Mba/md

[Eddie_MD]

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Whats up?

I've been coming here a great deal and reading a lot of the posts, I think this is a great place to ask opinions of others. I've been headed to medical school since I was 5 yrs old, there isn't another profession that I could even consider doing. My degree is in biochem from St. Edwards University in Austin, TX. After graduation, I decided to not pursue medical school yet, the main deterent was my GPA, a measly 3.12 due to outside interference such as family problems and health. My mother became very ill during my undergraduate years, and I was forced to get a job, work and help support her and my sister. Anyways, it has made me a much tougher and stronger person. After graduation I applied to the graduate program at University of St. Thomas to get my MBA. I am ontrack to finish in 1.5yrs, hopefully December 2003. My question is, how many people have gone on to get an MBA and go to medical school afterwards. I am doing the MBA because I never had any business classes in undergrad, and my cousin who is a neurosurgeon said that it would be in my best interest to get an MBA, as he is pursuing his currently. What kind of advice, or words of wisdom could you folks send my way. I'd like to know if MBA would aid in my application to medical school. Thanks for your help in advance, and good luck to all!

Eddie

 

[square]

i myself plan on getting a md/mba. as with anything else, business/money is the bottom line. that said, i would help to be able to understand the business side of medicine in order to understand how the system works. getting the mba allows you flexibility. you will be amazed at how much you can do with an mba--add to that an md. upon graduating from undergrad i went to work in the "real world" for a few years, so i have much better understanding of not only where my real passion lies, but also that medicine is also a business. i plan on entering med school in 2004. hope this helps

abiff

 

[DarkChild]

i really think you should try working for a few years. alone, I doubt the MBA will get more than a .. Oh thats interesting...
but if you can say that you worked for a while and did this this and that and had a leadership role and because of that are really interested in hospital administration, then it could really work to your advantage. the other reason that I'd really suggest to you that you work for a while is that you might really end up liking working in business. I did it for 1.5 years and it was pretty fun, but just not my style. If I were seriously concerned about making money - and I'm talking serious dough here, not just enough to live pretty OK - then medicine really isnt the path for you. You've got med school for 4 years. Then residency for 4 more years. And then depending on your specialty you're only making 125K-250K.
But by then you're:
a) old and have to worry about kids and colleges and mortgages and car payments
b) have a substantial amount of debt
c) have few assets
if you did an MBA, took out about 60K in loans and then got a decent job paying say 80K. if you play your cards right, 8 years from now you should at least be in the range of 150K plus have some sort of stock options.
if I were you, I'd see how far the MBA goes. its a crappy year to be looking for jobs, so try for like 6 months. if you get no love, just apply to med schools and f- it.

 

[dst10spr97]

I agree with getting work experience after you obtain your MBA, or while you're getting your MBA, if you are going part time (as I did). I have my MBA, received it last year. Yes there is money to be made, but a lot of it is who you know and/or where you get a job. It's funny how people always associate MBA and money. It's not an automatic thing. I make good money, but I also have over 6 years of accounting/finance experience alone in addition to my MBA. Plus a B.S. in Accounting.

I too had been wondering how my MBA would fit in with an MD, since it had really been my initial dream to become a doctor. That's how I ended up finding this sight. So yes you are in good hands here. At least you have the science foundation. I personally will be postbaccing (my new word) myself to death until I get all of my science prereqs done. I think the combination of business skills and medical skills, will be powerful if you work it! Good luck!

 

[Mimicat]

I too have an MBA and worked at both ends of the business spectrum - non-profit, and investment banking. There is no doubt that the $$ in IB is fantastic 😱 (my year end bonus was more than some of my friends make in a year), but the intrinsic rewards just weren't there for me. Non-profit had the opposite problem - I loved the job and felt great about what I was doing, but the salary was tough to live on.

In terms of meds, to make the MBA degree "work" for you, I think you have to sell the app committee on your "transferable skills". For instance, I worked in a large trading room and was bombarded with often conflicting market information, yet had to keep my cool, employ critical thinking skills under time pressure, and communicate clearly and efficiently with different market specialists and clients all at the same time. The stress level was pretty high, and the cost of even tiny errors when you are dealing with hundreds of millions of $$ are nasty! What I am stressing in my application is my ability to work under pressure, my ability to employ analytical thinking and decision-making skills under less than ideal conditions, and my strong interpersonal communication skills. I also have demonstrated the ability to master highly technical material and a technical language for communication.

I think the committees would be less interested in WHAT you did with your MBA, and more interested in the skills you developed which would be directly applicable in medicine.

Just my 2 cents - good luck, Mimi

 

[DukeBluDevl02]

The reason that neurosurgeon said what he said is that neurosurgeons pay the highest rates of malpractice and most have taken 90% pay cuts since 1989. They don't want anyone going into medicine anymore, not even themselves. Yet, they drive around in Porsches and live in very nice homes. They have completely lost sight of why they went into medicine to begin with. I understand their point of view and hope that problems get fixed. But, what can I do as a future doctor who is excited about going into medicine for what the profession has to offer? That neurosurgeon would be better of getting 100 of his closest doctor buddies together and start talking as a unified group and do something about the problems--don't complain to the future generation of young doctors who want it badly.

I speak from experience talking with several neurosurgeons this past summer, and I too was told to get an MBA, but not an MD. I'd get an MBA because it just so happens I'm also interested in health policy, not because of the reasons the neurosurgeon would suggest. If I never met another neurosurgeon in my life, I wouldn't be disappointed, they're ornery and self-centered. But, unfortunately, I guess that won't be happening.

 

[Eddie_MD]

I guess it doesn't matter anymore. After this semester of graduate school I decided to drop out and just take my chances with a school in the carribeans. I think I would much rather leave my debt to be accumulated by med school instead of a MBA. The second thing and the most important thing is that I missed science, I can't believe how much I missed what I studied and researched. I've enrolled in the Kaplan class and plan on taking my MCAT in April. After that I'm going to apply to St. Georges, and Ross. I'm pretty confident that I will get in and I also think it's probably the best decision for me right now because I have a hard time seeing my future here as a doctor. I don't want to sound like a pessimist but things are not going as well as we'd like to think in this country and I'm a bit scared as it is of what might happen. There is a great deal of global instability and it seems that it's only increasing exponentially through the years.

Saying all that I have, I would like to get some peoples opinions and experiences with carribean schools and any other 'bits' of information that you might be able to share. For the most part, it seems that if you want to be a doctor you'll become a doctor anywhere. I'll have to take 1 extra test, the Foreign something or other, and for the most part USMLE is all about the student, do you study or do you sit on your arse.. Opportunity is all around us, we just have to get up and grab it - basically a doctor is a doctor is a doctor no matter where he is. I'm not in this for the money, not for the life, or the prestige. The most important thing in my life is to help humanity outlast its own existance by helping develop new techniques, possibly researching neurological disorders. I can't say that I look at medical school as medical school or even a hoop that I must jump through. Medical school is like a book that is filled with lots of rising actions, and several climaxes, but most importantly it's the knowledge that your allowed to put in your head, what you decide to do with it is up to you. God bless..


Anyways - I have digressed, good luck to all.

Eddie