MD/MPH and Residency Match

[mockties]

Hi everyone,

I will be beginning medical school this fall and was recently admitted to a 4 year MD/MPH program at my school. While I do have a genuine interested in public health (majored in college), I am also pretty confident that I am interested in specializing (something like rads, gas, ent, etc) rather than entering primary care. Would an MPH hold any value in the match process for non-primary care residencies?

In addition, the MPH coursework would only take up the summer between my 1st and 2nd years; however, my understanding is that many students use this time to conduct research to bolster residency apps. Would having the MPH be worth missing out on that opportunity for research?

Finally, I understand that this is largely school specific but can anyone give any insight into balancing an MPH with research? Or just any information about their experience with an MPH and residency match.

Thanks!!

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[AcademicNeurosurgery]

MPHs are a dime a dozen when it comes to residency applications.

If someone has a compelling story of why they are interested in public health, a research portfolio that backs that up, AND an MPH, that may benefit at some programs.

Do an MPH if you have a genuine interest in public health research. That's the only reason worth considering

Agreed. I also question how much you will get out of an MPH that is completed in one summer.

 

[mockties]

thanks for your replies so far.

Just to clarify, I'm asking about the value of the degree when applying to residencies. While I do have a real interest in the material, I have a greater interest in matching in something other than primary care. I'm asking if having the MPH outweighs the value of research/publications when applying to some of the more competitive residencies. Due to the design of the program, I would have to give up the summer between M1 and M2 for MPH coursework rather than research, which, from browsing the forums here seems to be of pretty high importance in applying to residencies. From my understanding, the consensus seems that a lot of you tend to use the summer between M1 and M2 for research and the master's program would exclude me from this opportunity.

Also the program occurs over 4 years, it's only the summer between M1 and M2 that requires a full load of classes and thus prohibitive of research.

 

[flapjack3d]

Public health is not just primary care. I'm not sure where people get this idea. Essentially all clinical research that docs do is public health. My mph thesis compared open and laparoscopic hernia repair

 

[AcademicNeurosurgery]

thanks for your replies so far.

Just to clarify, I'm asking about the value of the degree when applying to residencies. While I do have a real interest in the material, I have a greater interest in matching in something other than primary care. I'm asking if having the MPH outweighs the value of research/publications when applying to some of the more competitive residencies. Due to the design of the program, I would have to give up the summer between M1 and M2 for MPH coursework rather than research, which, from browsing the forums here seems to be of pretty high importance in applying to residencies. From my understanding, the consensus seems that a lot of you tend to use the summer between M1 and M2 for research and the master's program would exclude me from this opportunity.

Also the program occurs over 4 years, it's only the summer between M1 and M2 that requires a full load of classes and thus prohibitive of research.

Gotcha. I strongly believe that "research" should be part of every clinical setting, regardless of specialty. At its core, research is simply evaluating the effectiveness of current methods and looking for potential areas of improvement. I am not sure what the structure of your MPH is (are there any research requirements?) but I think you should be able to find ways to apply your public health coursework to a research project in most specialties areas (health outcomes, hospital efficiency, patient education tools, etc). It is possible to not do research during the M1/M2 summer and still find time to be complete a project before residency applications. The summer is ideal, of course, since you can have a few months of uninterrupted research time.

It will help if you know or have an idea of the specialty you want to go into because you may be able to find a public health project that relates to your specialty interests. If you are hard-pressed to find time for research on top of the MPH and still want the MPH, a research year is always an option.

 

[Lya]

I'm asking if having the MPH outweighs the value of research/publications when applying to some of the more competitive residencies.

I am almost positive the answer is no. There is a reason why students are encouraged to do specialty-specific research if they know they want to enter competitive specialties, rather than pursuing another degree.

Depending on your research productivity during your academic years, I would consider taking a year off for research at least as a possibility.

 

[Solodyn]

Get that MPH... especially if it doesn't add any more years to your training.

