Need advice concerning residency opinions of MD versus MD/MPH

[Cinnameg]

Hi! I was wondering if any of you current doctors, who have been through med school and residency match, could give me some advice on whether it is worth it to add an extra year of medical school to do an MPH?

I am not entirely sure what I am interested in, and I want to keep my options as open as possible. I've been told that research is very important, and that there's no time to do research during medical school so doing a year of research -- and getting and extra degree, to boot -- could be a serious competitive advantage. The MPH would be in biostatistics/epidemiology (only one offered for med students at OHSU). I was a psychology major and took 2 years off after college to work with various populations, and I know that I have a strong interest in the factors contributing to mental illness, so it seems like I'm heading towards psychiatry or neurology. My hope is that having an MPH, with the research experience I'll have to do for the thesis, will make it easier for me to match to a good residency program, and easier for me to get desirable positions afterwards.

The downsides as I see it would be:
1) I've already taken 2 years off so I'm starting med school at 24, which means if I do a 5-year program I'll finish at 29 instead of 28;
2) I may end up losing momentum during the MPH year and thus not do as well during 4th year;
3) I'll be out of sync with the med students I started 1st year with, and it'll be hard to see them all graduate and leave;
4) Nobody who hires me in the future will actually care that I have an MPH.

What do you think? Any advice is appreciated.

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[fomites]

Hi! I was wondering if any of you current doctors, who have been through med school and residency match, could give me some advice on whether it is worth it to add an extra year of medical school to do an MPH?

I am not entirely sure what I am interested in, and I want to keep my options as open as possible. I've been told that research is very important, and that there's no time to do research during medical school so doing a year of research -- and getting and extra degree, to boot -- could be a serious competitive advantage. The MPH would be in biostatistics/epidemiology (only one offered for med students at OHSU). I was a psychology major and took 2 years off after college to work with various populations, and I know that I have a strong interest in the factors contributing to mental illness, so it seems like I'm heading towards psychiatry or neurology. My hope is that having an MPH, with the research experience I'll have to do for the thesis, will make it easier for me to match to a good residency program, and easier for me to get desirable positions afterwards.

The downsides as I see it would be:
1) I've already taken 2 years off so I'm starting med school at 24, which means if I do a 5-year program I'll finish at 29 instead of 28;
2) I may end up losing momentum during the MPH year and thus not do as well during 4th year;
3) I'll be out of sync with the med students I started 1st year with, and it'll be hard to see them all graduate and leave;
4) Nobody who hires me in the future will actually care that I have an MPH.

What do you think? Any advice is appreciated.

if you have a genuine interest in the MPH, you should do it, especially if you envision yourself using that degree in your future work. It doesn't matter how old youare when you graduate --the best students are often more 'seasoned' and have done other things in life besides medicine. The only thing that you should consider is #4...will this MPH really make a difference in the work you want to do? If not, then maybe don't do it. I know lots of people who did the MPH only to go on to residency, and then never ever use the degree. In that sense, they say was kinda a waste of time/$. However, I know people who are very into public health policy, deworming orphans in africa, etc...and these MD/MPH's definitely benefitted from the dual degree...as in a good friend is now a health policy "consultant" who pulls in $200K with a major top 5 firm.

 

[Cinnameg]

if you have a genuine interest in the MPH, you should do it, especially if you envision yourself using that degree in your future work. It doesn't matter how old youare when you graduate --the best students are often more 'seasoned' and have done other things in life besides medicine. The only thing that you should consider is #4...will this MPH really make a difference in the work you want to do? If not, then maybe don't do it. I know lots of people who did the MPH only to go on to residency, and then never ever use the degree. In that sense, they say was kinda a waste of time/$. However, I know people who are very into public health policy, deworming orphans in africa, etc...and these MD/MPH's definitely benefitted from the dual degree...as in a good friend is now a health policy "consultant" who pulls in $200K with a major top 5 firm.

Thank you so much! I really appreciate the advice.

Do you know anyone who is using their epi/biostats MPH, by any chance? It sounds like the friends you mentioned got health policy MPH's, right?

