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Taking extra courses while in medical school.


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Hi Everyone,

I had a quick question - while this may be school-specific, I was wondering whether medical schools allow students to take extra courses on top of their regular curriculum? Perhaps working part-time on a M.Eng degree throughout the four years of medicine is what I'm specifically thinking about.

I haven't matriculated into a medical school yet but I would love to hear your thoughts on whether this is possible and if you know anyone who has done it. Thanks!

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It is school-specific. You will need to ask your school for permission, and while they'll generally let you do a concurrent masters, it varies from school to school if that means taking evening classes during the school year and being full-time Masters student during the summer of your first two years, or if you'll need to take a year off (usually between second and third year) to complete your Masters all at once and then come back. Toronto has a lot of students who do a concurrent masters for example - they have an established MD/Masters program that you can join once you start medical school. Other schools, like Queen's, does joint MD/Masters if you applied for it from the start (similar to MD/PhD programs), but if you want to do a Masters separately, you generally take the year between second and third.

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It is different at each school.     Short answer is don't do it.  In first year you are going to want to concentrate on adjusting to medical school and doing well academically.   If you have free time use it for your own mental health.  

In clerkship you need to concentrate on doing well and preparing for CARMs.     You could always do a little research on the side if you can fing the right gig at your school.   Don't force yourself to do this by taking on grad school workload.

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I finished the final year of my undergrad during preclerkship. It should be school dependent. I would be cautious of putting too much course load at the beginning of first year so you have time to adapt to med school and socialize, but honestly for me preclerkship was much easier than undergrad and I wouldn't be scared off from finishing your degrees if you're passionate about it.

I would be much more cautious though if you intend to also work on it during clerkship.

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On 4/28/2019 at 12:10 PM, Economisto said:

Hi Everyone,

I had a quick question - while this may be school-specific, I was wondering whether medical schools allow students to take extra courses on top of their regular curriculum? Perhaps working part-time on a M.Eng degree throughout the four years of medicine is what I'm specifically thinking about.

I haven't matriculated into a medical school yet but I would love to hear your thoughts on whether this is possible and if you know anyone who has done it. Thanks!

Might be technically possible, but don't spread yourself too thin. Why not do it as part of your residency, when you will have a salary, might have funding etc.

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