Physician Scientist question

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Meatus

PhD student
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I'm new here and I haven't read through the whole forum yet, so please forgive me if this has been addressed previously.

I'm a PhD student who is close to finishing (about a year away) and I'm considering realizing a reoccurring dream I've had; attending med school. I am strongly drawn to the idea of being a Physician Scientist. My question has to do with choosing the right medical school for this career path. How important is it to go to a medical school that has a strong research program? How much research do you actually do during medical school? It seems to me that it would be more important to do a residency in a place that has a strong research concentration. Am I right about this? How much should I care about this since I'll have a PhD already? Thanks for your input!
 
I'm new here and I haven't read through the whole forum yet, so please forgive me if this has been addressed previously.

I'm a PhD student who is close to finishing (about a year away) and I'm considering realizing a reoccurring dream I've had; attending med school. I am strongly drawn to the idea of being a Physician Scientist. My question has to do with choosing the right medical school for this career path. Thanks for your input!
Welcome. 🙂
How important is it to go to a medical school that has a strong research program?
Completely premature and not very important. You've already got a PhD; focus on getting into any accredited med school now. There are ways to do research even at non-research focused schools (summer after M1, electives, etc.)

How much research do you actually do during medical school?
Depends on the school. You can do the summer after M1 and the elective during M4 pretty much anywhere. Some people take a year off for an MS, but that's not really necessary for you.

It seems to me that it would be more important to do a residency in a place that has a strong research concentration. Am I right about this? How much should I care about this since I'll have a PhD already?
See above. Get yourself into med school first; that's the hard part. And then you can worry about fitting in some research time while you're there.

Check out our stickies at the top of this forum and in the nontrad forum. There are several PhDs-to-MDs on SDN; I'm one of them. I hope you have good UG grades....that will make your life way easier. Have you completed all four pre-reqs (year each of physics, chem, organic, and bio)? Taken the MCAT? Aim for at least a 30 on it. Best of luck to you. 🙂
 
I've noticed that having good UG grades is a big help. Unfortunately i don't have a strong UG GPA, and I haven't taken the MCAT yet (Sept. 16th, last of '07). Going to med school is something I've wanted to do for a number of years now, but I didn't think it was possible because of the UG grades I pulled. I only took one semester of organic but I graduated with a B.S. in Biological Sciences. I thought that having good grades in grad school would outweigh all of that but apparently I was wrong.

It seems that research during the MD degree isn't as important (in my case) and it would be better to do a residency with a strong research component. Thanks for the info!
 
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