Comments | applyingtograd: a choice for the unaccepted

cellophanetower in applyingtograd

a choice for the unaccepted

Apr 21, 2008 12:27

Background:
I want to enter a phd in health policy, but i also want my md. both are equally important to me. I applied to both, got into none.

The choice:
I have a job opportunity to work in a well known (internationally!) medical wetlab, doing benchwork, with little pay, but decent benefits.
The other choice is maintaining my current job of ( Read more... )

choices, rejected

Comments 14

roseofjuly April 21 2008, 18:15:05 UTC

Question: Does it need to be a health policy Ph.D? There are several MPH-MD programs in which you could focus on health policy in your MPH; they're shorter. You did say that the Ph.D in health policy is important to you, so that might not be the issue at hand here ( ... )

cellophanetower April 22 2008, 02:12:54 UTC

1) you're right. i've skimped on details.
2) i'm considering applying 2 years from now.
3) i prefer the phd vs an mph. reasons are a matter of my career choice: i'd prefer academia, publishing, employment as a prof over field work.

Thanks for the forebearance suggestion.

I have no idea if wetlab experience will help my MD resume, or my resume for health policy (i doubt it would have any affect on the latter). But i am meeting with a few schools' dir. of admissions at both md and phd programs. if my post has any overlap with your future interests, i can gladly tell you what i find out.

pigfish April 22 2008, 21:27:44 UTC

3) I'm curious what you want to teach with these two degrees, it is AWFUL silly to get an MD if you don't want to treat patients.

And I know many many pre-meds who worked in a wet lab for 1-2 years (many labs want you to commit to 2 years before they'll hire you) in order to improve their apps, and they have since all gotten into at least one MD program.

roseofjuly April 24 2008, 02:12:12 UTC

Not necessarily. A lot of physician-scientists go into medical research; MDs are very useful for that kind of thing. I have a friend doing an MD-Ph.D next year who doesn't want to treat patients either; he does research on nocturnal urine production and circadian rhythms. If you look at schools of public health and medical schools, a lot of the professors have MDs and don't treat patients any longer outside of the scope of medical trials/research.

Thread 6

bug_face April 21 2008, 18:54:28 UTC

Ask this question over at www.studentdoctor.net ( ... )

cellophanetower April 22 2008, 02:23:41 UTC

i've tried sdn before. i can't say i really like the reader pool it attracts.
i am certain i was rejected bc of my mcats. but im not sure why i was rejected from my phd apps. my gre's were just fine. i think its because i'm lacking research experience in the field. but again, as posted above, i'll find out more after the meetings.

holdup123 April 22 2008, 03:50:42 UTC

omg completely agree, they're mostly pompous jerk faces who have 4.0 GPAs and 36 MCAT scores who looks down on anyone without similar stats. Gasp! How could you ever think about applying to a STATE school, clearly you must be an idiot.
anywho...

pigfish April 21 2008, 19:27:27 UTC

I'm not aware of any MD/PhD programs that let you get the PhD in Health Policy. Most of them are phds in molecular bio or something similar, afaik.

roseofjuly April 21 2008, 23:00:15 UTC

Yeah, same here, that's why I recommended the MPH. That's actually more common for health policy.

holdup123 April 22 2008, 04:06:15 UTC

Do you have any research experience right now? If you haven't done a thesis, you honestly do not have a shot at a PhD program. Also what did you say in your SOP, did you say ANYTHING about going for an MD? That right there might be a reason why you were rejected. Even if you want to teach in a med school or something, some academics will not be too happy with that. Don't believe me, read back about 50 entries and see what some people on here felt about MD programs/students ( ... )

roseofjuly April 24 2008, 02:27:48 UTC

If you haven't done a thesis, you honestly do not have a shot at a PhD program.

This is simply not true. There are only about 4 students in my undergrad department who are doing a senior thesis, yet about 30% of us are headed to graduate programs next year, and there are several of us going to doctoral programs who didn't do a thesis.

Research experience of any kind is most important.

holdup123 April 24 2008, 20:52:39 UTC

Depends on the subject, but the OP is in the sciences. You will need to have research experience in order to be able to get into a PhD program.