Ph.D from Princeton University Graduate School?

xnfs93hy

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If I had a BA in Neuroscience from NYU, went to med school and eventually became a neurosurgeon and somewhere down the line wanted to also do research I would obviously want to get a Ph.D in Neurological Science. Would it be fairly easy to get into Princeton Grad School with a resume saying that I am a brain surgeon looking to go into research? I know Princeton Grad school is one of the toughest in the country but would it be easier to get in with a resume 100 times better than people in their 20's applying? Am I making sense somewhat?

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Tons of doctors do research without a Ph.D. Plus I think neurosurg has a research year, so you'll be preped and ready to go already.
 
Tons of doctors do research without a Ph.D.

That is true but lets just say I wanted one. If I went "back to school" and applied to PU Grad wouldn't it be easy to get in, assuming I have met all the requirements, etc.?
 
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That is true but lets just say I wanted one. If I went "back to school" and applied to PU Grad wouldn't it be easy to get in, assuming I have met all the requirements, etc.?

You'd definetly have an interesting resume to catch their eye. Don't know enough about Ph.D. programs or Princeton to really speculate.
 
*sigh* Now I wonder if you're just trolling. :rolleyes:

You have no idea if you even like research. People who've never done it have these abstract ideas about what "doing research" is like. And no, most undergrads don't do research, they do bitch work like washing dishes, autoclaving, and making solutions, not running major experiments and presenting on them. Most PIs won't trust an undergrad to do a major research project. Maybe tag along with a grad student, but that's about it. I've done 4 years of research (3 in grad school for my masters in biology and 1 in undergrad). I like research okay when it is going well. It REALLY SUCKS when it is not going well and you're not getting good results, trust me. You're putting the cart before the horse again.

And you don't just "get into" grad school like you do with undergrad or professional school. You have to usually find a faculty mentor who is willing to take you on, usually based on mutual research interest. Like my faculty adviser from grad school is THE world's expert on bisphenol A, an endocrine disrupting chemical and he's at the University of Missouri. I couldn't get that kind of mentorship, even at Harvard. In grad school, it depends more on WHO you do yours with, not WHERE.

I'm not precisely sure about getting a PhD after med school, but in veterinary medicine if you were interested in neurology/neurosurgery, what you would do is do your undergrad (4 years), do your DVM (4 years), do an intership (1-2 years), and then do a combined residency/graduate program (which would take about 5-6 years). Then you would sit the boards along with doing a doctoral dissertation with x number of publications and you'd end up with the following sets of initials: DVM PhD DACVIM (Neurology), which stands for Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (as neurology is a subspecialty of internal medicine).
 
That is true but lets just say I wanted one. If I went "back to school" and applied to PU Grad wouldn't it be easy to get in, assuming I have met all the requirements, etc.?

Could you do it? Sure.

But from a practical standpoint, it's not likely you will.

Surgical skill atrophies with disuse. Also, your income drop would be dramatic.
 
*sigh* Now I wonder if you're just trolling. :rolleyes:

You have no idea if you even like research. People who've never done it have these abstract ideas about what "doing research" is like. And no, most undergrads don't do research, they do bitch work like washing dishes, autoclaving, and making solutions, not running major experiments and presenting on them. Most PIs won't trust an undergrad to do a major research project. Maybe tag along with a grad student, but that's about it. I've done 4 years of research (3 in grad school for my masters in biology and 1 in undergrad). I like research okay when it is going well. It REALLY SUCKS when it is not going well and you're not getting good results, trust me. You're putting the cart before the horse again.

And you don't just "get into" grad school like you do with undergrad or professional school. You have to usually find a faculty mentor who is willing to take you on, usually based on mutual research interest. Like my faculty adviser from grad school is THE world's expert on bisphenol A, an endocrine disrupting chemical and he's at the University of Missouri. I couldn't get that kind of mentorship, even at Harvard. In grad school, it depends more on WHO you do yours with, not WHERE.

I'm not precisely sure about getting a PhD after med school, but in veterinary medicine if you were interested in neurology/neurosurgery, what you would do is do your undergrad (4 years), do your DVM (4 years), do an intership (1-2 years), and then do a combined residency/graduate program (which would take about 5-6 years). Then you would sit the boards along with doing a doctoral dissertation with x number of publications and you'd end up with the following sets of initials: DVM PhD DACVIM (Neurology), which stands for Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (as neurology is a subspecialty of internal medicine).

I'm not, I know it sounds like I am. Sorry.
 
Just do well in college, and if you decide that you're still interested in research, apply to a medical school's MD/PhD program. If I was planning on doing research in neuroscience, I'd probably go with neurology as a specialty, not neurosurgery. Spending that many hours and that many years learning to cut into someone's brain and then not cutting into brains seems like a pointless, masochistic endeavor.
 
your options would really be to either:

-do research with the MD alone (this works fine for most people)
-get the PhD during Med School on a MD/PhD track or after college/before applying to Med School

Keep in mind, the idea of cutting into brains is nice in theory, but once you get into the thick of neuroscience you might not find yourself so drawn to it... I wound up hating the basic neuroscience block during my first year.
 
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