MD/PhD School Help + Life Advice

[Wroke]

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Starting with a 3.75cGPA, 3.70sGPA, and 514 MCAT, what are realistic schools to apply to?
Currently, I only have Penn State on my list.

Schools I am applying to for MD-only include Einstein, Boston U, Geisel at Dartmouth, Georgetown, and Keck at USC, as well as nearly all Texas schools.

Secondly, is pursuing an MD/PhD advisable for pursuing the more competitive surgical residencies and fellowships? I am planning to be a surgeon with research, but have heard of many MD's doing research without the additional years.
I am hesitant about the time commitment due to the long surgery residency as well- given matriculation to an MD/PhD program, a surgery residency, a fellowship, and perhaps a postdoc, I will finish my training (assuming everything proceeds smoothly) between the age of 39 and 41.

 

[Fencer]

Your generation will retire at age 75. What are you going to be doing/enjoying between ages 40 and 75 (35 years of professional life expectancy)? Something that you like, or something that you couldn't have tried? Given the increasingly low clinical margins to support "extra" activities, the likelihood of a MD having 30-40% time for developing research skills is close to nil. A chair will support a single junior faculty slot with protected time for 3 years, every 3-5 years. They will choose the best prepare person for that job. The age to first R01 is the same for MD/PhD and MD, which tells you that the MD have to go to the lab to earn their stripes. Obtaining the degree in a combined MD/PhD program with no debt and mentoring along the process is the best pathway at the present time.

Your academic benchmarks are sufficient for the MD/PhD programs at UT Houston, UT MB, UT HSC SA, and Texas A&M (all in AMCAS, with no State of residence preference). These 4 programs have 30-40 MD/PhD students enrolled. You are borderline low for the MSTPs at BCM and UTSW but might have an opportunity. Now, I don't recall your other posts, but you will be rejected depending upon the quality and quantity of your research, research, and research...

 

[Whatislyfe]

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[smithers12]

Surgery and MD/PhD are almost impossible to do. I spoke with the deans of Penn and Columbia when I was deciding what to do and they told me it is never feasible to do surgery and be a PhD

this is patently false. there are many role model surgeon-scientists that operate full time and run productive labs.

however, OP, the bigger concern here is that you will almost certainly face discrimination in the application process if you state from the outset that you want to go into surgery. surgery is not a "traditional" path for an MD/PhD and only recently have formal mechanisms been put in place to encourage more surgeons to pursue research careers. however, healthcare is changing rapidly and it is becoming difficult for clinicians to balance research careers across the board, so this does not make it any easier for you to pursue this path. look at it this way - if an MSTP admissions committee wants to invest in those students that have the highest probability of being physician-scientists, are they going to pick those interested in surgery? probably not. i would be interested to hear perspectives from others but i personally do not know of any MSTP PDs that are surgeons as well.

i would encourage you to think about your motivation for doing the MD/PhD, and if you are still interested be strategic in how you present yourself in your application. your stats are average and without seeing your research experience i cannot vouch for how well you will do.

a PhD is nice but all things considered does not add much when it comes to the residency matching process in surgery. in fact it can even work against you because more clinical/less academic places will automatically screen you out assuming you want an academic career when this might not be the case when you apply 7 years down the road. being competitive for fellowships requires research but more than that requires having connections in your intended field which a PhD does not necessarily do any more for you than spending an extra 1-2 years of protected time in residency doing a research project.