 

[jennyboo]

I know a few people who did it. They usually had one of two reasons:

1) They really wanted the MPH because they were truly interested in pursuing that course of study.

2) They did worse on USMLE Step 1 than they expected or had glaring holes in their transcripts (flunked classes, repeated year, etc), and did the MPH to beef up their CV.

As a person who did not do an MPH and had neither of the above scenarios, I did not feel any disadvantage to not having an MPH when applying for residency and am happy to be done with med school. You don't need the MPH to do a little better in the residency application process at this point (you are going in with a clean slate, no glaring red flags in your record), so only do it if you are interested in that course of study.

 

[geekOCD]

I don't think I want to go into health policy, and I'm not sure I want to do community based research either. But I am passionately interested in race/gender/class/sexuality/etc. and health disparities, so I'm strongly considering the MD/MPH option for two reasons: a) pursue my interests and learn more about areas I'm really interested in that I don't think are covered in as much detail in med school, and b) because I believe that having a background in public health/disparities/etc. will make me a better physician. For the latter reason, I feel somewhat uncomfortable with not getting the MPH or getting it during residency...I feel like I have a responsibility to my patients to be the best physician I can be, and I shouldn't let something like not graduating with my class (which, in my mind right now, really really sucks) distract me. However, my question is: am I right about my assumptions about the MPH re: becoming a better, more culturally competant physician? That's the issue for me...what if I don't end up getting what I thought I'd be getting out of the degree? Any thoughts from folks who did the MPH or know others who did?

 

[BKN]

Hi! I was wondering if any of you current doctors, who have been through med school and residency match, could give me some advice on whether it is worth it to add an extra year of medical school to do an MPH?

I am not entirely sure what I am interested in, and I want to keep my options as open as possible. I've been told that research is very important, and that there's no time to do research during medical school so doing a year of research -- and getting and extra degree, to boot -- could be a serious competitive advantage. The MPH would be in biostatistics/epidemiology (only one offered for med students at OHSU). I was a psychology major and took 2 years off after college to work with various populations, and I know that I have a strong interest in the factors contributing to mental illness, so it seems like I'm heading towards psychiatry or neurology. My hope is that having an MPH, with the research experience I'll have to do for the thesis, will make it easier for me to match to a good residency program, and easier for me to get desirable positions afterwards.

The downsides as I see it would be:
1) I've already taken 2 years off so I'm starting med school at 24, which means if I do a 5-year program I'll finish at 29 instead of 28;
2) I may end up losing momentum during the MPH year and thus not do as well during 4th year;
3) I'll be out of sync with the med students I started 1st year with, and it'll be hard to see them all graduate and leave;
4) Nobody who hires me in the future will actually care that I have an MPH.

What do you think? Any advice is appreciated.

Went back to do a on job on campus (OJOC) MS in clinical research design and biostat from Michigan's SPH while I was a chairman of an academic department. Tripled my academic production and gave me something to do after I stepped down from chair. I'm back to be residency director (3rd time around). I think there are at least four reasons for an MPH with biostat/epi emphasis for an MD:

1: Additonal evidence of competence and maturity. (In fact most grads don't need that).
2. Strong background for becoming a clinical researcher/academician.
3. Can use public health background for improving health care delivery either in US or third world.
4. It was frankly a lot of fun.

All that said, it really is a bonus rather than a necessity.

 

[Cinnameg]

Went back to do a on job on campus (OJOC) MS in clinical research design and biostat from Michigan's SPH while I was a chairman of an academic department. Tripled my academic production and gave me something to do after I stepped down from chair. I'm back to be residency director (3rd time around). I think there are at least four reasons for an MPH with biostat/epi emphasis for an MD:

1: Additonal evidence of competence and maturity. (In fact most grads don't need that).
2. Strong background for becoming a clinical researcher/academician.
3. Can use public health background for improving health care delivery either in US or third world.
4. It was frankly a lot of fun.

All that said, it really is a bonus rather than a necessity.

Thank you all!