MD MD or PhD?

[MD_or_PhD]

Hi everyone,

Currently at a crossroads in my life, and want to ask SDN for some wisdom. I currently hold three acceptances to MD schools in the US. However, I've been seriously graduate school—getting a PhD (probably in mol bio) and becoming a professor. I've actually been debating the two for a long time, but now the time has come to actually make a decision...

I was never in it for the money, so we can ignore discussions stemming from that. I genuinely love academia, so even if I become a physician I'd stay within that environment. And I definitely want to do research, and in fact this dilemma comes from my not knowing whether I like the bench or the clinic more. Unfortunately I didn't apply MD/PhD because of my MCAT, a 510 (127/129/127/127), which I didn't think was competitive enough. Also, I think I can get into a higher ranked PhD program than I can for medical school (of course, this is an assumption and might not be true).

I know I'm in an MD forum so many will probably say MD, which is fine, but I was wondering if any of you have struggled with a decision like this or know anyone else who has. Thanks!

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[kb1900]

You can do research with just an md. Do you want to practice medicine or not?

 

[libertyyne]

Seriously though, contact your school, some places allow you to transition into a funded md/phd program after the first year. I know a few people at my school have done this. MD/PHD will open up more doors, plus reach out to some postdocs and see what struggles they have been having. I feel like having an md will open up more doors, unless you get into a phd program at the tippy top.

 

[MD_or_PhD]

You can do research with just an md. Do you want to practice medicine or not?

I thought that obtaining grants with "just" an MD was more difficult. Is that no the case?

Also, that's the thing. I don't know if I want to practice medicine enough to do 8+ more years of schooling (would do surgery if I went into medicine) vs. going the tenure-track professor route (which I know is not easy, but still—at least I'm actually doing research and teaching and etc., whereas with medicine I won't actually be practicing until at least 5-6 years down the road).

 

[MD_or_PhD]

Seriously though, contact your school, some places allow you to transition into a funded md/phd program after the first year. I know a few people at my school have done this. MD/PHD will open up more doors, plus reach out to some postdocs and see what struggles they have been having. I feel like having an md will open up more doors, unless you get into a phd program at the tippy top.

True. I hadn't really considered the transition option. The schools to which I'm accepted are Mayo, Einstein, and PennState, and I know they all have MD/PhD tracts so that might work.

 

[LoGo]

I did both. My preference is research over medicine, but my fear was not being able to get an academic job with just the PhD - it’s a tough market even if you are very good, and even then there is often little ability to control what part of the country you end up in. Basically you go where the jobs are. I too had an interest in medicine, so I figured I’d do the MD, work a few days clinically to pay the bills then do research the rest of the time.

Caveat, this probably only really works if you get into a specialty that is conducive to such arrangements - things like Pathology, derm, PMR, certain IM subspecialties. Anything with heavy call and anything where your income is dependent on keeping hospital OR time makes it very difficult to do both research and medicine without working 80+ hours per week for life. Note, some will say “oh just do the MD then do research afterwards.” I disagree with that approach if research is the primary goal. An MD teaches you medicine, and while there’s nothing wrong with MDs doing research in their spare time and they might even be highly published, it’s very uncommon that an MD really understands good research, much less able to run a basic science lab. PhDs are researchers, MDs are doctors, and that’s that. The whole point of the MD/PhD is to do both so you can “speak both languages” and be in a position to understand clinical context, and apply your scientific mindset to solve problems to create higher impact than either discipline could alone.

So aside from the MD/PhD program, you could always do a PhD during or after residency. In some ways that’s nice because you will be able to tailor your research to your specialty. Outside of that, you will have to ask yourself this question:

Would I rather do something I love that doesn’t pay as well and with less job security (but you ideally get to start working a lot sooner), or do something I like with a big debt load, but great pay and security prospects, with the possibility of doing additional research training down the road. If the latter, welcome to the 18 years of school club.

 

[gyngyn]

This thread can be followed here: PhD or MD?