The New MCAT

WayOutWestMom
Thu, 12 Jul 2012 12:35:40 +0000

Ack! you sound like one of my kids upon starting college: whining about how she had to make decisions about what her major(s) and minor(s) would be and lamenting if she chose X she would have to forego Y…

Life is about making choices. Sometimes by choosing one thing you have to close the door on another. You can’t postpone decisions forever. Sometimes you just have to close your eyes and jump…

And in reality, you’ll be choosing much sooner than residency what your area of interest is. You’ll be starting to make choices as early as your first year of med school…

And there are plenty of PhDs who later go to med school. There are 3 (out of class of 96) in D1’s class at a mid/lower-mid tier state med school. At med schools that emphasize research, you’ll find many more. In fact, the NIH offers programs for biomed PhDs who want to attend med school.

D2’s BF is doing a biomed PhD in bio at a top ranked program. Despite his already having a strong area of research interest (staph genetics in micro), he’s required to do rotations through at least 6 different labs during his first year. In some ways, he has more flexibility in his choices than med students do.