Hi all. I am a freshman planning to enter my second semester this week. I have always been interested in medicine and definitely want to be a doctor, but I am also so excited about all that a liberal arts environment has to offer. I am not really a fan of the science departments or pre-med environment at my school and I was wondering if it is a bad idea to go into college already planning to do a post bacc? I really would like to major in Economics and minor in Health and Society and do a thesis on healthcare economics in developing countries, and this just won’t be possible next to all the pre-med requirements. What are the pros and cons of doing a post-bacc? Could I still be accepted into an MD/PhD in Economics/Policy if I do a post-bacc?
Can’t comment on the MD/PhD issue, but of more immediate concern would be the additional cost(although you may have already have thought of that). Medical school is very expensive, so it’s something to al least be aware of.
as far aas I know (without any personal connection to such programs), most MD/PhD (all?) are free, and student are paid some stipend to live on.
The number of medical schools that offer MD/PhD programs with PhDs in social sciences is limited.
Most MD/PhD programs are designed for PhDs in biomedical sciences.
Here’s AMCAS’s list of MD/PhD programs:
https://www.aamc.org/students/download/62760/data/faqtable.pdf
Column 8 lists what fields other than biomedical sciences are offered by individual programs.
29 programs offer PhDs in Public health; only UPenn offers a PhD in health care economics.
The American Physician Scientist Association has its own list of purely social science/humanities (SSH) MD/PhD programs here:
http://www.physicianscientists.org/?page=SSH
Again the number of schools offering these programs is quite limited.
ETA: Here’s AMCAS’s webpage for–
MD-PhD in the Social Sciences or Humanities: Is it Right for Me?
https://www.aamc.org/students/research/mdphd/420992/md-phdsocialscienceshumanities.html
if you didn’t do a formal minor would it be possible then? Like are we talking you’d be one or two courses shy or no where close? An economics major with a thesis on healthcare economics who does all the pre-med requirements is just as competitive as an economics major with a thesis on healthcare economics and a minor in health and society who also spent 2 additional years taking pre-med courses after college.
i think more MDs with economics backgrounds would be wonderful. however, as others have mentioned, the bulk of the funding of MD/PHD programs will be for a PhD in a basic science field, not a social science. my recommendation is to take the necessary math requirements (calc and/or statistics which are likely part of an economics major) and as much of the other pre-med requirements that you can while maintaining your sanity and love of economics.
The thing is, I can’t stand the professor/other students in the science departments at my college. I reckoned that if I focused on getting a high GPA and doing a post-bacc when I’m also more mature would be more beneficial for me.
if i was looking at an application of someone who finished college in may and started a post-bac in august but who took no science classes as an undergraduate, it would strike me as odd. their accomplishment would be viewed by me within the context that this was a student with a 6-year rather than 4-year graduation plan. now, same student but instead of going straight to post-bac, they spend a year or two doing something tangentially related to medicine. this wouldn’t strike me as odd (and may even strike me as interesting). so i guess i revert to “it all depends”.
Is it not plausible that I volunteered at a hospital after junior year or whatever and decided that was my calling but didn’t want to START taking pre-reqs senior year?
Post-bac’s are becoming much more common for med school applicants. But you won’t be able to pick up nearly all the science you need in a 5th year. By all means, do your Econ major. But keep your sciences on track as well, even if you don’t particularly care for the department.
it is possible OP, but that’s not your case. If you got rid of the minor - would you be able to fit all the requirements in?
I would have to start next year and still major in something (I wouldn’t be able to major in Econ since there are 14 units of required courses)… The problem really is that I angered the head of the chemistry department when I first came in, and I am really afraid they all will hold a grudge…
Holding a grudge would be extremely unprofessional on the part of the department chair.
Being a teacher requires that even if you can dislike a student, you must still grade them fairly. And grading in mathematics and the sciences tends to be very objective. (The answer is either right or it’s wrong….)
Also consider that continued good performance/interest/behavior on your part could go a long way to change a professor’s initial poor impression about you.
IOW, don’t pre-judge your prof and underestimate his/her professionalism.
And if you relationship with this individual doesn’t improve–don’t ask him/her for a letter of recommendation.
OP, you have a number of threads going, and you are pretty much all over the place as to your interests, from English to CS, Math and possibly trying to transfer from your LAC to Cornell. If you are indeed at the school where you thought you would be going last July, I’m kind of scratching my head about why you are not liking the science departments there. You also have said elsewhere that the appeal of being a doctor is that you would always be employable.
You should understand that many physicians work incredibly long hours under stressful conditions. Having skimmed some of your other threads and replies, your question about post-bac here almost seems like an effort to cut corners–this would not at all be an ideal route to med school, even from an elite LAC.
IMO, you should concentrate on doing the very best you can in your classes for the rest of the semester. You aren’t going to find what you are looking for on CC. Get off it for a while. You will find what you are looking for in the classroom, not online.
The great thing about a liberal arts education is the ability to try lots of things out, and to follow where your interests lead you. They may lead you to medicine or they may not, but if they do you will sincerely have wished that you started your science work as early as possible.
humility and sincerity are valued traits in medicine. if it were me, i (hope i) would go back to the person i upset, tell them how, in retrospect, i wished i had handled things, apologize, and ask if s/he would have me in their class. if you are being sincere, the professor will know and you will have demonstrated your maturity and ability for self-reflection. taking all your science classes as a post-bac will take a good 2 years and an enormous sum of money. confront your mistakes now- there are important lessons here for any premed.