MD/PhD Pros and Cons

[wormboge]

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Biology PhD vs. Physics PhD vs. Chemistry PhD

If you were going to get an MD/PhD, what are some of the pros and cons of the above three types of PhD's? Purpose: Adding a double major.

 

[LizzyM]

Hmmm... it doesn't exactly work that way. A college major would likely prepare you to apply to a doctoral program in that major in that you would develop lab skills and research interests that would translate into being of use in the lab of a PI for whom you would work during your doctoral training and under whose supervision you would do your dissertation research. But, the major alone might not be sufficient as each major is very broad while the scientific subjects within the majors become more and more narrow as you climb the ladder. Finding the right doctoral program depends on finding researchers who are doing work that can harness your bench skills and that you will find interesting enough to spend five years of your life on.

 

[OddNath]

Yeah this question doesn’t really make any sense. For one, I have yet to meet anyone who has pursued an MD/PhD specifically to get a PhD in physics. The purpose of the MD/PhD is to train physician scientists to perform, ultimately, translational research to improve the health of the public (as per NIH). I suppose you could get a PhD in medical physics..though even this is rare.

Also, as stated above, a second college major is just coursework. Doing research in a lab relevant to the PhD topic is more likely to be helpful to you.

 

[Pagan FutureDoc]

If you are looking at going into an MD/PhD program (such as MSTP) the school will likely want you to get your PhD in a field more relevant to medicine. Something like biochem, epidemiology, or biomedical engineering.

 

[Lucca]

The PhD degree you get is not really that important unless you’re planning to bail from research to do industry work, in which case there are more options with engineering and physical science degrees. For MD/PhD it matters even less since, presumably, you will also obtain clinical training and that will be your “plan B” should research not work out.

Do research you like and are good at.

 

[trobinsonmd]

Consider adding the double major carefully -- depends on your position academically... if you have a 3.6-8, you should probably be more focused on boosting the GPA and not adding the major... if you have higher than that, you should probably try to stick with one major to make sure you can maintain the high GPA unless you REALLY want to do a second major... it just really does not confer that much benefit wrt MD admissions to get a second major... it has high risk and low reward... getting into MD PHD is even more competitive and your time is better spent trying to get research experience and maybe a publication if you can