is mostly translational will affect your application. Others can comment on this? Some programs may be more receptive to public health/translational research than others. Be sure to emphasize that you are able to conduct hypothesis-driven research though, not just data crunching stuff. It won't hurt you to get some wet lab experience too, just to show that you can do it.

 

[Buskutsustah]

BigFatCat,

First of all, your username and picture are awesome. Second, thanks for your quick and honest response, and congrats on matriculating this summer! In response to what you've written, that's great to hear that at least my stats are ok (banking on a good MCAT score).

In terms of wet lab experience, as much as I'd love to do that before applying this June, I'm not sure how much time I'll have to devote to that as I'm studying for the MCAT until May and then pretty much starting my applications right after that. I wonder if it would help to get some sort of internship right after the MCAT and stick with it the year I'm applying? But maybe it is too late now.

Anyways, I'm not even sure I'd want to do wet lab research (although it does sound appealing from how much I've liked my basic science courses), so if that's the case, would it hurt that I've had mostly human subjects research experience, working in one clinical lab and the others translational? I guess that depends on what your definition of "clinical" and "translational" research is. The lab where I work now is considered "clinical" by the hospital because we work with human subjects, but if you define it as research that is making a basic discovery that will have clinical applications, it is definitely basic or translational...

Thanks again!

 

[BigFatCat]

BigFatCat,

First of all, your username and picture are awesome. Second, thanks for your quick and honest response, and congrats on matriculating this summer! In response to what you've written, that's great to hear that at least my stats are ok (banking on a good MCAT score).

In terms of wet lab experience, as much as I'd love to do that before applying this June, I'm not sure how much time I'll have to devote to that as I'm studying for the MCAT until May and then pretty much starting my applications right after that. I wonder if it would help to get some sort of internship right after the MCAT and stick with it the year I'm applying? But maybe it is too late now.

Anyways, I'm not even sure I'd want to do wet lab research (although it does sound appealing from how much I've liked my basic science courses), so if that's the case, would it hurt that I've had mostly human subjects research experience, working in one clinical lab and the others translational? I guess that depends on what your definition of "clinical" and "translational" research is. The lab where I work now is considered "clinical" by the hospital because we work with human subjects, but if you define it as research that is making a basic discovery that will have clinical applications, it is definitely basic or translational...

Thanks again!

You're very welcome. 🙂
Does your current lab have any wet portion that you can get on? If so, that may be a quick way to get your hands wet. If not, I've met at least one purely public health/translational person on my interview trail, so it's definitely doable. It may be worth looking into specific programs that are friendlier to this kind of research (UNC comes to mind).

 

[Buskutsustah]

Unfortunately, my lab is all EEG/MRI/neurophysiology. I could look around the rest of my hospital for some wet labs though.

That's good to hear that you saw someone interviewing with public health and translational experience. To be honest, I am 99% sure that I will not end up in public health research (it was really boring for me), but rather in imaging, or maybe wet lab if I end up liking that--again, really mad at myself that I didn't get more experience in wet lab when I was in college, but that's how it goes I suppose. I know I want to do research investigating the causes of disease that will inform clinical decisions later on down the line (and not clinical research), so I hope my experience thus far can make my strong interest in research evident and get me in somewhere. If I have to say I'm interested in imaging now to get in since I've already had that kind of experience, then so be it.

I looked at the Harvard MD/PhD program and there are some students doing a PhD in Economics (!!), so I guess some schools are very liberal about the PhD discipline. I wonder what kind of research experience those people did as undergrads. Why one would pursue a PhD in such a discipline along with an MD I am not sure, but at least it shows that schools are being open-minded these days.

 

[ValentinNarcisse]

EEG/MRI/neurophysiology is basic science, not translational. It counts.

 

[Prion13]

Most of my research was in a translational lab (one involved in applying basic sciences to the study of human samples), and I do think it hurt me a little at some schools, and nothing makes you feel worse about an interview when an interviewer disparages human sample research immediately after you send 15 minutes describing your research on human samples (had this happen at least a couple of times). That being said, I still had a pretty successful cycle so as long as your application is generally strong and you can do a good job expressing your interest in joining an MD/PhD program (since the PhD portion of most but not all programs are oriented heavily around basic rather than translational research), you should still be able to do fine.

