<p>Hi, I am currently a senior at the University of Houston.</p>
<p>I applied to medical school this summer and got an interview to a top 15 private school this October, but I was having second thoughts during the application process, and now I am kind of worried about the possible debt load I might be left with. The reason I have had a lot of doubt when applying is due to my bigger interest in doing research compared to working with patients. I was thinking about just working at an academic center(medical school) and doing research and teaching with my MD degree after residency in neurology, but grad school may be a better option for the type of research I am interested in.</p>
<p>So, I have been looking at possibly going to graduate school for a Phd. I am a biology major and have an interest in neuroscience, cellular biology, and biomedicine. </p>
<p>My present stats.</p>
<p>Major: Biology
Age: 21 (Will be 22 when I start if I apply for fall 2011)
Gender: Male
Race: Black
GPA: 3.97
GRE: Not taken yet
LOR: I had good ones for medical school so I will be able to get the same quality for graduate school.
EC: Lots
Research: Undergraduate research, but nothing stellar.(No publications, etc).</p>
<p>I think that is mostly covers what is generally required for graduate school.</p>
<p>I guess I have a few questions.</p>
<ol>
<li>How difficult would it be for me to get into a graduate school for a phd in biology with my list of choices? I would estimate a GRE score over 1300 based on my MCAT score, but I know they are different test.</li>
</ol>
<p>So far my choices are these: These are personal rankings, not by anyway ranking system.</p>
<ol>
<li> MIT</li>
<li> Harvard</li>
<li> Columbia</li>
<li> Rice</li>
<li> Yale</li>
<li> Princeton</li>
<li><p>University of Houston (Safety).</p></li>
<li><p>Will my undergraduate choice hurt my chances? I was kind of poor when applying to college, so went to UH due to full scholarship and lost cost.</p></li>
<li><p>I have read that it is difficult to get a tenured track teaching job after one gets their phd. Is it really that bad? Do you have any personal experience or stats about this?</p></li>
<li><p>I understand research is important when one is a professor. Just how successful does one have to be during their initial tenure track years? How is success judged? Quality of research, quantity, funding received, or all of the above?</p></li>
<li><p>I have heard that pay isn't that great. 50k - 70k starting as an assistant professor. But I have also heard you also get paid from the research funding one gets. How does that work? Do that mean one could technically get "rich" if they do stellar research and pull in lots of funding?</p></li>
<li><p>Umm... Any other advice I should know?</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>It’s going to depend on your research and fit with the program. All of your stats are fine (though 1300 GRE is kind of low, especially if 750-800 isn’t the quant score). How many years of research experience do you have? Obviously those schools are all incredibly difficult to get into (though I think Rice less so, and obviously Houston). You also shouldn’t be applying to Houston if you’re applying to those other schools. Safety schools are not a good idea for grad school; you want to be somewhere excellent for five-six years, not somewhere okay or tolerable. It’s going to be a huge uphill battle establishing yourself after you get a PhD from the University of Houston.</p></li>
<li><p>No, especially with your GPA.</p></li>
<li><p>I don’t really know, but I think the worst of things is in the humanities departments.</p></li>
<li><p>It depends on which school you’re at. Some require a lot more for tenure; some only require you to maintain funding (I think). Success is usually judged by your publication record and ability to get nice grants.</p></li>
<li><p>Not really sure, but I think in some situations your salary comes from your grants. I think if you tried to get rich you’d be easily caught and lose your job immediately.</p></li>
<li><p>Only do it if you’re sure it’s for you. It’s a huge commitment. Make sure you’re applying to schools that are doing research and has a curriculum that’s a good fit for you. Don’t compromise. Also, your ECs aren’t going to matter much; it’s all about the research.</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>So I guess I need to aim above 1400 with at least one score above 750. In respect to the research, I only have 1 year of research, but I am continuing the research into next semester and possibly after I graduate so should have around 2 years when I apply. The research mostly focuses on cancer cells.</p></li>
<li><p>I see. I keep reading that there aren’t many teaching positions open and it was very difficult to get one with tenure. Made me a little worried.</p></li>
<li><p>I didn’t really mean I wanted to take out money for myself instead of it going to research. I heard that normally when one gets funding a small percentage can go to ones pay. Some policies say a minimum of 1% or so. I just thought if one was really good at getting funding, they could technically make much more than there base salary would allow. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Also, you said having safety schools would be a bad idea. Does that mean where you went to grad school strongly affects your chances of getting a teaching position? Would that mean people who get their phd from top programs don’t have too much difficulty finding a good teaching position compared to someone from a less known university?</p>
