PhDsss

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Noosh

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Hey everyone... does anyone know or is thinking of doing a PhD first when coming to the U.S as a foreign medical graduate...
What are the pros and cons.. Does it help you get a very competitive residency in Pathology if u take a PhD in it???
I would reaaalllly appreciate a reply Doctors!
thanks
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Noosh said:
Hey everyone... does anyone know or is thinking of doing a PhD first when coming to the U.S as a foreign medical graduate...
What are the pros and cons.. Does it help you get a very competitive residency in Pathology if u take a PhD in it???
I would reaaalllly appreciate a reply Doctors!
thanks
Click to expand...

I think your USMLE scores will probably be a bigger player than a PhD degree. We have a post-doc in the same position that you are in, and didn't get into the residency programs (internal medicine, and pathology) at our hospital. Over here at UCD, I think took in 3 new pathology residents this year, so its quite competative, and I don't recall any of them having any graduate degree, therefore cannot really say that a MS, or PhD helps that much.

Of course this is just one incident, and may just be a fluke. Maybe others can provide more ensight. Good luck!
 
Thanks for your reply i appreciate it..
it seems quite hard to figure out what helps an application and what doesn't.. ! :confused:
 
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See the thread in the pathology forum.

A Ph.D. may help you get into a more competitive program, but is not required and the slight edge it may give you is not worth the years of effort.
 
Noosh,

My advice would be to NOT get a Ph.D. in the USA to make yourself more competitive for a residency program. A Ph.D. in the US, on average, takes much longer to get than an MD. Average time for a Ph.D. is now 5-8 years of graduate school (compared with only 4 years for an MD). The Ph.D. is grueling too. My Ph.D. thesis was 200 pages long (and that's just the average). At the University of Wisconsin-Madison (where I did my Ph.D.), we had 2 years of classes. On top of it, you have to write manuscripts and publish original research (which is a whole different ballgame than simply studying from a textbook). A Ph.D. with publications and a strong research background will almost certainly make you very competitive for a residency program because of the academic rigor of the process and the novel contributions you would be making to your field. However, unless you are very serious, a Ph.D. is likely not worth 6 years of your time unless you truly want to do research.
 
Noosh said:
Hey everyone... does anyone know or is thinking of doing a PhD first when coming to the U.S as a foreign medical graduate...
What are the pros and cons.. Does it help you get a very competitive residency in Pathology if u take a PhD in it???
I would reaaalllly appreciate a reply Doctors!
thanks
Click to expand...
The PhD is really geared towards a different career/tool set than what most residents go through. Try a search on PubMed for the words "residency selection factors" or something similar. I got 44 hits on a number of different specialities. I didn't look to see if path was included, but I'm sure that you'd be able to infer across many fields what is desirable in a resident.
 
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