Applying after PhD (in Canada)

[ssj0123]

Hello fellow non-traditional applicants!,

I will be applying to medical school after the completion of my PhD (still 2 years to go) but I was looking at the requirements for different schools and had a question regarding the science pre-requisite courses. When looking at McGill, it specifically says that it expires 8 years, however when I was looking at other schools such as UofT I was not able to find any information regarding this. Was wondering if anyone knew more based on their experience (as if it this is the case for most of the schools then I will probably have to retake all the courses :( ) 

Thank you for your help! 

 

[NeuroD]

43 minutes ago, ssj0123 said:

Hello fellow non-traditional applicants!,

I will be applying to medical school after the completion of my PhD (still 2 years to go) but I was looking at the requirements for different schools and had a question regarding the science pre-requisite courses. When looking at McGill, it specifically says that it expires 8 years, however when I was looking at other schools such as UofT I was not able to find any information regarding this. Was wondering if anyone knew more based on their experience (as if it this is the case for most of the schools then I will probably have to retake all the courses ) 

Thank you for your help! 

 

unfortunately I can't tell you the specifics were the other schools. This wasn't even something that I had looked up. I can't tell you how ever that I had no issues with this any of the Ontario schools, and yet after my PhD some of my prerequisites would have been ~9 years old.

[rmorelan]

Yeah none of the Ontario schools have any restrictions along those lines that I am aware of. You can contact them to be sure.

 

[adhominem]

The unfortunate part of applying as a PhD student is that many of the 'bonuses' you get as a PhD are only given if you have it in hand while you're applying. If you are relying on the extra help for admission, you end up needing to take a gap year or work as a post-doc for about a year in the meantime. If that is the case for you, you can take those UG courses in your gap year while staying on as a tech with your PhD supervisor wrapping up projects maybe?

[NeuroD]

1 hour ago, adhominem said:

The unfortunate part of applying as a PhD student is that many of the 'bonuses' you get as a PhD are only given if you have it in hand while you're applying. If you are relying on the extra help for admission, you end up needing to take a gap year or work as a post-doc for about a year in the meantime. If that is the case for you, you can take those UG courses in your gap year while staying on as a tech with your PhD supervisor wrapping up projects maybe?

Plus schools are starting to shy away from formal bonuses for PhDs. The year I applied, the doc I knew on the admission committee at Mac said they were trialing removing it completely because it didn't change who got in and who didn't. PhD apps were usually a lot better as is, and the bonus didn't make a different. I'm sure U of T still has a major special bonus though.

[Al22]

Glad to see I'm not alone considering doing MD after PhD  

On 10/9/2018 at 11:17 AM, ssj0123 said:

When looking at McGill, it specifically says that it expires 8 years

For Mcgill you just have to ask for an exeption from redoing the prerequesites so they don't consider them as expired. That is what I did (you have to write to them in the summer between june and september I think) and they send you a form to fill. Very easy to fill, I am just starting my 3rd year of PhD so my 1st year of cegep is now expired and they gave me the exemption.

I also know that for french schools in quebec they say on their website that the prerequesites expire after 8 years but in the end they would decide on a case by case basis and consider the Master+PhD to be equivalent to the prerequesites. Maybe it would be like that for other schools? It would just seen silly to me that someone holding a PhD would have to re-take 1st-year uni classes...

[adhominem]

7 hours ago, Al22 said:

Glad to see I'm not alone considering doing MD after PhD  

Joke is on us, we would have gotten paid as upper year residents to do a PhD following medical school as part of our training. At least that is how it works in Alberta with the Clinical Investigators Program.

[Joeybbq]

I am new to the forum and considering applying to medschool after PhD. I have a PhD in Biochemistry with two years of postdoc experience from UofT. Unlike many of you, my undergrad degree is from back home ( not Canada). As you can imagine, my undergrad is expired to apply for medschools. Could any of you with a similar experience suggest me as to how I can overcome this? 

[JohnGrisham]

Do a compressed 2nd undergraduate degree. Find a program you can do in 2 years, ace it and apply to medical school. 

Otherwise contact all the schools you're interested in and ask them their policies for PhD holders. Some may be flexible.

[NeuroD]

On 10/23/2018 at 1:30 AM, adhominem said:

Joke is on us, we would have gotten paid as upper year residents to do a PhD following medical school as part of our training. At least that is how it works in Alberta with the Clinical Investigators Program.

Don't remind me lol. 5 years at 20k.

[Bookmark311]

On 10/19/2018 at 12:29 PM, adhominem said:

The unfortunate part of applying as a PhD student is that many of the 'bonuses' you get as a PhD are only given if you have it in hand while you're applying. If you are relying on the extra help for admission, you end up needing to take a gap year or work as a post-doc for about a year in the meantime. If that is the case for you, you can take those UG courses in your gap year while staying on as a tech with your PhD supervisor wrapping up projects maybe?

 

On 10/22/2018 at 11:30 PM, adhominem said:

Joke is on us, we would have gotten paid as upper year residents to do a PhD following medical school as part of our training. At least that is how it works in Alberta with the Clinical Investigators Program.

55 minutes ago, PhD2MD said:

Don't remind me lol. 5 years at 20k.

Your PhD will help morph your application for medical school. It will allow you to network and have more varied experiences ( you will be a more competitive applicant, especially if you have a low GPA, 3.7- 3.8). 

From speaking to friends who have Phds who are currently studying medicine, i was told that their PhD was what helped them get into meds given how competitive it is.

It’s sad that doing a PhD before meds, you don’t get paid as much, but individuals who do it later in their training, have more educational credentials, and they deserve the higher pay.

[rmorelan]

1 hour ago, PhD2MD said:

Don't remind me lol. 5 years at 20k.

ahh but you did it for the love of the game after all

It is a well known fact that only a starving grad student can come up any new research ideas. 

[NeuroD]

2 hours ago, Peds123 said:

 

Your PhD will help morph your application for medical school. It will allow you to network and have more varied experiences ( you will be a more competitive applicant, especially if you have a low GPA, 3.7- 3.8). 

From speaking to friends who have Phds who are currently studying medicine, i was told that their PhD was what helped them get into meds given how competitive it is.

It’s sad that doing a PhD before meds, you don’t get paid as much, but individuals who do it later in their training, have more educational credentials, and they deserve the higher pay.

True, I does help your application, but that's a bad reason to spend 5 years of your life Doig something and getting paid peanuts.

And no, they don't get higher pay because they've got higher educational credentials. They get it because it would be impossible for programs to incentives residents to do research if they had to take a huge pay cut. There were several MDs in my basic-science PhD program and they got the sama stipend as the rest of us. The extra credentials don't 3x-4x the stipend.