MD/PhD or PhD or PhD/post doc for aging research

[landofland]

Hello forum.

I want to do research in biology of aging (understanding oxidative stress and genetic components of aging).
I did my Bachelor's in US. Currently my option is doing MD/PhD (5 yrs) in South Korea or doing PhD or PhD+Post doc (3 or around 6-7 yrs) in Europe. After education, I wish to live in whichever country where I can be successful in research. I have research experience, shadowed physicians, and I know this research in particular is what I want to do.
Being truly successful in my research is my first priority. Making enough to sustain myself is my second priority. I don't plan to have children.
I want to know what occupation (professor in academia, researcher in industry, etc) I need to achieve these priorities and subsequently which course of education is better for me to get that occupation.
I understand that there are matters such as high level of competition among the PhDs in the job market and the difficulty of getting a job in academia. I do not know how MD from South Korea will be
Sincerely, thank you in advance for your help. Also, please ask me anything that may help.

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[QofQuimica]

Sounds like a PhD would fit the bill for your research interests, and you don't say anything about being interested in direct patient care/clinical research. So I agree that an MD, particularly one from Korea, would not be particularly helpful, and you should get the PhD.

 

[Guyton Killah]

Why not do PhD/MD? And then if you don't find MD that interesting, you can drop it.

 

[Neuronix]

The real question here is where is your citizenship. You'll have the most success training wherever you are a citizen, assuming that country has reasonable options for you.

You should pick whether you want to train as an MD/PhD or PhD (or MD only) based on your interest in clinical medicine. The training from the MD portion is very different and should not be undertaken lightly or because you believe it will help you over the PhD.

I'm surprised that Korea has 5 year MD/PhD programs. Note that the average for a PhD alone in the USA is 5 years. Adding letters to your title is meaningless if you don't get proper research training (3+ years full-time is the bare minimum in my opinion).