<p>Generally in biology, you have to go to a postdoctoral fellowship position for 4-5 years after your PhD. So where you do your PhD (which is to say, the lab in which you do your PhD) and the quality of your PhD work will affect what kinds of labs are willing to take you for a postdoctoral fellowship. Then the work you do as a postdoc will affect where you’re able to get a faculty position.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in a faculty position, you will want to do your PhD in a high-quality lab, then go to a high-quality lab for a postdoc. You will want to publish well and learn a variety of experimental techniques. Many people discover along the way that they’re not actually interested in the academic rat race, so the low percentage of people who end up being faculty members is partly due to a small number of jobs, and partly due to a large number of people deciding they don’t want to be faculty members.</p>
<p>
The GRE isn’t really all that important for graduate school admissions, but if possible, you should aim for an 800 on the GRE quantitative section. About 10% of test-takers get a perfect score in this section, so if you’re aiming for top schools, many of your co-applicants will have gotten a perfect score.</p>
<p>
Generally speaking, it’s considered better to get a position where your salary is funded primarily by the university (“hard money”) as opposed to your research funds (“soft money”). This is because it’s really not easy to get lots of research funding when you’re starting out.</p>
<p>Oh, wow. Another 4 -5 years on top of a Phd? That is quite a long time. I guess no matter what path I choose I wont be working for a while. Kind of depressing. I guess this is why some of my TA’s wanted to go into industry instead of academia.</p>
<p>So it takes about 10 years before one can really begin looking at a stable faculty job?</p>
<p>Edit:</p>
<p>No, I haven’t looked too closely at MD/Phd, but physicians at medical schools have told me they were able do some clinical research with just their MD after residency. I know with a MD/Phd you can do much more intensive clinical research, but I have also heard that many who get an MD/Phd sometimes end up focusing on one side of the degree, usually the MD, since it is a little hard for them to continue doing strong research during their residency. </p>
<p>Also, I can’t see myself possibly applying to medical school for another cycle for a MD/PHD degree. I almost didn’t want to finish applying for this cycle; just so much stress.</p>
<p>Just as a note about research grants adding to salary in the sciences: the university usually puts a cap on what you can take from grants, and the funds are usually used for summer support, not to supplement the nine-month salary. The only way you can boost your income is through your alloted one-day-a-week consulting time; however, you have to have both connections and luck to find yourself in this position. Of course, if you bring in a lot of research money, then you’ll get a better raise than colleagues who bring in less.</p>
<p>You can make a comfortable income in academia, but few ever get rich. The only ones I’ve known to do so are economics professors at the tippy-top universities.</p>
<p>At my university, the medical students do a “third year experience” which offers them substantial chance to do research while still charging them tuition. Perhaps you might want to look into something like this [Third</a> Year Study Programs :: The Crown Jewel of the Medical School Experience](<a href=“Third Year | Duke University School of Medicine”>http://thirdyear.mc.duke.edu/)</p>
<p>As someone that was once in your position, I know it’s a tough decision. I chose to enroll in an M.D./Ph.D. program and it has been brutally challenging, but worth it. After 5 years, I can finally see myself getting to the career that I imagined for myself during the application process.</p>
<p>If you really want to explore research, the University of Illinois sponsors a 5-day internship program for students interested in Neuroscience research. If you are accepted, the entire deal is free. (I am coordinating it)</p>
<p>Dude, if you wanna get rich, and considering your background (high gpa, clearly motivated, could probably do well in non-science fields as well), just go into business/finance and try to work on wall street…those people are no smarter than science majors, but people who go into banking and related fields and are able to find some degree of success make lots of money, especially compared to what 99% of pple with phd in biology will be making, just my opinion though…</p>
<p>i agree w/ gradhope. bio phd, even m.d.'s, can’t touch ppl who are successful in business. there’s far more money in business, but i would like to emphasize that ‘successful’ ones get paid well. i.o.w., all else equal, if money is what ur after, business has no limit…</p>