MS in Clinical Research vs MBA for Surgery Residency

[burgh-dude]

Hi, I’m a MS1 at a t15/10 school who is very interested in pursuing a competitive surgical residency. My school offers a 5year MD/ MS in Clinical Research but I am wondering whether a MS or an MBA from Kellogg (Northwestern) would be more beneficial for me in obtaining a competitive surgery residency. While cost is obviously important, if an MBA will be useful and give me a bigger edge, I’m willing to add on to the loans. Also, is a dual degree going to be needed to obtain a competitive residency especially since AOA is gone & STEP1 is P/F? Thank you for your time!

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[SurfingDoctor]

Hi, I’m a MS1 at a t15/10 school who is very interested in pursuing a competitive surgical residency. My school offers a 5year MD/ MS in Clinical Research but I am wondering whether a MS or an MBA from Kellogg (Northwestern) would be more beneficial for me in obtaining a competitive surgery residency. While cost is obviously important, if an MBA will be useful and give me a bigger edge, I’m willing to add on to the loans. Also, is a dual degree going to be needed to obtain a competitive residency especially since AOA is gone & STEP1 is P/F? Thank you for your time!

Personally, I think obtaining an additional higher degree looks favorable, so I think either would actually give you a leg up from an application standpoint. Is it needed? I don't know, I imagine plenty of people match without a dual degree. Does it help? Absolutely. The question however, is which of those degrees would be more useful to you in the long run, as you don't want to waste time or money on something that you'll never use going forward (residency is finite afterall).

The MS in clinical research is helpful really if you want to do clinical research and the MBA is helpful if hospital leadership and administration is your goal. So that's what I would use to choose.

 

[Banco]

Both can have benefits if they fit your career path. If the goal is to create a more competitive application, an MS in clinical research probably gives you more bang for your buck with 1) More publications 2) Letters from surgical faculty (I assume you will work in a surgical department). It can easily be woven into the narrative of academic surgery.

For an MBA, I wouldn't just do it because it might make you a more competitive candidate for residency - only if it really fits with what you hope to accomplish.

Just remember neither are "needed" for competitive residencies.

 

[operaman]

Agreeing with above. The added value of an extra degree is likely negligible in terms of matching. Coming from a top school you’re going to match just fine. If you’re worried, check out the current residents at programs you’re considering and see what they have. If half of them do have MBAs then maybe go for it. If not, maybe only worth doing if it fits in to your broader career plans.

 

[longhaul3]

The only additional degree that would really help you match is a PhD. The surgical subspecialty matches are emphasizing research productivity more and more every year.

MBA in particular is not going to give you anything additional unless a specific program has a quirky chairman who loves MBAs or something.

 

[Lawpy]

Hi, I’m a MS1 at a t15/10 school who is very interested in pursuing a competitive surgical residency. My school offers a 5year MD/ MS in Clinical Research but I am wondering whether a MS or an MBA from Kellogg (Northwestern) would be more beneficial for me in obtaining a competitive surgery residency. While cost is obviously important, if an MBA will be useful and give me a bigger edge, I’m willing to add on to the loans. Also, is a dual degree going to be needed to obtain a competitive residency especially since AOA is gone & STEP1 is P/F? Thank you for your time!

I'd go for the clinical MS. An MBA's pretty useless at this stage and a lot of finance guys i know in big Wall Street places don't have one

 

[GoSpursGo]

I'll place another vote for the MS if you're going to do one of these two. I think you could easily justify doing neither, as the benefits of the MS likely boils down to you just getting extra protected time to churn out some pubs, but as mentioned above I do think there is some extra credibility that you gain when you show up for interviews claiming you want to have a career in academia (as this is what all the academic PDs want to hear).

And if that affinity for academic medicine happens to be true, even bigger bonus. But caveat—if you actually do want a career in academia and you really want to use the skills you gain from the MS, you should at least consider that some residencies/fellowships might actually pay for you to get an MS down the road.

An MBA can help some very specific career paths, but I would argue that you need to know what that career path is before blindly going and getting a degree. Unlike the MS where you can pretty easily generically say "I got the degree because I want to do research," it's going to be harder to articulate why you got the MBA if you don't actually know the answer going in.

 

[aldol16]

I'd go for the clinical MS. An MBA's pretty useless at this stage and a lot of finance guys i know in big Wall Street places don't have one

While I agree that it's pointless to go for an MBA unless you know why you're getting it in the first place (and being more competitive for surgery is not a valid reason), your answer conflated about 3 different things. An MBA is useful for very specific things that you might want to do in your career. If you wanted to do one of those things, the question is whether to get it now or later. You don't need an MBA to do finance. People get hired straight out of college for that. But if you want to pivot into something else like PE/VC, then it might help you. This is not in the context of an MD. If you're an MD and want to do finance though (and leave medicine), then an MBA could help you pivot especially if you have no financial background.

 

[burgh-dude]

Both can have benefits if they fit your career path. If the goal is to create a more competitive application, an MS in clinical research probably gives you more bang for your buck with 1) More publications 2) Letters from surgical faculty (I assume you will work in a surgical department). It can easily be woven into the narrative of academic surgery.

For an MBA, I wouldn't just do it because it might make you a more competitive candidate for residency - only if it really fits with what you hope to accomplish.

Just remember neither are "needed" for competitive residencies.

As always thank you for your guidance.

 

[DOVinciRobot]

I would just do research outside of an MS program and then do a 7 year academic program (or the research track programs in whatever field it is if not general surgery) as many of those academic residencies will pay for you to get a higher degree if you want one. Some of them have them simply built into the 2 years of research.

Neither of these will be required to match a competitive surgical residency, even with no AOA and P/F Step 1 since you are coming from a top school.

 

[Lem0nz]

I would just do research outside of an MS program and then do a 7 year academic program (or the research track programs in whatever field it is if not general surgery) as many of those academic residencies will pay for you to get a higher degree if you want one. Some of them have them simply built into the 2 years of research.

Neither of these will be required to match a competitive surgical residency, even with no AOA and P/F Step 1 since you are coming from a top school.

This is the correct answer. Dedicated surgical research, structured and degreed or unstructured, is the currency of the realm. If your MS gets you publications in your desired competitive field, fine, great. If it does not and just gives you a tool box, it will not move the needle significantly until you do something with it and produce papers and then becomes wasted time and money and a lost year of attending income.

Good luck.

 

[aldol16]

If you choose to do the MS, it'll definitely give you skills to do research. As others have said, what matters for residency is applying those tools to produce publications. If you do the MS and learn all those tools but don't use them, they stay in your head. Programs care that you know the tools and are productive with them. If you already have basic knowledge of stats and are okay with learning some more advanced quasi-experimental techniques on your own, then you don't really need an MS other than wanting the degree itself.