<p>It may depend on your specific interests – and the people you talk to. A biologist once told me that an MD/PhD is the way to go if you know that your research will be heavily human subject dependent, but a PhD is the better choice if your research interests more broad since the MD part in essence delays the onset of your own research. An MD in my family told me earlier this summer that she thinks the MD should be foregone for anyone who wants to do research; she thinks the MD process is unnecessarily harsh and should be avoided by anyone who doesn’t want to practice. And another member of the family added that he works in a neuroscience lab in a med school where PhDs have the same access to human subjects as the MDs do. I don’t think there is a clear cut answer unless you want to do clinical work. </p>
<p>Have you taken the MCATs yet? If they are high, I suggest that you apply to some programs of each kind, and when you get interviews, determine which programs best serve your needs. As long as you are confident of your research/career goals, there won’t be any doubt expressed at your interviews. Both kinds of programs are research-oriented. All you’ll need is a reason why the MD is important to include in your education. If you can’t articulate that, then you should not apply to joint programs.</p>
<p>I don’t think that the MD/PhD hurts that much. Rather than having PhD mentors, you have MD and PhD (sometimes a MD/PhD) mentors. And you get a background in medicine which can help you find a job easier. I mean MD/PhD is usually more respected than a PhD alone when you want to do medical research. Say you want to research to find a HIV vaccine, an MD/PhD can help more than a PhD alone because the MD part gives you a lot of experience with understanding the anatomy, physiology, biomedical, and the medicine part of the body rather than just the biochemistry of it alone. This can help understand all the effects a vaccine can have on the body rather than just the biochemical effect.
Also there is a lot of benefit to a MD/PhD program.
Your everything is pretty much covered (tuition, fee, health insurance) and you get around $25,000 stipend for living expense. The awards can increase to keep pace with increases in the cost of living and tuition/fees. So essentially you attending this program for free and you get paid to live in the area (that is if you get accepted).</p>
<p>I too never really had an eureka moment. I just slowly came to the acceptance that there were too many things stacked against me going the combined route so I applied for PhD programs. I did not really fully accept the PhD-only route until I was well through my first year of a PhD program.</p>
<p>Again if you have not taken time off, I strongly suggest you do so to really think about it. It is a really bad idea to jump into a MD/PhD programs if you are unsure about one or both of the degrees. A year of two may be just what you need to decide. If you are still unsure about the MD (as it sounds), then I suggest you go PhD only and go back later for the MD if you decide you need it. </p>
<p>Finally, you are definately not alone. I know how difficult of a decision it is. I thought that I would never decide between the two paths, but I eventually did (after 5 yrs). It is very stressful not knowing what you should do, and people place a lot of pressure on you to make a decision. The best thing I can advise you to do is to not place pressure on your self to decide (easier said than done) and ignore others that pressure you. You need to take time to figure things out for your self at your own pace. I again suggest taking time off to think about the route before jumping in. But at some point you will just have to follow your gut and start a program of some sort. The nice thing is that you can pick up or drop a degree if you change your mind once in a program. However, it is obviously better to make up your mind before this point.</p>
<p>cdz512- Every MD/PhD that I have talked to doing basic research like you suggest will agree that it is helpful but that it is not worth the pain of doing an MD. You can get this info through collaborations and reading. The new HHMI programs can also give you this info and “clinical experience” without completing 4 yrs of med school.</p>
<p>Both PhD and MD/PhD programs will pay you as you suggest.</p>
<p>FWIW I thought long and hard about the combined degree route but eventually chose the Phd only route. I came to my conclusions for two reasons. 1. I found the routine patient examination aspect of the MD portion, to say nothing of the horrible way residents are treated, to be unappealing. 2. I had a much larger range of programs open to me (based on competitiveness) for a Phd alone than for MD/Phd.</p>
<p>I have thought about 2. a lot - I’ve thought “maybe I’d be able to get into top school X in their PhD program but probably not their MD/PhD program…” but doesn’t that feel like selling oneself short?</p>
<p>I briefly considered doing an MD/PhD, but I decided not to because of belevitt’s #2. I am far more interested in research, so it seemed not in my best interest to go to a lower ranked medical school for the mdphd (which is fine if you want to be a doctor), vs. a top 5 school for the phd. The quality of research falls off quite quickly in graduate schools, so going to a top school was important to me, especially since I wasn’t very interested in the clinical aspects of the mdphd</p>