Not sure if I want to pursue PhD or MD

[deuterium127]

Hello, I am about to graduate with a biology degree and I really am not sure which way I want to go with it. There are attractive features of both paths, and I really do enjoy research in genetics which is why I am considering pursuing a PhD. I also want to try medical school because I do love the field as well. I found a program called the Georgetown Medical School SMP, which I am certain many of you know of already, which allows for a student to obtain a master's degree while taking courses with medical students. At the end of that year, if you did well enough, you can pursue a medical degree or you can simply continue on with whatever you wanted to do originally.

My question is, what are the requirements for getting into such a program? Currently I have a 3.4 GPA . I am also an EMT and have nearly 10 years business experience. I haven't actually taken the MCAT but with some of the sample tests I have taken I have obtained around 35's from self scoring. I plan to take the MCAT in the spring, and I am fairly confident I will do well.

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[DrMidlife]

I found a program called the Georgetown Medical School SMP, which I am certain many of you know of already, which allows for a student to obtain a master's degree while taking courses with medical students. At the end of that year, if you did well enough, you can pursue a medical degree or you can simply continue on with whatever you wanted to do originally.

No. The whole entire solitary point of the Gtown SMP, as with similar programs, is to get low-GPA premeds into med school. It's not to explore whether you want to go to med school. Gtown's SMP is about $60k. Clinical volunteering and shadowing are free.

Furthermore, premeds and first year med students and first year coursework are useless sources of info on what the practice of medicine is like.

If somebody isn't able to get into med school because of their stats, then an SMP is a reasonable solution to that problem.

My question is, what are the requirements for getting into such a program? Currently I have a 3.4 GPA . I am also an EMT and have nearly 10 years business experience. I haven't actually taken the MCAT but with some of the sample tests I have taken I have obtained around 35's from self scoring. I plan to take the MCAT in the spring, and I am fairly confident I will do well.

With a 3.4 and a 32+ you absolutely should not do an SMP. Too much money, too much risk.

Get into a hospital or clinic (preferably both) as a volunteer, and get some quality time with practicing physicians, to find out if medicine is what you want to do. And get into a research lab (volunteer if you need to), and get some quality time with publishing researchers, to find out if research is what you want to do (and if it is, get to work on publishable research immediately).

If you haven't heard of MSTP, I suggest you'll want to look it up.

Best of luck to you.