PhD and/or MD? Advice would be helpful.

WayOutWestMom
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 18:15:01 +0000

Right now you not a competitive applicant for medical school. Your undergrad GPA is too low and your poor grad GPA is the nail in your coffin. Even if you score well on the MCAT your GPA will screen you out of any MD or DO school in the US.

Have you done any of the expected pre-med ECs? Physician shadowing? Clinical volunteering? Community service?

The ECs are every bit as important as your GPA for med school admission. You need to work on improving both.

If med school is your end game, don’t continue to take grad classes. Those won’t help you with a med school admission. I suggest you find a job that gives you clinical exposure— maybe a clinical study coordinator or clinical program manager. Healthcare coordinator. Medical assistant. Patient care asssistant. Something that will give you exposure to actual patients and not in bench lab science. After a few years working and volunteering with the less fortunate, maybe then, if you still want medicine, you can work on improving your GPA and take the MCAT.

With your low grad GPA unless you have some very strong support from your PI or your grad program, you’re going to find it it very difficult to get admitted into Bio PhD program.

Btw, the job market for bio PhDs who want to stay in research is extremely poor. If you want to stay in the lab, don’t go for a PhD, find a job as a permanent research assistant. These jobs aren’t glamorous and don’t pay especially well, but they do offer steady employment.

Have you considered exploring other job options?