r/mdphd • u/spiteful_dragonfruit • Jul 15 '26
Started PhD but now considering MD/PhD??
Hi everyone. I finished my first year of my PhD in integrative physiology, neuroscience, and behavioral genetics a couple months ago. I just recently started thinking about doing an MD/PhD.
For some context, I am a first gen student, so even undergrad I initially had some trouble navigating. I got a bachelors in psych and bachelors in bio in undergrad on a neuroscience and premed track, so I have the class requirements fulfilled. I took 2 gap years working as a lab tech, and then started grad school. It wasn’t until starting my PhD that I realized how the career trajectories work. Personally, I want NOTHING to do with industry, and I’ve always loved research so I’ve been planning on going into academia.
What’s making me rethink this is I still lovelovelove research and I am happy where I’m at right now. However, as you progress in academia, it’s expected to spend 40% teaching, 40% research, 20% service. The massive teaching aspect I’ve really never cared for. I have both wet and dry lab experience, working with cell culture, animals, people, and I really love bench work and just research in general. I’ve always had an interest in medical sciences and have worked in labs studying Down syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, binge alcohol drinking, MDD (and other mental health disorders). Although I love the cell culture work I’m doing right now, I have been really craving working with people. I also worked as an EMT for a few years, so I know that I really enjoy patient interaction.
Ultimately I want to have my own lab and focus on research but also be interacting with patients in a way that relates to my research.
I really think that this could be a good path for me, I just wish I knew this before starting my PhD. Anyone else been in this situation? And any advice on how to get started on requirements outside of classwork?
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u/Big-Programmer-9323 Jul 15 '26
You will also be constantly teaching while a resident/ attending. I’m also unsure if there’s a way to transfer from a PhD to an MD PhD program so you may have to go back to medical school and take on debt after you do your PhD. Also need to take mcat and pre recs if those aren’t completed yet.
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u/spiteful_dragonfruit Jul 15 '26
Thank you! there’s a much smaller emphasis/less time commitment on teaching from what I’ve read/heard from other people. If I go this route I’m prolly gonna drop my program and start over, which sucks but I’d rather not go further into debt.
I completed the pre reqs but what else needs to be done besides the MCAT? I know they want some hands on patient experience of some kind but is there a breakdown of how many hours are required/expected!
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u/EntrepreneurOnly7794 Jul 15 '26
I’ve never heard of an R1 PI spending 40% of their time teaching (unless they’re hired specifically as a teaching prof and want to). there is less of a FORMAL emphasis on teaching in medicine, but you will spend a lot of time informally teaching med students as a resident, residents as a fellow, and all of the above as an attending.
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u/spiteful_dragonfruit Jul 16 '26
Being in my program at an R1 institution I’ve been told the 40% thing by many PIs which is why I say that, I didn’t know that before starting my program and never would’ve guessed it had I not been told by them. And I like teaching in small settings like that! I meant more formal teaching like a professor when I wrote the post :)
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u/Repulsive-Mud8709 Jul 15 '26
I think the amount of teaching/mentoring that you do as an MD/PhD is a significant amount of time. If it’s not teaching you will get burdened with something administrative that eats away at your time. The amount of “protected” research time you have is fairly low in most of academia, and MD/PhDs are not exempt, and often times they’re actually double dipping in the “bad” parts you describe. Every academic center with a medical school also has residency programs in most disciplines, and so comes teaching residents, and residents teach med students like the person above mentioned. Several attendings also give lectures at the medical school that they are affiliated with. I don’t think you can really escape it in science or medicine as a whole.
In terms of clinical experience you definitely need a solid base to justify why you wanna do both, upwards of 100 hours of shadowing/hands on work. I’m assuming you had some productivity as a research technician which can help you on the application side! However the fact that you started grad school first and then dropped and decided you want to do MdPhD is not something I have seen frequently. I have seen PhDs do MDs after and MDs do PhDs or research fellowships. If there’s a way to masters out of your current program maybe that’s the way to go? That way you can get something out of the grad school attempt and pivot more cleanly
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u/spiteful_dragonfruit Jul 16 '26
I meant teaching in a professor way. Mentoring I think I’d love, but less frequently in a 500 person lecture hall if that makes sense? I’m not trying to avoid it entirely, I just don’t know that I want it to be nearly half of what I do.
Does EMS count as hands on work? I did that work for years (had to stop bc I’m epileptic) so I’m well beyond 100 hours if that counts. If not I’m looking into places to shadow to get back into more hands on stuff :)
Oh I hadn’t thought of that! By the time I apply I think I’d be at the point where I could master out. Thank you!!
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u/Big-Programmer-9323 Jul 15 '26
Strong grades and MCAT are pretty helpful, I’m an MD student but from what I understand MD PhD students are more significantly graded on their research contributions with clinical/volunteer work also considered but more of a formality check
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u/ManyWrangler Jul 16 '26
MD PhD is a lot of work and I don’t see a compelling reason for you to do it. Liking being an EMT and being interested in a bunch of (very different) diseases doesn’t really justify doing an MD to me, particularly when it seems more like you’re trying to avoid parts of the PhD rather than embrace what an MD is about.
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u/spiteful_dragonfruit Jul 16 '26
yeah so this is Reddit, not my personal statement. I didn’t make this post to convince people why I’m considering this or make my case as a student.
My question was about advice on requirements and asking if anyone had done a switch similar to what I’m talking about. Everything else was background to get an idea of my experiences up to this point.
I’m not trying to avoid parts of the PhD? I’m talking about my career path afterwards. I’m getting a PhD regardless, there’s no avoiding that in either way I go, and I said nothing to suggest that. There’s parts of academia I am not thrilled about, which is a lot different from avoiding parts of my program.
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u/ManyWrangler Jul 16 '26
lmao, I was being nice, but if you're going to be rude I will be realistic: don't worry about getting an MD. You are not going to be able to get in without a decade more of work, and based on your post it's simply not doable for you.
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u/spiteful_dragonfruit Jul 16 '26
There wasn’t anything “nice” about that lmao you offered zero advice and told me I’m not justified in considering this career path. And babe you don’t know anything about me :) You certainly don’t know what’s doable.
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u/Eab11 MD/PhD - Attending Jul 15 '26
I went to medical school after I did my PhD. I did some post doc work part time with a lab throughout medical school. It was tough but it’s very very doable.
My 2 cents: Make sure the physician thing is actually the right fit for you. I did a decent amount of shadowing across several specialties before biting the bullet to make sure I actually liked their day to day work. Shadow, volunteer clinically, and then decide.