MD / Ph.D. in non-science field???

[Hedwig]

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I was an English major as an undergraduate. I want to go to medical school, and I've heard about all these MD/Ph.D.s and DO/Ph.D.s, but all the Ph.D.s are in science fields (understandably). Does anybody know of an MD/ or DO/Ph.D. where the Ph.D. is in English of another humanity?

I doubt it, but hey, why not? The humanities are just as important for a a good doc, in my humble, English-major opinion 😀

 

[megkudos]

I have heard of it I vaguely remember. HMMM maybe at Yale or something. Somewhere I remember reading it. Check out some school websites from <a href="http://www.aamc.org" target="_blank">www.aamc.org</a> under med schools.

 

[Hopkins2010]

Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign MD/PhD program will let you get a PhD in whatever you want, science or otherwise.

there might be a couple of others who do so as well...

 

[Smoke This]

Originally posted by baylor21:
•Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign MD/PhD program will let you get a PhD in whatever you want, science or otherwise.

there might be a couple of others who do so as well...••</blockquote>Good call baylor, Univ. of Illinois has this option, but the downside is that the PhD takes at least 4 years, and is NOT combined with the 4-year MD whatsoever. I know I remember other schools with this option...MCP maybe, but I'm also drawing a blank.

 

[Original]

Univ of Chicago is very flexible with regards the PhD part. A friend of mine started out there in political science but then switched to Ochem after a year cause there was too much politics going on 😀 . The University of Chicago is an MSTP but I doubt Urbana Champagne is an MSTP (maybe I'm wrong). You want to shoot for the MSTPs cause they are well funded, organized, and more "prestigious". Though that would certainly limit your options due to the "S" in MSTP.

 

[NineSixteen]

NYU says in their application packet that a few people can work on their PhD in a social science as part of the funded MSTP. Johns Hopkins also claims you can do PhD work in non-science (as an MSTP student).

Case Western and Chicago have funded programs separate from MSTP (CWRU = Health Sevices Research, the PhD is from the Epidemiology and Biostat dept, Chicago = MAS, PhD can be from any non-science field)

At Harvard you can do a combined MD/PhD in non-science but they will not fund your MD, you're on your own for those 4 years of the program.

Most other schools may have the same attitude as Harvard in that respect...you can do what you want but don't expect funding. It's becomming slightly more acceptable to do non-basic science research as part of a dual degree program, but funding is a LOT harder to come by.

Hope that helps, I'm in the process of applying and trying to convince schools to consider "non-traditional" research as acceptable for funding, but it's difficult. If anyone is haveing more luck than me, I'd love to hear it!

 

[shogun]

Hey Everybody,
This is a subject that is near and dear to my heart, as I am currently appyling MD/PhD. I am trying to do the PhD in Health Policy, but have ran into a little resistance.
As you all know, the major qualification you need to have for MSTPs or MD/PhDs is research experience. This is extra true for "non-science" PhDs. However, not to far behind research experience is having pretty good numbers. If you notice the average GPA and MCATs for MSTP programs, they are pretty darn high. For me personally, I think this is why I haven't been able to get a lot of interviews for MD/PhD.
From the MD/PhD interviews I have been on, I also have gotten a sense of apprehension from the admissions committee members about someone doing a "non-science" degree. Some of them can be pretty skeptical. This was very concerning to me at one interview in particular, because they were bragging in their brochure about how the PhD I was interested in was a unique aspect of their program.
My advice to any future applicants out there is to make sure you have good research experience in the "non-science" field you are interested in, have a good GPA and MCAT, and be ready to explain in great detail why the PhD would be relevant to medicine and to a MD/PhD.
Hope this helps. If you have any questions, please post them. 🙂

 

[USeF]

Originally posted by shogun:
•Hey Everybody,
This is a subject that is near and dear to my heart, as I am currently appyling MD/PhD. I am trying to do the PhD in Health Policy, but have ran into a little resistance.
As you all know, the major qualification you need to have for MSTPs or MD/PhDs is research experience. This is extra true for "non-science" PhDs. However, not to far behind research experience is having pretty good numbers. If you notice the average GPA and MCATs for MSTP programs, they are pretty darn high. For me personally, I think this is why I haven't been able to get a lot of interviews for MD/PhD.
From the MD/PhD interviews I have been on, I also have gotten a sense of apprehension from the admissions committee members about someone doing a "non-science" degree. Some of them can be pretty skeptical. This was very concerning to me at one interview in particular, because they were bragging in their brochure about how the PhD I was interested in was a unique aspect of their program.
My advice to any future applicants out there is to make sure you have good research experience in the "non-science" field you are interested in, have a good GPA and MCAT, and be ready to explain in great detail why the PhD would be relevant to medicine and to a MD/PhD.
Hope this helps. If you have any questions, please post them. 🙂 •••

PhD in Health Policy eh? interesting.. An area I'm fairly interested in, but had only thought of obtaining the MPH in that area. What type of research have you done to be competitive vs. the science-mudphud's? It seems there'd be more difficulty in a field where a Master's for the physician is so commonplace (Epidemiology, tropical medicine, health policy, preventive medicine..) . I wonder if there are others who have obtained MD/PhD in Health policy on SDN.

 

[Elysium]

I know I'm going to sound like an absolute tool...but I must know:

What does MSTP mean?

Forgive my ignorance...

 

[Hedwig]

Medical Scientist Training Program, I think.