The degree behind your name is a concrete achievement. Doing "research" may or may not yield any publication and you may end up with nothing to show for. Also, after you get into a residency, no one will ever know or care what research you did.

But a degree behind your name will last forever... and it may open doors for you when you least expected and add gravitas to your credentials.

 

[WheezyBaby]

I am almost positive the answer is no. There is a reason why students are encouraged to do specialty-specific research if they know they want to enter competitive specialties, rather than pursuing another degree.

Depending on your research productivity during your academic years, I would consider taking a year off for research at least as a possibility.

The answer is no. Research carries more weight. Coming from someone with a dual degree mph. Also, wtf kind of masters can you complete the degree over the course of a summer?

 

[seeinghowitgoes]

MPHs are a dime a dozen when it comes to residency applications.

If someone has a compelling story of why they are interested in public health, a research portfolio that backs that up, AND an MPH, that may benefit at some programs.

Do an MPH if you have a genuine interest in public health research. That's the only reason worth considering

Agreed. I also question how much you will get out of an MPH that is completed in one summer.

Second both of these so much. I've met so many docs nowadays (mostly residents because it's a relatively new phenomenon) who don't care about public health at all but had an easy way to get a free masters and just did it through one of these super condensed programs - speaking with them they literally can't hold a conversation on any topics in the field (nor do they really want to - some have come out and literally admitted it). I'm glad OP actually is interested in the field but I'm so wary of these combined MPH programs that don't require an extra year because I think they're geared towards those not really interested, want-the-quick-degree, folks, and half of a good MPH program is being surrounded by ambitious people who want to make public health their career, which obviously doesn't happen in said programs. Also, without that year of dedicated public health time I think it's just hard to delve as deeply into the subject as those who have that time. Also also, speaking to multiple people in combined programs it seem nearly universal that it becomes really hard to prioritize the MPH during the med school year and most people end up just trying to get through the program so they can focus on their primary objective (getting medical knowledge), so they end up getting a lot less out of the program than those who dedicated at least a year to just public health.

To add to that from a residency perspective specifically as OP asked, when I've talked to advisors about this issue point blank, they've specifically said residencies won't care about the MPH except as a tie-breaker if clinically, step score, and from a research standpoint you're exactly the same as another candidate. And even then if you just have the letters it means so much less than the person using the knowledge (public health research, volunteering, nonprofit work, whatever, etc).

Go for it by all means, despite my own beliefs about the shortcomings of these combined programs they are still MPH programs and my beliefs don't change their accreditation status or anything (and other people believe super strongly that you should do an MPH before med school while others think that is a complete waste of time and it can only be done after, so at some point everybody has an opinion and that's all this is, one opinion), but yes you should know that it's not going to make up for having fewer pubs, lower step score, or anything like that.

Finally I'll add that you can definitely do public health research in med school that can help build your public health narrative, supplement your public health didactics, and help with publications residencies - whenever you start med school just look for the projects in whichever departments you might be interested in, or you can be more general and try to work with the profs teaching in the MPH course on whatever public health work they have up (a lot of public health research is broad enough that the lessons can be applied to, or at least discussed on the context of multiple fields, which is nice). Since you know you're interested in public health generally, I'd personally attempt the latter until you figure out which specialty you'd like to go into.

 

[Solodyn]

I can't believe I am reading this?! MPH is a great degree and it can open doors for you, Health Administration for example. For all the medical students and residents that are saying no... there will be program directors out there that it will make a difference to. I got into my specialty because my program director was impressed with my combined degrees. I would hate to see OP been steered out of an opportunity because some med students and residents don't think much of it.

Let me put it this way, you can spend a whole summer doing research.. and still may or may not get a publication. You may do research on a specialty and find out in your 4th year you hate the specialty. Going into another specialty just render your summer effort pointless. But a MPH degree is always worth something. It just disturb me that there are people out there thinking it to be worthless when they don't have the degree themselves.