Peace Corps then MD/ PhD...they going to like?

[Coclean]

Hi All:

I have just finished my MSPH in Epidemiology and am shipping off to serve in the Peace Corps, where I will work at district level design of surveillence and monitoring programs for the Ministry of Health of a country in West Africa. I have about 7 years of bench reearch experience, coordinated an independence research project in Peru, and have a handful of publications in immunology and epidemiology. My numbers and CV look good in other ways too.

With all that a *couple* people have told me they think some programs will think I have gone soft and will have lost my science ability during my years of service, away from the bench. These people were fellow applicants though, so I wonder what others hold as opinions?

My goals for the future are to work at design of research programs in resource poor settings, and for me, Peace Corps will be the opportunity to see what it is really like to WORK in the worst of the worst situations (not as a consultant, but as part of the Ministry and with the people that we are always developing programs for, perhaps not properly). As I want to work in bench science in a field setting (I have experience with this already too) I see Peace Corps as a bonus.....almost essential, and I won't give it up. But I am wondering if I will have justifications to make.

Will programs frown upon my years of service away from the bench?

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[solitude]

7 years is a ton of research, and I would think the Peace Corps will allow you to dwarf most applicants in the "life experience" category. I think the main issue here will not be doing the Peace Corps per se, but your age by the time you matriculate. It's such a long road, and it's so hard to get a grant funded these days, that programs can be somewhat wary of applicants who are "too old". I'm not sure how old you are, but if you have an MS, 7 years of research and 27 months (right?) in the Peace Corps, you're probably at least in your late 20's? (Caveat: that adcoms penalize age is a point of contention especially for one rabid poster, but it seems to me that there is at least a modest consensus on this point.)

All told, I wouldn't worry about it: with your research and CV, you shouldl get into great programs.

Hi All:

I have just finished my MSPH in Epidemiology and am shipping off to serve in the Peace Corps, where I will work at district level design of surveillence and monitoring programs for the Ministry of Health of a country in West Africa. I have about 7 years of bench reearch experience, coordinated an independence research project in Peru, and have a handful of publications in immunology and epidemiology. My numbers and CV look good in other ways too.

With all that a *couple* people have told me they think some programs will think I have gone soft and will have lost my science ability during my years of service, away from the bench. These people were fellow applicants though, so I wonder what others hold as opinions?

My goals for the future are to work at design of research programs in resource poor settings, and for me, Peace Corps will be the opportunity to see what it is really like to WORK in the worst of the worst situations (not as a consultant, but as part of the Ministry and with the people that we are always developing programs for, perhaps not properly). As I want to work in bench science in a field setting (I have experience with this already too) I see Peace Corps as a bonus.....almost essential, and I won't give it up. But I am wondering if I will have justifications to make.

Will programs frown upon my years of service away from the bench?

 

[hawkeey]

I think some programs will think this is terrific, especially if you have had extensive laboratory experience already.