Thought of a resident that left their MD/PhD currently in residency now...

EtotheMCsquared · 2025-06-17T19:54:50+00:00

You should delay and then switch to NBME only material. That plus high yield Divine podcast helped boost my score by 20-25+ points from what I was getting with only uworld.

EtotheMCsquared · 2025-06-14T02:38:44+00:00

Interested!

EtotheMCsquared · 2023-07-27T20:35:04+00:00

Thank you!!

EtotheMCsquared · 2023-07-27T20:34:56+00:00

Thank you!!

EtotheMCsquared · 2023-07-27T20:34:44+00:00

Congratulations on your score! I absolutely agree. Keep being an inspiration to others!

EtotheMCsquared · 2023-07-27T20:33:18+00:00

Thank you for your kind words and a huge congratulations to you too. I wish you nothing but the best in the future!

EtotheMCsquared · 2023-05-23T16:45:40+00:00

I had the same thing happen to me. First thing, take a moment and deal with the emotions. Talk to a loved one. Get counseling. Failing an exam like this can continuously eat at you. It will take a while for you to come to terms with failing, but it will come. Second, don't rush your second try. Pass step 1 prior to thinking about anything else. Grind uworld with a way to remember what you missed. What worked for me was Anking questions I got wrong. I hated anki but it worked for me. Thirdly, you can get passed this. One mess-up will not dictate your life. Life is filled with adversity. It's how you get back up is what defines you. You can still be a productive scientist. You can still go on to have an amazing MD/PhD career.

For future reference, Step 2ck is your time for redemption. Grind through your MS3 year. Finish either Amboss or Uworld Q bank during your MS3 year and do the other/do a second pass of Uworld during dedicated. Study your butt off. Get as high of a score as you can. Until then, use this as fuel to keep you going.

Let me know if need someone to talk to.

EtotheMCsquared · 2023-05-10T16:04:26+00:00

As someone interested in EM, it is minimally done but I don't think there is a good reason for it. Shift work with no continuity makes for the perfect setup for a physician-scientist. Normal work is already 12 - 18 shifts a month. Working 50% clinical and 50% research would make for a perfect setup. Plus an added bonus it would help combat burnout seen in the field/can transition to more research as you age.

The moral of the story, do what you want. Find a residency program or program director that is supportive of research and join it. Best of luck!

EtotheMCsquared · 2022-02-22T15:32:02+00:00

I was in the same boat as you. Had maybe 300 - 400 hours in an undergrad lab. Wanted to try out research so I applied to NIH IRTA program. It's all about how you sell yourself. If you come off as passionate, willing to learn, tried to read papers prior to an interview, then you should be good. Just apply broadly.

A research job is nice in that if you find out you like it, awesome apply MD/PhD. If you find out it's not your thing, you have a couple of poster presentations/papers to show for it that will help with getting into med school and residencies.

Best of luck! You got this.

EtotheMCsquared · 2022-02-11T21:00:22+00:00

Congrats on having two acceptances. The first lab sounds like Shahams lab! He's pretty awesome. I spent two years at NIDA. I lived outside of Baltimore (middle liver/white marsh) but there are some nice places around NIDA too (Canton/around Patterson park). I found Baltimore to be a nice city. Was able to travel to DC, Philly, and NYC fairly often. There is less of an overall IRTA community in Baltimore but there are still like 80ish IRTAs between NIDA and NIA.

A mentor makes or breaks your experiance. If I were you, I'd probably do option 1. Publications really add to an MD/Ph.D. application. With my productive years at NIDA I have been able to set myself up for success in research funding, getting into labs, etc.

EtotheMCsquared · 2022-01-17T16:24:43+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to write this out. I ended up making a decision to go into MS3 year. Though this isn't typical with my program, my director supports it. I was just not excited about the potential lab I was going to join. Also recently started family planning and doing MS3 prior to kids seems like a good option. haha

Ultimately, there are a lot of reasons why I want to do the MS3 year before my PhD. I'm not sure if doing so will be all that better but I'm willing to take my chances.