 

[gutonc]

Most of my research was in a translational lab (one involved in applying basic sciences to the study of human samples), and I do think it hurt me a little at some schools, and nothing makes you feel worse about an interview when an interviewer disparages human sample research immediately after you send 15 minutes describing your research on human samples (had this happen at least a couple of times). That being said, I still had a pretty successful cycle so as long as your application is generally strong and you can do a good job expressing your interest in joining an MD/PhD program (since the PhD portion of most but not all programs are oriented heavily around basic rather than translational research), you should still be able to do fine.

This is going to happen no matter what you do your research on. Do research using human samples? Get dinged for not using cell culture. Do research using cell culture models? Get bitched at for not using animal models. You can't win this one so don't fight it. Everyone out there will have some complaint about your research...just have a good grasp on why you used the system you used and be done with it.

This is the sort of thing that will happen to you throughout your career. There is one extremely high profile Dept Chair at my institution that will tank almost every grant she reviews if it includes xenografts into immune compromised mice because she's a tumor immunologist and thinks you might as well just use cell culture if you're going to use Nod/SCIDs and save the mouse costs. It's life...you move on.

 

[Buskutsustah]

Thanks all for your helpful responses. This has really clarified for me how much the MD/PhD program seems to be leaning toward "basic science" research, with basic science defined as actual bench research. I always thought "basic" entailed research that was not outcomes-based or designed to test a specific treatment (those would be clinical in my mind), but rather furthering general scientific knowledge, whether that be on the bench or with human subjects research in an EEG or MRI lab. My lab specifically investigates the neurophysiology of sleep and its various effects on memory consolidation using EEG and MRI, and may or may not conduct studies that will eventually lead to clinical studies investigating the applications of this knowledge for treatment of psychiatric disorders. I would define the latter kind of study as translational, but for the most part, my PI is more interested in investigating the general physiology of sleep at the EEG level, which I would consider "basic" in the sense that it has no direct clinical application. I know these definitions can get dicey, though, so I would really appreciate your opinions on this topic.

Now, that having been said, I should add a bit more information to this thread. I have started to realize as I've worked more in human subjects research and taken more upper-level basic science classes (took most of those after undergrad as I was a psych major) that I'm really more interested in the biochem side of things, which is probably the more traditional definition of basic science research. I love my job because it gives me the opportunity to run my own research projects in my area of research interest (neuroscience), BUT I am pretty sure I don't want to go into sleep research specifically, and I would really like to try out working in wet labs when I get to school or even before that to see if that is more up my alley (which I think it probably will be). I majored in psychology because for some reason in undergrad I wanted to be a psychiatrist, but now I am really not sure about that. Since taking more upper-level bio courses, I'm starting to think that straight neuro or even neuropathology would be a better fit for me, and therefore I would like my research to be more related to those fields.

But for now, I definitely DO NOT have enough bench research experience to get into an MD/PhD program for wet lab research, and besides, I do not want to sign away those extra years of my life to conducting a type of research I am not completely sure I am interested in yet. I know that I want to conduct research investigating the mechanisms of autism, but I am not sure which kind of system I would like to use yet. I know I would at least be interested in conducting MRI research if I don't like the wet lab thing, since I've worked in that setting before. But it doesn't seem like many MD/PhDs are doing that kind of research, which is the only basis I have for my experience in research. So I wonder, would it be beneficial to just go for the MD only and see how I like working in a few different types of wet labs and MRI labs in school, and then either apply MD/PhD within my med school or just get the MD if it turns out that I don't really need it to do the kind of research I want to do? I really don't care in the end whether or not I have both degrees--I just want whatever degree I have to get me where I want to be in my career.

Thanks again in advance 😀

 

[Buskutsustah]

Oh and to clarify, I definitely do want to at least get the MD--just meant if I don't need the PhD that's fine!