PhD hopeful now considering MD/PhD. Need Advice.

[CSUundergrad]

Hi everyone, long-time reader and first-time poster.

I am currently an undergrad at a public university and up until last semester I was dead set on going for a PhD in a molecular/cellular/developmental biology. I have always loved research and I have really wanted to study medical-related research in graduate school as it (in my mind) is the most pertinent to today's issues. I am now considering a MD/PhD after reading the pros and cons on these forums for the past five months. My problem is that I have a total of 5-6 years of research experience (2 in high school) but no clinical experience whatsoever and unfortunately no publications. I am however close with many professors (2 PI's, the chair of biology, the premed adviser, etc.) so letters of rec wont be a problem; I also have a 4.0 GPA and a competitive 2-year research fellowship with the EPA.

My question now is what can I do to prepare for my application in June? I will take the MCAT in mid April and continue my coursework/research as I have been doing my past couple years. I intend to do some hospital volunteer work this summer anyway to get some experience in that aspect but I feel that it will be much too late for the purpose of admissions and my personal statement.

Also, If I am not accepted into the MSTP, can I concurrently apply to PhD programs at the same universities as my MSTP app? My main goal is research and not practice; I would favor the 80/20 research/practice ratio if I was able to join an MSTP program.

I would really appreciate the input, sorry for the long post!!

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[Neuronix]

Start getting volunteering/shadowing experience immediately. I think you could have everything in order to successfully apply assuming you have all the coursework pre-reqs and you do well on the MCAT. I have known MD/PhD students who successfully matriculated with no volunteering/shadowing, though I still recommend having your bases covered. Since you have six years of research experience, nobody is going to notice or care if you cut back 5 hours a week for the clinical exposure. It may be better for you to take the MCAT this summer instead so you can intensively prepare for the MCAT without interference from coursework. If you take the MCAT in July or even August you should be just fine assuming you otherwise take care of your applications in a timely fashion.

If you want to enroll in an MD/PhD program, do not start a PhD program. It is very rare to transfer from PhD to MD/PhD once you've started a PhD program. You could consider a master's program, but I would just advise you to take a year out to continue building the app and try again next year.

 

[Gnomes]

If you haven't done anything clinical, you need to do that right away. Shadowing physicians and volunteering in a clinical setting are good.

 

[Roo2]

I was in your shoes in July. 3 years of research, no clinical. So far I have 3 interviews (4 if you count WUSTL, who bumped me from MSTP but invited me for MD), and 3 rejections. So it's definitely possible to at least get an interview with no clinical experience.

That said, I'm trying my damnedest right now to break through the bureaucracy at my home town hospital and get some physician shadowing done over winter break before my interviews start. "How do you know and MD is suitable for you if you've never seen it from the physician's perspective" is not a question I want to face unprepared.

Oh yeah, study well for the MCAT. I'm sure my score was a big factor in making up for my lack of clinical experience. I strongly recommend the Princeton Review book; that's all I had time to study out of and it helped immensely.

 

[CSUundergrad]

Thanks to everyone that replied to my post. I figured that I would have to get some clinical experience in even though my main passion is research. I hope to tie my late start into my personal statement somehow.

I was wondering also if continuing clinical research past the application process would help during the interview. If i really like clinical experience I'm going to continue some volunteer work anyway. If i don't enjoy the process, I figure there's no reason for me to consider these programs in the first place.

 

[Neuronix]

I hope to tie my late start into my personal statement somehow.

I wouldn't bother. Adcoms often don't look that closely at applications of the people they wish to invite. It's like... GPA, check. MCAT, check. Research experience, check. Volunteering, check. Ok invite. You have to understand, one adcom sits there and reviews dozens of applications in a stretch. They aren't going to stare at your app and look at dates and think "Huh, why did this guy volunteer so late...". Don't point it out to them. Don't point out anything on your application that might be construed as negative. You can discuss it at interviews if you have to. "Well, I was thinking PhD for a long time but then I thought about medicine too and volunteered and found there were many clinical questions out there I could answer by training in both MD and PhD..." It gives you better flexibility to spin I think. It's fine to say you got research experience before clinical experience, I just wouldn't use terms like "late start". Anyways, I'm probably rambling about the obvious and freaking some pre-med out.

I was wondering also if continuing clinical research past the application process would help during the interview. If i really like clinical experience I'm going to continue some volunteer work anyway. If i don't enjoy the process, I figure there's no reason for me to consider these programs in the first place.

Volunteering as an undergrad is usually just a hoop to jump. If you enjoy it, stick with it. If not, stop it when your applications go out. You could try to use continued experience as a selling point at interviews, but I doubt it would matter much.

 

[soundnin]

Thanks to everyone that replied to my post. I figured that I would have to get some clinical experience in even though my main passion is research. I hope to tie my late start into my personal statement somehow.

I was wondering also if continuing clinical research past the application process would help during the interview. If i really like clinical experience I'm going to continue some volunteer work anyway. If i don't enjoy the process, I figure there's no reason for me to consider these programs in the first place.

being someone who decided on the md part of md/phd well past graduation, i started volunteering quite late, and had much less than 100h when applying this cycle. i have gotten 4 interviews at MSTP's, and my advice would just be to volunteer enough so that you have 2-3 stories to recycle when they ask you either "(i see your enormous amount of research so) why md?" or something along those lines.