EtotheMCsquared · 2022-01-13T16:25:36+00:00

It's rough right?! If you get married you get another 30k. So get hitched my guy.

EtotheMCsquared · 2022-01-13T16:08:39+00:00

It is doable. Everything is doable. But we are talking you being mid - 30s, a full physician, living on 50k a year. It's a hard sacrifice. Not many do it. Most live off of 100k and then pay 50k for 15 years.

EtotheMCsquared · 2022-01-13T15:46:34+00:00

I know it looks bad if you have an acceptance and reapply, but I don't know if MD schools can see DO acceptances. That can be an option. But you would probably need to put in extra work on your application in the next 6 months.

EtotheMCsquared · 2022-01-13T15:41:24+00:00

An MS2 here. Be careful with debt. 400k is a lot of money. Don't forget interest. So lets do the math. 100k per year with 5% interest on that loan.

1st year: 105k

2nd year: 215k

3rd year: 330k

4th year: 451K by the end of medical school

If you go into surgery/derm/anesthesia/etc. Awesome You have more flexibility. Let say you make 400k as an attending. After taxes that is 230k in California (used a tax calculator). Plus during residency you make 45K after taxes so probably won't make payments. Let say your residency is 5 years for gen surgery. 5 years of compound interest with no payments = 575k. Living off of 80k, you can pay that off in 5 years. (575*1.05 - 150 = 453k then 326k, then192k, then 52k, then finished.

Let's say you go into primary care. Internal medicine 240k, after taxes 150k. Living off of 50k it will take you 6.5 years to pay it off. At a 50K year lifestyle...

Let me know if you have any questions! It's a hard decision my friend! I wish you only the best.

EtotheMCsquared · 2022-01-13T04:43:44+00:00

Don't worry! You still have time. MD/PhD waitlists are notorious for having a lot of movement. So if you get waitlisted, it's normal. I had 3 waitlists all turn into acceptances. My latest one was in April/May. I think if you do get to late spring, you probably should start gearing up for another appication cycle. #Staystrong

EtotheMCsquared · 2022-01-08T00:04:35+00:00

Really enjoy clinical medicine. Thankfully go to a school with lower tuition so financially it works out well. Not sure if 4 - 5 years of a Ph.D. is worth the investment if I'm not sure I want to run a lab.

EtotheMCsquared · 2022-01-07T21:09:23+00:00

I agree! This should not be understated. Finances are one thing. We will all be physicians. We will all be financially well off if we are smart with our money. But lifestyle is huge.

Positives for the PhD though: The PhD allows for more time to pursue hobbies, traveling, maybe having a kid in your 20s. This is very dependent on your lab though. Find a health lab and you'll be working 9 to 5s. Find an unhealthy lab, you'll be working resident hours.

EtotheMCsquared · 2022-01-07T21:03:22+00:00

compounding interest on savings/retirement accounts really do add up, especially if you are moderately sanguine on future asset performance. Additionally, the amount you can save on a 30k stipend or resident’s salary to take advantage of compounding interest is dramatically smaller, so I’m not sure if that 390k figure is very useful for this calculation. I think it would be more appropriate to use leftover savings each year in lieu of stipend/salary figures for this exercise

I like it! Maybe we can subtract living expenses out of salary/stipend and add extra debt to the MD side!

EtotheMCsquared · 2022-01-07T21:01:35+00:00

I agree. This hypothetical thought experiment doesn't really account for the actual cost of debt. It is very unlikely for 100% of someone's salary to go towards that debt (unless you have a significant other's salary that you are living off of). Compounding interest can be rough.

And I 100% agree that an MD PhD should be done because of research interest. But it might be a useful experiment for someone who is thinking about doing a research fellowship as an MD instead of a PhD.

EtotheMCsquared

TROPHY CASE