PharmD to CT Surgery I6 Advice

[Nutmegh]

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Hi all,

I'm a soon-to-be-free from residency critical care trained/CVICU focused pharmacist who's been considering going back for an MD and down a surgical route for a few years, and recently a few of my attendings have been encouraging me to give it a serious shot. The end goal for me would be an integrated 6 year CT surgery program followed by an ECMO fellowship, but it's the in between steps that I'd love some logistics advice on.

With a lower GPA (3.1 from PharmD), should I empirically do a post-bac, or would it be doable to try to score 515+ on the MCAT and see where I can get with my background? If so, which US MD programs might look the most favorably at my background?

I also need to take my critical care pharmacy boards in September, and was planning to start studying for the MCAT after with a Princeton review 510+ course in December, planning for a mid-April test date. Are there any other steps or timeline changes I should be making?

In terms of letters of rec, I was planning on a pharmacist mentor, a CT surgery attending mentor, and potentially a research collaborator from a well known institution - are there other people I should consider?

Thanks so much in advance!

 

[penicillinman]

Another PharmD here who is matriculating this fall. Congrats on finishing your residency. With your GPA it may be difficult (but hopefully not impossible) for US MD schools, so you should consider DO as well. Whats your science GPA and undergrad cumulative GPA? I have been practicing as a clinical pharmacist for 10 years and it helped weave a good story of why PharmD to MD. It helped a lot during interviews and made a large portion of my conversations during my interviews with faculty. My sGPA was 4.0 and my cGPA was 3.92 with a 508 MCAT. I applied to schools in Texas, several MD and one DO. Got 3 interview invites and two acceptances of which one is an MD school. As far as the MCAT goes, I would highly recommend taking some time off from working if at all possible. My situation did not allow me to do so and therefore my score suffered. Let me know if you have any questions.

@hearteries ... saw your post on another thread.. are you a clinical pharm too ?

 

[DrStephennmnm]

Hi all,

I'm a soon-to-be-free from residency critical care trained/CVICU focused pharmacist who's been considering going back for an MD and down a surgical route for a few years, and recently a few of my attendings have been encouraging me to give it a serious shot. The end goal for me would be an integrated 6 year CT surgery program followed by an ECMO fellowship, but it's the in between steps that I'd love some logistics advice on.

With a lower GPA (3.1 from PharmD), should I empirically do a post-bac, or would it be doable to try to score 515+ on the MCAT and see where I can get with my background? If so, which US MD programs might look the most favorably at my background?

I also need to take my critical care pharmacy boards in September, and was planning to start studying for the MCAT after with a Princeton review 510+ course in December, planning for a mid-April test date. Are there any other steps or timeline changes I should be making?

In terms of letters of rec, I was planning on a pharmacist mentor, a CT surgery attending mentor, and potentially a research collaborator from a well known institution - are there other people I should consider?

Thanks so much in advance!

Out of curiously how did you go from pharmD to CT surgery?