MD or MD/PhD dilemma

[PurpleCow2016]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

.

 

[libertyyne]

There seems to be a disconnect between your focus on" how things work" vs community health. You seem unfocused, trying to do it all. I would recommend doing an MD DrPH , but I am unsure if many schools have that option.

 

[PurpleCow2016]

There seems to be a disconnect between your focus on" how things work" vs community health. You seem unfocused, trying to do it all. I would recommend doing an MD DrPH , but I am unsure if many schools have that option.

Thanks for the response! Yes, I do agree that I am a little unfocused. However, I don't know what I can do to become MORE focused down one path or the other. With time, I've just loved both aspects of medicine more and more. Even though I'm now leaning towards research more, part of me thinks that I should just do MD if I'm still unsure when it's time to make a decision.

 

[libertyyne]

Thanks for the response! Yes, I do agree that I am a little unfocused. However, I don't know what I can do to become MORE focused down one path or the other. With time, I've just loved both aspects of medicine more and more. Even though I'm now leaning towards research more, part of me thinks that I should just do MD if I'm still unsure when it's time to make a decision.

I am assuming you will need a 515+ which based on the type score is entirely possible.
Do you like spending time with people more compared to lab ?
There are interesting problems to be solved on the public health side of things as well and clinical study design can be just as engaging as tabletop.
Do you have an idea of tabletop focus ?

 

[PurpleCow2016]

I am assuming you will need a 515+ which based on the type score is entirely possible.
Do you like spending time with people more compared to lab ?
There are interesting problems to be solved on the public health side of things as well and clinical study design can be just as engaging as tabletop.
Do you have an idea of tabletop focus ?

Hmm I don't know...I want a mix of spending time with people and being in the lab. Hence why I don't want to go pure PhD. Right now I'm working in a translational lab and I spend around 90% of my time in the lab and see patients for our clinical protocol around 10% of the time, and I'm pretty happy with it. I probably wouldn't want to see patients 100% of the time or be in the lab 100% of the time.

I agree that clinical study design is very interesting. I really enjoy working on our clinical study, which I do with an MD, but find myself wanting to dive into the molecular reasons behind WHY we see a particular trend. The physician that I work with doesn't address this "why" portion, but passes it off to a postdoc instead. This feeling that I get of needing to know the "why" is the reason why I'm more interested in more fundamental/basic research rather than clinical research.

I'm really interested in developmental or behavioral neuroscience...which comes with an interest in pediatrics/neuro/psych.

 

[libertyyne]

Hmm I don't know...I want a mix of spending time with people and being in the lab. Hence why I don't want to go pure PhD. Right now I'm working in a translational lab and I spend around 90% of my time in the lab and see patients for our clinical protocol around 10% of the time, and I'm pretty happy with it. I probably wouldn't want to see patients 100% of the time or be in the lab 100% of the time.

I agree that clinical study design is very interesting. I really enjoy working on our clinical study, which I do with an MD, but find myself wanting to dive into the molecular reasons behind WHY we see a particular trend. The physician that I work with doesn't address this "why" portion, but passes it off to a postdoc instead. This feeling that I get of needing to know the "why" is the reason why I'm more interested in more fundamental/basic research rather than clinical research.

I'm really interested in developmental or behavioral neuroscience...which comes with an interest in pediatrics/neuro/psych.

OK, with the very limited information I have, My reccomendation would be to forget about the community health aspect. As is apparent from my avatar, I also wanted to be an astronaut, but you have to let some dreams die to achieve others. Be pragmatic and come to your decision yourself. It is your life after all.

 

[PurpleCow2016]

OK, with the very limited information I have, My reccomendation would be to forget about the community health aspect. As is apparent from my avatar, I also wanted to be an astronaut, but you have to let some dreams die to achieve others. Be pragmatic and come to your decision yourself. It is your life after all.

Haha thanks. It's not too late to become an astronaut though...I bet they need doctors in space too.
Of course I'm going to come to the decision myself - I just wanted to see if anyone had any insight. Thanks for your advice, I appreciate it!

 

[Gorilla-san]

Hey @PurpleCow2016

your research is definitely good enough. especially because of the post bacc at NIH.

I was/am kinda in the same boat as you are. I am currently applying to MD/Phd programs now, I love research and medicine but I also want work a lot in the community specifically with underserved populations. What I've realized is that it is possible to do both, but it depends on you priorities. In most med schools there are programs where you can work with underserved populations and in the community (and if there isnt most schools will support you to start programs of your own) You can do this throughout your md/phd and a lot during 4th year of med school (with the expense of your time obviously) I plan to do so. My advice is to really focus on considering if you want to a phd (and what type of Phd (it should be able to suit your goals)) in addition to an MD because thats what your focus is on in a physician scientist track . you've done full time research see if you would like an intense 3-4 years of that.

I envison myself doing 75% research and divide the rest of my time into medicine and service. If I am lucky I can hopefully merge the two

I have to note that you can also achieve everything an MD/Phd can as an MD (although it will be less structured and a bit harder but will take you almost the same amount of time)(there are plenty of very successful faculty who manage research and medicine with just an MD degree). If you want the amount of research you do in your future career to be less then 75% of your time then a MD might be better

 

[libertyyne]

Haha thanks. It's not too late to become an astronaut though...I bet they need doctors in space too.
Of course I'm going to come to the decision myself - I just wanted to see if anyone had any insight. Thanks for your advice, I appreciate it!

Community health is a thankless job if you want my candid advice. I have no idea what MD/PHD job satisfaction looks like.

 

[Gorilla-san]

Community health is a thankless job if you want my candid advice. I have no idea what MD/PHD job satisfaction looks like.

LOL I agree.

The reason I’m posting now, is because I am taking the MCAT in Jan. and will likely need to decide MD or MD/PhD before my scores come back in Feb, in order to tell my LOR writers about my focus. Our pre-health committee has an early deadline for our letters.

I dont know if your school does this but if you want you can have your committee write two letters one for MD and one for MD/Phd. on AMCAS you specify which letters go to which school. I had a friend who was applying to both MD and MD/Phd and he had that done for him.

 

[PurpleCow2016]

Hey @PurpleCow2016

your research is definitely good enough. especially because of the post bacc at NIH.

I was/am kinda in the same boat as you are. I am currently applying to MD/Phd programs now, I love research and medicine but I also want work a lot in the community specifically with underserved populations. What I've realized is that it is possible to do both, but it depends on you priorities. In most med schools there are programs where you can work with underserved populations and in the community (and if there isnt most schools will support you to start programs of your own) You can do this throughout your md/phd and a lot during 4th year of med school (with the expense of your time obviously) I plan to do so. My advice is to really focus on considering if you want to a phd (and what type of Phd (it should be able to suit your goals)) in addition to an MD because thats what your focus is on in a physician scientist track . you've done full time research see if you would like an intense 3-4 years of that.

I envison myself doing 75% research and divide the rest of my time into medicine and service. If I am lucky I can hopefully merge the two

I have to note that you can also achieve everything an MD/Phd can as an MD (although it will be less structured and a bit harder but will take you almost the same amount of time)(there are plenty of very successful faculty who manage research and medicine with just an MD degree). If you want the amount of research you do in your future career to be less then 75% of your time then a MD might be better

Thanks! It's nice to hear from somebody who went/is going through a similar thing. Also thanks for the heads up about the LOR. I didn't know that. Yeah, ideally I'd like to merge research, medicine, and service, but I'm not sure how realistic that is.