I have some experience in this whole PhD->MD thing too and am happy to offer advice to any other PhDs who might be trying to make the transition. I have just completed a grueling but rewarding PhD at MIT Biology and am going to YSM next year in the regular MD program. Good luck in your endeavor Fixed Gear, it will be worth it in the end. Having a PhD is not automatically considered a "hot ticket" to going to med school, students with PhD's are evaluated on their own merits as well and are greeted with a healthy dose of skepticism. In fact, I was considered an "odd duck" during my interviews; the adcoms didn't know what to make of me because there were so few PhDs applying to med school. The oddity of your application might serve you in that you will be given a second and more scrutinizing look. You still have to do relatively well in grad school, and not seem as if you are trying to "bail" from grad school to make another career somewhere else. In other words, you must have a logical and reasonable reason for making a switch. Volunteering helps, and will also help you make a decision for yourself whether or not you want to serve people directly (I do). The most common question you will be asked during interviews will be: "for all that science you've done in the past, why medicine now?" Be sure that you have convinced yourself of your answer too, otherwise you won't be believed!
Also, saying that you want to use your science to push medical technology seems reasonable and can work, but know that this explanation alone is a tough sell. Fixed Gear: an interesting story for you will be that I knew of someone during the mid 90's who graduated with a PhD from UWash, applied to med school, and during his interview at the UWash med school they repeated a question twice about why he wanted to pursue medicine; he replied twice: "because I want to push the forefront of science and technology in medicine". He wasn't accepted. An adcom member I know at a NYC school said once: "the most common way to reject a student is to fault him for not having compassion for helping people." Science PhD's by and large are not known to have spent any substantial time which proves they are motivated to help people. It's something to think about and work on. Note that adcoms for MD admissions also are commonly NOT looking to train yet another physician scientist, they are interested in exclusively training physicians since their MSTP adcom colleagues are picking up the slack to fulfill the physician/scientist objective.
One more thing to be aware of, while one might be going to a hardcore grad program like WashU, standards are getting harder and the average number of years needed to award a PhD across the country is averaging 7.5 years in bioscience programs! (Data from 2001) This is no joke! It is disheartening to know that the number of years required is increasing every year as well. Unless you can get out in <4 yrs, you will be given a hard time by your interviewers who will state: "our MDPhD's get their PhD's in 3 years". My advisor and other faculty members have had rows with MDPhD programs in their schools because those programs require a restricted 3yr PhD program; thus in the mind of an MD adcom member, "3yrs" is the target date required for a PhD. Of course it is preposterous to expect 3yrs as an average at a hard core PhD program (though in rare instances of uber-talent/luck or politics it has happened). Several faculty I have spoken to have the same opinion that 3yr PhD's aren't as valued as 7yr PhD's (quote: "MDPhD's are smart but undertrained scientists"). However, do we all want to get our PhD's in <4 years??? Yup.
heepain wrote:
Also, it is hallucinating to think that a grad department doesn't care what your grades are.
You are correct. Though it only happened once out of eleven interviews, I was asked about my grad school grades; so my feeling is that depending on the adcom member, they can look at anything during the med school screening process. Frequently, if you show improved grad grades, adcoms will look favorably upon it. And yes, grad school classes can be as impossible as any undergrad course out there; thus they are weighted the same IMHO.
Alleria wrote:
For people who go this route, what ends up being the timeframe? Would one say, apply right before what one anticipates to be the last year of the PhD program so that after the application cycle finishes, one will have a PhD and have a place to go 'in the fall'?
Are cases known of schools waiving that rule and taking slightly older scores? Or of people applying in the middle of their PhD with the understanding they'll matriculate when they finish?
The time frame is that one year before you know you are going to graduate/defend you take your MCATs and fill out your primary AMCAS application. Hopefully you have permission from your committee a year in advance, but if you don't, like I didn't, you're going to have one hell of a time working your butt off to convince them to let you leave on time. While you are writing your thesis, you are also filling out your secondary applications and going to interviews. You think you will have time, but you will really have none. This last year was much tougher than I was expecting. Juggling experiments, writing your thesis/papers, and dealing with med apps/interviews simultaneously was a bitch! Two schools accepted me before I graduated, and one was adamant about my finishing my thesis (my defense and admission for this school came in the same week).
MontieCristo wrote:
how easy would it be to switch from a SCIENCE PhD to a MD/PhD? For example, if you were pursuing a PhD in Biochemistry and would like to switch into a MD/PhD program?
Does that still depend on the school/program/advisor etc?
Thanks for the help!
It definitely depends on the program. The hard way to do it (what I chose) is to complete the PhD and reapply to all schools. Having MDPhD programs admit PhD students is less common than admitting MD students from the same school (I'm guessing this has to due with student desire & student quality).
