HELP - Potentially Deterred Decision To Pursue MD

Pre-Med & Medical School Multiple Degree Programs
1

<p>I've posted here before, and I'll keep this brief. I recently requested a recommendation from and visited my previous Biopsychology teacher because I valued his teaching greatly and thoroughly enjoyed his class; I also received an A. Although he accepted my request, he didn't know the first thing about me so I proceeded to explain why I'm interested in becoming a doctor, and why I'm majoring in Psychology. It went something like this:</p>

<p>"If humans are stripped of modern concerns, there are only two truly important things for us to understand: the universe and ourselves. Being realistic, I don't have any interest in Physics, nor do I know of any career paths I could pursue that would lead me to earn a suitable living in discovering the universe. Therefore, I want to know everything about humans I possibly can, typically the mind/brain and the body. I figured I'd learn all I can about the mind/brain in my undergraduate program as a Psychology major, and all I can about the body in medical school. I also don't find much reward in Business, and feel that adding to the knowledge of medicine and trying to help people is a truly rewarding job. I want to help society, I want to fix people and their problems that they can't fix on their own."</p>

<p>He stopped me right there, after about 3 minutes, and said that he can already tell I that I may be misinformed about why I want to become a doctor. He said doctors are very practical and mechanical; they learn what they need learn to implement in their practice, and that my curiosity and motivation to understand is more reminiscent of a researcher, which he called the "Real Doctors." After some questioning and answering, he suggested I consider a PhD path in which I would pursue a career research (my main interest would probably be psychopharmacology or neuroscience). He also mentioned a combined MD/PhD program, in which I could do both.</p>

<p>So here are my concerns:</p>

<p>Are there many career opportunities with a PhD? If so, what kind of path would I need to take to achieve my goals? I've already completed two years of undergraduate, mainly taking Pre-health prerequisites and Psychology courses; have I missed out on courses that I actually SHOULD have taken for this path?</p>

<p>The time spent trying to achieve this MD/PhD program would really consume my life, right? I've read that these combined program students spent like 10+ years in school. Would it be worth it?</p>

<p>I understand that I shouldn't let one teacher, let alone a forum change my entire perspective on my life goals and decisions of what I'd like to do with my life, but he really got me thinking. I'd like to know what you guys think, seeing as some current medical school students post here.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>60 views, no comments? Could really use some advice/information regarding the subject :/</p>

3

<p>He’s right that your description makes you a better fit for grad school than med school. Medicine is a very conservative profession that generally discourages experimentation. I don’t really think it’s necessary for you to go through the hassle and trouble of attending medical school. A phD would probably serve your purposes.</p>

4

<p>Your desire to “add to the knowledge of medicine” is laudable, but your professor is right to steer you in a research-degree direction. The day-to-day work of the vast majority of doctors is patient-care oriented, applying existing knowledge to treat diseases and injuries that are well known. Research is the realm of Ph.D scholars.</p>

5

<p>It’s just tearing me apart, because I really want to do surgery as well… but my deeper interests steer me toward wanting to research :<</p>

6

<p>It’s not necessary to have a PhD in order to do surgical research. Research is a required part of all surgical residencies, and the majority of academic surgeons ‘only’ have MD degrees.</p>

7

<p>OP - My S has the same thinking that you have (that is he is interested in learning about human body and wants to help the world) and he is a senior in high school. This is what we are thinking. He gets his MD degree(he has been lucky to get into BS/MD program) and also does MBA (he has an excellent business school close to the program he has been accepted into). OK, if anybody has not guessed it, I am talking about Northwestern and Kellogg. We are still researching into this but it might take another year to do this. He becomes a doctor and then if he does not want to practice, he always has other options but he has an Md degree which allows him the option to pursue medicine if he likes to (By the way, he also wants to be a surgeon) What I am trying to make a point of is that if there is a slight inclination in your mind about becoming a doctor, pursue it right now as you might never get a chance to do it after. Become a doctor and then if you want to pursue phd do that too after. I am sure you have to take other considerations like finance and age and earnings but I wanted to throw this out to you to think about. All the Best.</p>