Need some real life advice here.
To start off, I graduated undergrad almost exactly a year ago with degrees in neuroscience and psychology. For the past two years, I've been completely set on applying to Clinical Neuropsychology PhD programs. Because of that, I have about 3 years of combined research experience with 3 first author posters presentations and a 3rd author publication in review and hopefully more in the future. I recently started working as a Neuropsychology Technician where I administer neuropsychological batteries to a wide range of both outpatients and inpatients with a large variety of neurological disorders. After working in a hospital setting, I'm really starting to consider MD over PhD. However, there's three main problems here:
1. I took about half the required core science courses my freshman/sophomore year and didn't do so hot (~3.0 GPA including lab grades). To be specific, I took Calc I and II, Bio I, Gen Chem I and II, and Orgo I. So I'm missing Bio II, Orgo II, and Physics I and II. So my science GPA is not only low, but I'm missing about half the required courses. I had an overall Neuro GPA of 3.72 and a 4.0 my last 5 semesters, but that's mainly because I had already taken the core science courses earlier on. I'm assuming the only way to fix this problem is to do some sort of post bac program to essentially retake all of these courses, which brings me to the second problem.
2. Money. Not only would the post bac program most likely be obnoxiously expensive, but obviously medical school would be as well. I know most people just take out a bunch of loans and pay them off later, but adding the post bac program on top medical school sounds like a little too much to handle. Ideally most of the PhD program would be paid for, but I'm discovering I'm far more interested in the clinical aspect over research. I'm about to turn 23 so I also feel if I did post bac route for Med school, so I wouldn't even start until I was about 25-26 with additional debt.
3. The difficulty. I'm convinced that I didn't do so hot in the undergrad science GPA area because I wasn't really focused my freshman/sophomore year and definitely focused on the social/party aspect way too much. I feel like if I retook the courses now that I'm focused, I'd do much better in them. Despite this, I'm still fairly nervous that I just would not be able to do medical school due to the level of difficulty, essentially wasting money and time. I think I'm under this pre-conceived notion that everyone who goes to medical school has to be the most brilliant person they know.
Ultimately what is driving this change of heart is I just feel I would be limited in my role as a clinician if I went the neuropsychology route as opposed to the neurology route. On top of that, I really feel I'd be limited in what I learn during my schooling; I absolutely want to learn as much as possible about the brain/nervous system as a whole and be a crucial part in the patient care plan. I think working as a neuropsych tech has really showed me how confined the neuropsychologists role is compared to the neurologist (more than previously thought). I'm also really nervous I'll regret it for the rest of my life if I don't do this. Any advice would be insanely helpful, thanks in advance!
Sincerely,
Very confused
To start off, I graduated undergrad almost exactly a year ago with degrees in neuroscience and psychology. For the past two years, I've been completely set on applying to Clinical Neuropsychology PhD programs. Because of that, I have about 3 years of combined research experience with 3 first author posters presentations and a 3rd author publication in review and hopefully more in the future. I recently started working as a Neuropsychology Technician where I administer neuropsychological batteries to a wide range of both outpatients and inpatients with a large variety of neurological disorders. After working in a hospital setting, I'm really starting to consider MD over PhD. However, there's three main problems here:
1. I took about half the required core science courses my freshman/sophomore year and didn't do so hot (~3.0 GPA including lab grades). To be specific, I took Calc I and II, Bio I, Gen Chem I and II, and Orgo I. So I'm missing Bio II, Orgo II, and Physics I and II. So my science GPA is not only low, but I'm missing about half the required courses. I had an overall Neuro GPA of 3.72 and a 4.0 my last 5 semesters, but that's mainly because I had already taken the core science courses earlier on. I'm assuming the only way to fix this problem is to do some sort of post bac program to essentially retake all of these courses, which brings me to the second problem.
2. Money. Not only would the post bac program most likely be obnoxiously expensive, but obviously medical school would be as well. I know most people just take out a bunch of loans and pay them off later, but adding the post bac program on top medical school sounds like a little too much to handle. Ideally most of the PhD program would be paid for, but I'm discovering I'm far more interested in the clinical aspect over research. I'm about to turn 23 so I also feel if I did post bac route for Med school, so I wouldn't even start until I was about 25-26 with additional debt.
3. The difficulty. I'm convinced that I didn't do so hot in the undergrad science GPA area because I wasn't really focused my freshman/sophomore year and definitely focused on the social/party aspect way too much. I feel like if I retook the courses now that I'm focused, I'd do much better in them. Despite this, I'm still fairly nervous that I just would not be able to do medical school due to the level of difficulty, essentially wasting money and time. I think I'm under this pre-conceived notion that everyone who goes to medical school has to be the most brilliant person they know.
Ultimately what is driving this change of heart is I just feel I would be limited in my role as a clinician if I went the neuropsychology route as opposed to the neurology route. On top of that, I really feel I'd be limited in what I learn during my schooling; I absolutely want to learn as much as possible about the brain/nervous system as a whole and be a crucial part in the patient care plan. I think working as a neuropsych tech has really showed me how confined the neuropsychologists role is compared to the neurologist (more than previously thought). I'm also really nervous I'll regret it for the rest of my life if I don't do this. Any advice would be insanely helpful, thanks in advance!
Sincerely,
Very confused
