Personal Comments Essay

[Vivo]

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Hi,
I was wondering how I should frame my intent for a MD/PhD in the personal comments essay, considering that the essay is assessed by the medical program. Do I mention that my goal is to become a medical scientist rather than a "regular" doctor? I feel like some of my motivation will have to be repeated in the MD/PhD essay, is that ok? Thank you.

 

[Choculitis]

I finished my essays a couple weeks ago and the way I looked at it was that the PC is "why I want to go to med school" and the MD/PhD essay is "why I also need a PhD". I talked about research in the PC but it wasn't my focus (870 words total with 135 about research specifically). I think it will look weird to the MD/PhD people if you don't mention research at all and the MD adcom also likes to see research interest. But if that's the only thing you talk about then I think it'll leave the MD people wondering why you don't go straight PhD.

 

[Vivo]

Thanks for the response. Honestly, I can't pry my research experience/interests from why I want to do medicine. I'm interested in the basic research side of things that have a chance to go into clinical testing. As for why not just a PhD, consider young researchers who are in the biomedical engineering field and do not come from medical science backgrounds. Some are geniuses, but from my experience many struggle to understand the biological relevance behind their work.

Any other takes on this issue from people interested in basic research?

Edit: although I agree that I should keep details of my research to a minimum

 

[soundnin]

Thanks for the response. Honestly, I can't pry my research experience/interests from why I want to do medicine. I'm interested in the basic research side of things that have a chance to go into clinical testing. As for why not just a PhD, consider young researchers who are in the biomedical engineering field and do not come from medical science backgrounds. Some are geniuses, but from my experience many struggle to understand the biological relevance behind their work.

Any other takes on this issue from people interested in basic research?

Edit: although I agree that I should keep details of my research to a minimum

personally, I also wrote heavily about research in my PS as the two (medicine and science) are intimately tied in the path I'd like to pursue but I don't see why you need the MD from what you wrote here.

 

[Choculitis]

Thanks for the response. Honestly, I can't pry my research experience/interests from why I want to do medicine. I'm interested in the basic research side of things that have a chance to go into clinical testing. As for why not just a PhD, consider young researchers who are in the biomedical engineering field and do not come from medical science backgrounds. Some are geniuses, but from my experience many struggle to understand the biological relevance behind their work.

Any other takes on this issue from people interested in basic research?

Edit: although I agree that I should keep details of my research to a minimum

Well I wouldn't say keep details of research to a minimum, but I don't think it should be the main focus of the PC. I also talked about research a fair bit in the activities section.The big problem I see with focusing on research for the essay is that you could miss out on the humanism aspects of medicine (i.e. the healer part of it).


I don't know why you think that BME researchers don't understand the biological relevance of their work. I work in a bioengineering lab now, and I don't get the feeling that people in my department don't understand what their working towards. My PI only did his PhD in BME (MS and BS in mechanical, which has nothing to do with what we work on), so he doesn't come from a medical science background.

 

[Vivo]

Thanks for all your responses. Yeah

many struggle to understand the biological relevance behind their work

was a poor choice of words. I meant to say that there are a lot of interconnected biological details that can affect the results of your research, so despite having a clear picture on how its supposed to work, the troubleshooting part can have problems. By relevance I meant the "big picture" including those details.

 

[soundnin]

Thanks for all your responses. Yeah was a poor choice of words. I meant to say that there are a lot of interconnected biological details that can affect the results of your research, so despite having a clear picture on how its supposed to work, the troubleshooting part can have problems. By relevance I meant the "big picture" including those details.

again, this seems to based on your experience with one person. you do not need a medical degree to understand the "big picture" of the biology behind medically relevant research. anyone can (and should) read textbooks/papers.

 

[Vivo]

I never meant that you need a medical degree. If you have a background in medical sciences (eg. immunology, neuroscience...) you should be fine. I said if you don't have a background in medical sciences it could be useful to get medical degree, depending on the research you want to do. But let's drop this issue, I have a more important question to ask you soundnin:

You said that you mentioned your research pretty heavily and it seems like it fits nicely with a medical degree. Can you tell me generally what kind of research this is, so I can get an idea of what research interests people think matches with an MD? (You can PM me if you want). Thanks.

 

[SBR249]

I think a great place to figure out what types of research or areas are medically relevant is to look at the NIH website, specifically their intramural research program investigators. Most of them do research on the NIH campus and collaborate or also work in the clinical center which is the largest hospital dedicated solely to clinical trials and research in the world. To become a faculty there, it's almost a requirement that your work is medical relevant. It's not an exhaustive list, but it's a great place to start.

 

[soundnin]

I never meant that you need a medical degree. If you have a background in medical sciences (eg. immunology, neuroscience...) you should be fine. I said if you don't have a background in medical sciences it could be useful to get medical degree, depending on the research you want to do. But let's drop this issue, I have a more important question to ask you soundnin:

You said that you mentioned your research pretty heavily and it seems like it fits nicely with a medical degree. Can you tell me generally what kind of research this is, so I can get an idea of what research interests people think matches with an MD? (You can PM me if you want). Thanks.

i just meant, generally speaking, medicine and research are/should be intimately connected